“Places is a Facebook feature that allows you to see where your friends are and share your location in the real world. When you use Places, you’ll be able to see if any of your friends are currently checked in nearby and connect with them easily. You can check into nearby Places to tell your friends where you are, tag your friends in the Places you visit, and view comments your friends have made about the Places you visit. Use Places to experience connecting with people on Facebook in a completely new way.”

Facebook Places makes use of W3 geolocation functionality thats already built into your iPhone or Blackberry and lets Facebook know where you at any time (and you thought Facebook facial recognition was scary). This opens up a multitude of possibilities both good and bad.

The good.

As I mentioned in one of my posts a couple of days ago, the marketing potential of an application such as this is immense. Your business can run specials that only apply to users that “check in” to your store using Facebook Places. These specials have more of a chance of becoming viral than your average Facebook fan page update. If marketing is not your style, its still cool to know where your friends are at.

The bad.

As with any technology that is released in today’s times, there are those people (if I can call them that) that make use of  it for ulterior  motives. If you havent done so already, enforcing  your own and your family’s correct privacy settings should now be top of your list of things to do.  Not sure on how to set up your privacy settings correctly, check this article.

The “unfortunate”.

Facebook Places has only been launched in the United States for now. When it will become available in South Africa is anyones guess but from previous experience with Facebook, it could be in the next few weeks.

What does it do?

In simple terms, Foursquare makes use of your GPS location or cell phone tower triangulation (either through your phone or PC’s IP Address) and identifies nearby businesses and establishments. Foursquare then lets you “check in” to restaurants, bars, businesses and other establishments when you visit them. This then notifies your friends of where you are and what you’re up to while at the same time giving “shops” an indication as to how popular they really are. This dove-tails nicely with ORM (Online Reputation Management).

Foursquare’s marketing power

Many South African’s haven’t realised the hidden potential  and marketing prowess that is offered by this semi-unique social platform. In the States, many businesses are running “Foursquare specials” whereby any user that frequents their establishment, will receive special discount for simply “checking in” on Foursquare. What the businesses get in return is a bigger market reach, never mind the fact that there is always the potential of their campaign going viral through Foursquare.

In the States, Foursquare has even started sending out stickers to local businesses to remind users to “check in” whenever they walk through the doors.

What are you waiting for? The Foursquare wave will be hitting you soon enough. Have you registered your company on the social platform yet?