A new Facebook feature is coming to a mobile device near you. If you have the Facebook mobile application installed on your cell phone, which 56 percent of Facebook users do, you will soon see a new feature appear when you walk by your favorite retail store or enter a restaurant or business.
This new feature is called Place Tips and users will now see useful information appear on their newsfeeds when they walk by a business.
Facebook explains in their recent blog post that, “Place tips will show you fun, useful and relevant info about the place you’re at.”
What You Will See
At the top of your Facebook newsfeed you will see a flashing icon that represents a place tip. When you tap on the place tip you will see a series of cards with relevant info about a nearby place. This information includes status updates and photos that your friends have shared with you while they were at that particular location.
If you are a brick and mortar business, you are in luck. Facebook will display your Facebook page to people who are near your business. They will also be shown your most recent posts, upcoming events or even popular menu items if you are a restaurant.
How it Works
This new feature works because Facebook accesses the users’ GPS through their cellular network or Wi-Fi to determine their location. Facebook has stressed that this feature does not mean they will display a user’s location to their Facebook friends.
Facebook gives users the option to turn off Place Tips inside their mobile application. Place tips will only appear if a user has given Facebook permission to access their location.
Take Advantage
Facebook has already started testing this feature at various locations in New York City, such as the Brooklyn Bridge, Times Square and the Statue of Liberty. Facebook will slowly start rolling out this feature to more locations in the following months.
This is a feature that your business should take advantage of if it operates out of a physical building- especially one that receives a high volume of foot traffic. The best way to take full advantage of Facebook’s new feature is to regularly post up-to-date content to your Facebook page.
If you have any upcoming events that you wish to advertise, make sure you place them on Facebook so they can be displayed to Facebook users passing by your business.
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