Foursquare has taken the lead in showing businesses how to successfully use location-based networking. Many national companies including Starbucks, Gap and Whole Foods markets for example, use Foursquare to offer promotions while obtaining data about their locations, who is checking in, and the habits of those consumers.  Foursquare is, for the time being, free for businesses.

Adding a new spin to the mix is Shopkick. Its mobile application offers coupons to users entering member stores. Currently used by Wal-Mart, Target, Best Buy and Macy’s, the difference with Shopkick is that only the store is updated of the user’s location but not his/her friends.

But is anyone buying? When you look at statistics it doesn’t appear these services have gone mainstream. Only four percent of Americans have tried one of them, and only one percent use weekly, according to Forrester Research. Eighty percent are men, and mostly between 19 and 35 years of age.

I believe the popularity of location based services is on the rise, however, because of two words: Facebook Places. While Foursquare had the initial lead in working with businesses, Facebook has all it takes to crush the competition.

Starting with their 500 million users, Facebook has the might, clout and numbers to make check-ins more relevant and interactive. Most companies already choose to socialize through their business fan page on Facebook. It’s a natural place to start conversations around checking-in.

My two issues with Facebook Places are (1) a user’s check-in will go into his/her news feed and become public; (2) one company fan page may not be able to handle check-in at every location.

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Back to Basics: You need a personal profile first. If you’re a sole practitioner, you may want to stick with a profile and use the “List” feature we’ve written about to separate clients from friends.

Once you’re on-line here’s how to promote yourself on the most engaged website ever.

1. Fill in the blanks: Be complete.

Tell people who you are. Be creative. Write a description on the sidebar of your Wall and fill in information on all the tabs. There’s nothing worse than leaving something blank.

2. Let people know: Ask friends to like your fan page.

Your first goal is 25 fans. Once you hit that number you can apply for a vanity URL to plaster on business cards, t-shirts, websites, blogs and more.

3. Treat it like it matters: Keep current.

There’s nothing worse than visiting a fan page only to find it hasn’t been used for months or that it has very few fans and little or no interaction.  Don’t let that be your business.

4. Be engaging: Customers want to feel connected to your business.

Post photos of your business. Link to new information on your website and/or blog. Ask fans for their opinion using open-ended questions. Discuss deals, promotions, and events. Tell fans about your company and its people.

5. Stay unique: Don’t replicate content from elsewhere.

Consider a personalized landing page for first time visitors. Find competitors in your industry for ideas. If you’re sharing a blog post on Facebook, add a status update to make it unique.

6. Consider Facebook advertising: Set you own budget.

Target your advertising using relevant demographics to your company. Used effectively this can be a way to drive people to your fan page when you’re just starting. It’s cost effective too as you set your own budget. I recently purchased a $5 advertisement and that resulted in 6 new fans.

No surprise that with 500 million global users, Facebook is an unequaled social phenomenon.  Beyond that, Facebook has changed the world’s social graph and has taken hold almost universally.

Click on the map image below to enlarge it. I was most interested in what’s happening in countries around the Pacific and Asia where I’m based. The country colors are not always accurate (I had a difficult time believing that South and North Korea would be the same). I was able to locate the list that Cosenza developed to find the information most relevant to me.

Cosenza reports that Facebook is the top Social Network in French Polynesia, Australia, New Zealand, Phillipines, Guam and Thailand. That’s useful to many businesses here in Hawaii.

What about Japan, China and Vietnam? Facebook does not rank as number one yet in their countries. According to the research cited, Mixi ranks highest in Japan, QQ belongs to China and Zing is the choice in Vietnam.

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Here are some of our ideas for those starting out, are new to this technology, or need a little boost.

Real Estate Blog

First, keep it current.

If I go to your blog and don’t see a post in several months my initial thought is you’re not actively pursing customers. You’re also not doing yourself any favors as frequent relevant posts directly correlate with getting found in Google search.

For content strategy incorporate your local area, food and culture.

Make yourself an expert resource for your community. Whatever you write, keep the paragraphs short so they can be easily scanned.

Videos are great too but keep them under a minute.

Showcase an event in your community or a home you have just listed.

Facebook

Read our recent post on how to use your profile for personal and business use.

• Set up a category for clients so you can communicate directly with them.

• Make sure your blog and Facebook page link to each other.

• Use the Note function which can include photos and be easily shared.

• Pick topics that can engage customers and be sure you join in the conversation.

• Increase your reach with Facebook ads where you can set your own price.

Social Media can open more opportunities to increase sales and leads. If you’re a real estate agent who has adopted Social Media, we’d enjoy hearing how it’s working for you.

Now is the time to be your own PR agent and take your message directly to your customers.  Every company needs to be a media company, telling their story through web sites, social media, video, and mobile.

Take this opportunity to engage with your customers.  You can achieve more credibility and reach.  Here are some things you can do:

1.  Allot one hour per day for Social Media.

Read our strategies for using your time effectively. Enlist your employees’ participation using our Social Media guidelines. If you think it’s a waste of their time read my post before you decide.

2.  Plan ahead.

Establish your goals, then develop strategies and campaigns just as you would in any marketing program. Read our nine ways to stay competitive.

3.  Measure your performance, successes and failures.

We recently shared the keys to success on blogs, Twitter and Facebook. To decrease the chance of failure, we offered 12 blogging mistakes to avoid.

4.  Target your content for your specific audience.

As an example, we recently wrote about marketing to the 50 and above audience. If you’re not sure of your target, do an informal poll on your blog to get reader input.

5.  Build relationships and credibility.

Network.  Find ways to add value to conversations. Read our post on relationship, trust and hard work. We also wrote about 6 free ways to listen to conversations happening about you and your business.

Which advice has been most helpful to you and your company?

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• 53% of new UK internet users in 2009 were over age 50
• 31% of all UK internet users are now over 50

Of the new users, the majority were:

• Men over 50 (38%)
• Women over 50 (15%)

Clearly, focusing your business online marketing solely towards younger people is no longer appropriate.  The demographics are quickly shifting towards older age groups.

According to a May 2010 survey conducted by AARP, one-quarter of Americans over 50 are using Social Media with Facebook being the most popular site visited. Of interest, AARP found that an overwhelming number said their children are responsible for encouraging their participation.

Lastly, another recent study of Facebook’s U.S. audience growth shows users over age 55 haven’t been returning to the site as much recently. This may be due in part to their finding a lack of compelling reasons to visit Facebook.

Going forward, your business should find and integrate ways of reaching and engaging with the 50 plus group, including targeted messages to younger generations in their family.

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This means that the page administrator has to visit the fan page, sort through updates and find comments that were left.

That’s a hassle and not always effective. Fan comments, especially on older posts, can go unnoticed giving the appearance that you may not care.

What if I told you there is a solution? There is and it’s an easy fix.

Just “like” each update you write. That way you’ll automatically be notified by email when a comment is left.

If you’re already receiving email updates on your personal profile no further action is required for this to work.

Otherwise you’ll need to enable email notification. Just go to your “Account,” scroll down to “Account Settings,” and click on the “Notification” menu item at the top. When you’re on the Notification page, go to “Links” and check both boxes under the email folder icon.

It’s a simple and effective fix to a Facebook problem. Give it a try and let us know how it works for you.

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Hat tip to The Next Web for the reminder.

What to do: Get your own domain name and make sure it’s set up properly at your blogging platform of choice. My tip is to stay away from domain registration sites like godaddy.com during the selection process, as they sometimes nab the URL’s you’re looking for.  Instead just Google URL’s you are interested in and see if they are in use.  If they aren’t, there’s a good chance you can get them.

2. No Integration with Facebook and Twitter.

What to do: Incorporate a Facebook Like button and Twitter Re-Tweet on your blog posts.

3. RSS/Email Subscription Buttons Missing. Display prominently at the top of your sidebar to allow readers to receive your feed in a reader or by email.

What to do: Set up Google’s Feedburner subscription services.

4. Posts Lack Headline Mentality.

What to do:  Make sure you immediately capture the reader’s attention and make them want to read your content. Use keywords that describe your business.

5. Posts are not easy to share. Make it easy for readers to socialize your content.

What to do: Implement ShareThis or AddToAny in addition to Facebook/Twitter.

6. No testing across browsers. Content may work well in one but not in others.

What to do: Test on Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome.  Try testing using Browsershots.

7. Too Many Categories and No Easy Way To Search. Make it easy for readers to find content you’ve written.

What to do: Have a search box near the top of site and limit your categories.

8. No Statistical Data. You need to know where your readers are coming from, what they are reading and how much time spent on your site.

What to do: Implement Google Analytics.

9. Frequent Commenters Are Not Rewarded. You want people to engage with you and leave comments on what you’ve written.  Don’t forget to engage with comments and thank people.

What to do: Allow people who comment to link to their blog. Create a recent comment feature in your sidebar.

10. No About Us/Contact Form. Readers want to know who is writing the blog and how to make contact.

What to do: Implement About Us page. If you do not want to reveal your email address use a custom contact form like EmailMeForm.

11. Blog Has No Back-Up. What would happen if all your content and work was lost?

What to do: Implement a database backup appropriate for your blog platform.  Implement a visual backup too, which has many uses, such as HTTrack.

12.  Content Can’t Be Found.  Learn about Google Webmasters and implement an XML site map.

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• Jim Breyer of Accel Partners, a Facebook and Walmart board member, is joining their board while Accel is leading a $20 million investment in Booyah.
• MyTown users have gone from 450,000 to nearly 2 million since January, and they now expect to have 6 million by Summer’s end. By comparison, it took Foursquare a year to reach one million users.

Meanwhile, there’s no shortage of news at Foursquare.

• The company continues to successfully enlisting new business partners, most recently NBC’s Today Show. The show unveiled its own Foursquare page and Toyota Concert attendees this summer can check in, earn badges and compete for mayorships.
• At Starbucks nation-wide, Foursquare “mayors” will now receive a $1 discount on their next Frappuccino.
• Also, news this week that Twitter client Seesmic has now integrated Foursquare checkins, which means you won’t need to use Foursquare’s dedicated smartphone app to check-in.

MyTown is looking beyong the act of checking in.

With Facebook about to join the location app space, MyTown may be right that a different spin beyond the checkin will become the differentiator.  They’re betting that the gaming aspect of MyTown will create an unforgettable experience to help achieve customer loyalty.

Facebook’s move awaited next.

Keep in mind that rumors still abound that Facebook may either acquire or partner with Foursquare, which could explain the delay in the their location deployment, which was expected last month.  Facebook may be betting that omnipotence will rule location apps and that the shear force of nearly 500 million users will be all that’s needed for dominance.

In the interim, Facebook has partnered with McDonalds as their featured partner for its upcoming location feature roll-out.

The future of location aware applications appears very bright (and competitive).  It just isn’t clear who is going to lead and what will make that final determination.  It’s definitely a space to get involved in and start using so that you won’t miss this huge plane’s take-off.

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Facebook offers a list feature that allows you to place people in categories. You can then send updates to a specific list that only can be viewed by those designated.

No matter what your profession, this is a great way to separate personal friends from professional associates.

If you’d like to create a similar list on your personal Facebook profile, here’s how to get started.

1. Go to Home page and click “Friends” in left sidebar.

2. Select, “Create A List,” which will appear at the top of center section.

3. Name your list and add friends.

Tip: As you accept or invite new friends, immediately add them to an established or new list.

Here’s how to send a unique message to a specific list:

1. Write your status update and click the padlock icon.

2. Select “customize.”

3. Choose, “Make this visible to,” and then, “Specific People.”

4. Type in the name of the list you want the message to go to.

5. Click, “Save Setting” and then share your update.

Tip: If you mouse over the padlock, you’ll see the name of the list or person the message will be sent to. This update will also appear on your Wall but is only visible to you and the individuals receiving the update.

To see the News Feed from a specific list you created do the following:

1. Click “Friends” in the left sidebar of your Home page.

2. Select the group you want to see and their updates will appear.

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