Facebook Places Has Checked-in: Brand Owners Should Consider Proactively Setting Up Pages to Prevent Unfixable Errors

Those familiar with Foursquare, Yelp, Gowalla and other location-based social networking sites will not be surprised that Facebook has jumped into the fray and recently launched several geolocation-related services. This article includes recommendations on how brand owners can protect their brands in connection with these new services.

1. Facebook Places

Facebook Places launched in August 2010 and provides a place for users to "check-in" at a physical location from their iPhone (similar functionality for Android and Blackberry devices is in the works). They can also check-in their friends (if their friends do not opt out) at a physical location. Thus, by checking-in at your business, one of your customers or employees can indicate that they visited your company and their "friends" will be alerted to their visit. Presumably, the ability to review or comment on a company will be included in the future, as it is in Foursquare, Yelp, and other services.