Facebook City Guides: opportunity or threat for entrepreneurs?
Recently, a new feature appeared in the Facebook app: Facebook City Guides. Not a spectacular new app like Google Trips, but a simple way to bundle all travel-related information. With millions of Facebookers sharing their daily lives with the world in the form of likes, reviews, checkins and photos, Facebook has a wealth of unique content. As an entrepreneur, how can you take advantage of this new Facebook killer app?
For entrepreneurs, it has long been possible to "claim" their own business with Facebook Places. This allows visitors to leave reviews, post photos and check in at your location. Entrepreneurs can post their own content and offer relevant call-to-actions. A great additional (free) marketing channel!
Facebook Places page with Call-To-Action
How Facebook City Guides works
Currently, you can access the Facebook City Guides in different ways.
Tap on “City Guides” in your Facebook menu (not yet available to all users)
. You’ll currently see a selection of cities for which a City Guide is available AND which of your friends have already been there.
Another way to call up a City Guide is to search for a place name (e.g. Amsterdam). You will then find the place name under "Places". In some cases, this page is a City Guide.
Currently, only a few major cities are available. In the future, this will most likely be expanded further.
Find Facebook City Guides here
What exactly does Facebook City Guides involve?
When you open a City Guide, you immediately see the current temperature and local time. You can then like the City Guide, check in at this location and save it for later.
Furthermore, in "Places your friends have been to" you can see which of your friends have already been to this place, what they did there and which reviews they left.
In the "Explore" section, you can quickly switch to a number of relevant themes that often come in handy when you are looking for "Things to do". These include: Restaurants, Nightlife, Sightseeing and Shopping. If you tap on one of these themes, you will get an overview of all "Places" near the City Guide location.
Tips from locals and things not to miss
When I visit a new place myself, I always ask all my friends, family or colleagues for advice and tips. But I also want to know where the locals are! Where to get a bite to eat, what not to miss and what are the sights I MUST see. With City Guides, Facebook tries to put these popular places among locals in 1 handy overview. With "Popular Attractions", you instantly have all sights in your hand. With 1 tap, save them in a handy list for later.
5 Tips for entrepreneurs to use the power of Facebook
For the visitor, the added value is clear, but how can you as an entrepreneur make use of all Facebook's functionalities and data?
1. Capitalise on your visitors' customer journey
Whether someone is looking for "something to do nearby", or actively shopping for a weekend getaway, in both cases they are receptive to relevant information. The more visible your business is at the right time, the more likely you are as a business owner to expect a visit!
2. Fish where the fish are
You have your own website, perhaps a city marketing website to be listed on, or a Twitter account as a marketing channel. Facebook is nothing more or less than an additional marketing channel. Basically free, but with an incredibly large potential reach! Facebook currently has almost 2 billion users...Research shows that 52% of users are inspired by friends' photos. So your presence on Facebook is a wise choice!
3. Relevant Call-to-Actions as a free traffic builder
On the Facebook Places page, you can very easily add a button to direct visitors to your own website. A "Book now" button, or "Reserve" are some examples of ways to direct Facebook visitors to your own website. So Facebook's call-to-action button is a free traffic builder!
4. Promote Facebook as a review channel
Zoover and Tripadvisor, just a few websites where visitors can leave their reviews. But do not underestimate Facebook as a review channel. Social recommendation is an important motivation to visit your site. The better the visitor knows the reviewer, the more important he will find the opinion. And isn't Facebook all about "friends"?
5. Use Facebook data
Facebook collects all data from millions of people and calculates which nearby locations are interesting. In the new City Guide, this is then nicely collected in one place. Useful for tourists who see everything in one nice overview. But also very handy for you as an entrepreneur! So you know exactly what is happening in the neighbourhood of your business. Where do people eat, what is appreciated and what is not. Set up a section on your own website with "Recommended by locals", in which you process the locations that show up in Facebook. Get in touch with local business owners and establish partnerships. More visitors in the area also means that your location can be visited more!
Facebook is a marketing channel that needs to be taken into account. Presence is important, but by being smart with all the data, you can also benefit from it as an entrepreneur. Make use of the tools at your disposal and benefit from the work Facebook takes out of your hands. Combine that with smart entrepreneurship and get even more (satisfied) visitors.
This article first appeared on Pretwerk.nl