My recommendation? You should claim ownership of your business just to ensure the information posted is accurate. Then decide if you want to utilize this marketing avenue. Claiming your “place” ensures the business name, location, hours of operation and contact information is accurate. You can also control your profile pic.

Not every business will be listed, especially in smaller towns and rural areas. If your Facebook Place doesn’t exist yet, you can use the Facebook app for smartphones and check-in at your business to create it. Once your business has a Facebook Place, there is a link at the bottom that says “Is this your business?” Click that to begin the verification process. IF you choose not to create your Place, any customer can (and will) do it, and they may not enter your information correctly. If this happens, just click that “Is this your business?” button and make the appropriate corrections once you are authorized to do so.

Claiming your “Place” is a little more difficult than just creating it. It requires some supporting evidence–so random strangers should be prevented from claiming your Facebook Place. Aside from basic information like the name, URL, and address of the business, the Claim Place page also asks for the Federal EIN (Employee Identification Number), and requires that you upload a scan of official documents.

You can choose from articles of certificate of incorporation, certificate of formation, local business license, or Better Business Bureau accreditation. Once you submit the necessary information, the Place will not become yours until you receive an e-mail confirming the submission and notifying you to “stand by as we should be back with you soon.”

According to the Facebook Help Center, you can also advertise your Facebook Place on Facebook. The Help Center FAQ explains “To advertise your Place, click “I want to advertise something I have on Facebook” in the ad creation flow and choose your Place from the drop-down menu.”

Facebook Places is new to the location-based check-in application, so opportunities such as the ability to target market Facebook users who have checked in to your business doesn’t exist yet. Watch the blog below to keep up with the latest updates to this new marketing service and as always, just get in touch with me if you have any questions or just need a little help!

For the latest Facebook Places info visit the official Facebook blog.

There’s an implicit pressure on social media enthusiasts to be connected in more than one way. It’s not enough to have a Facebook page, you need a Twitter account as well. What do you mean you’re not on LinkedIn? Well, at least you have a blog on Wordpress or Tumblr right?

There is no requirement to spread your digital self thin, but many of us are still juggling more than one online profile (I’m currently balancing at least five). Each of these profiles offers us a chance to connect with new communities in different ways, but each network needs to be managed and updated. With so many online profiles, questions are bound to arise. Is your bio page the same across all platforms? Should it be?

There are few hard and fast rules when navigating social media; a lot comes down to preference. For those starting out or just looking to make sense of their profiles, we’ve culled advice from five social media experts in a range of backgrounds. Mashable’s given you ways to create your brand, face the challenges, track your reputation, and corral your profiles on the social web. Now, here are five ways to manage, consolidate, and clean up your online identity.

1. Keep it Consistent

One of the best things you can do is to make sure your profiles are consistent. This includes your bio page, your profile pic, and your tone of voice. “Consistency is important,” said Dan Schawbel, managing partner of Millennial Branding, “If you’re “Matt” on one site, you better be “Matt” on every other site.” That similarity can help viewers keep track of you across different platforms. Start by scooping up vanity URLs on sites like Facebook (facebook.com/ClarkKent) and Twitter (twitter.com/ClarkKent), and buying your domain name (www.ClarkKent.com). Similar fonts and font sizes can also help create a congruous online identity.

But what about your updates — how do you keep those consistent? “Using the same tone of voice will help keep the cohesion,” said Amber Naslund, Director of Community at Radian6. “It doesn’t have to be verbatim but there needs to be a certain level of consistency,” Naslund said. “You’re assuming that [one particular social site] might be the only place they get that [information].”

Keep in mind that consistency doesn’t mean repetition. Customize your profiles and updates to align with the values and uses of each social platform, but maintain a common theme throughout.

2. Find Your Brand

Put some forethought into what your want your digital reputation to be and build towards that. Joshua Benton, Director of Harvard’s Nieman Journalism Lab, highlights the importance of viewership. “You don’t want to have carbon copies because you’re talking to different audiences. Your paragraph bio on LinkedIn isn’t going to make sense on your Twitter page and neither of those is going to make sense on your Facebook page.” Benton recommends making a basic bio that can be tailored for each network. “Think about how the image you want to present sits in with the audience.”

Different networks are better for different things — it helps to cater your posts based on the audience. “Part of that is baked into the form,” Benton said. “It’s sort of hard to have a wild and crazy LinkedIn profile, whereas you can on something like MySpace ().”

Whether you want to be known by your real name (recommended) or a cute buzzword, it’s important to come up with something memorable and representative of you. This advice applies to people and brands. “When you type Digsby, we are the first result,” said Steve Shapiro, CEO of Digsby (). “It is important to pick a unique product name but also one that people can spell when they hear it, or they’ll never find you on Google ().”

Once you’ve decided your online name and brand, try to stick with it. It’s hard to build a reputation if you keep changing. “The problem with changing your specialty every six months is that people can see what you did six month’s prior,” explained Barry Hurd, CEO and founder of 123SocialMedia. That kind of indecision can make it difficult for your audience to get a grasp on your identity.

3. Own Your Name

One of the best ways to track your progress is a simple Google search. “I’m conscious that I’m writing about the things I’d liked to be found for,” Naslund said. “If I’m going to post a tweet about a drunken bender with my sister from last night, it might pop up on Google.” Make sure you’re updating your social networks on news and events that you want to be known for. Part of managing your online identity is understanding your professional profiles (like LinkedIn) can very well get mixed up with personal profiles (like Facebook). “You can’t keep the peas from touching the mashed potatoes,” Naslund added. “The Internet doesn’t distinguish between profiles. That’s a human distinction, not a technical one. It all gets lumped into the same basket.”

An easy, free way to manage your name’s SEO is by getting onto popular social media sites. “Twitter accounts often pop up on the first page even if you’ve only posted three tweets,” Benton explained. “Chances are you’d rather have that and a link to your bio page than something you don’t have control over. Get on networks with good page rankings.”

Another tip for optimizing SEO is by proactively setting up inbound links between your profiles. Include links to your social profiles, such as Foursquare (), Twitter, LinkedIn and Quora, on your blog. On your Twitter profile, include a link to your blog. And on Foursquare, make sure you include your Twitter profile link. If you already use multiple networks, this practice is an easy way to increase the amount of inbound links for each site. It’s a circle of links that will help optimize your Google search rankings.

The ultimate goal is to optimize your SEO so that someone should be able to search for your name and get a good idea within the first 10 results of who you are or who you’d like to be.

4. Get a Little Help

The good news is that you don’t have to monitor all these sites by yourself. There are a bunch of web tools that can help you track or update your entire online presence. Try using a multi-platform dashboards like Ping.fm (), Tweetdeck (), or Hootsuite () to update your social media identity all from a central hub.

As a secondary step, if you’re interested in seeing which sites are benefiting you the most from a PR point of view, set up Google Alerts on each of your profiles. Alerts will help you keep a pulse on buzz around your name. To see which sites are most referenced, try adding small marks to your profile pics for manual tracking. Hurd suggested adding a small Facebook logo to your Facebook profile pic, for example, so you can see when your Facebook profile (along with a pic) is linked to.

5. Human Afterall

Out of all these tips, perhaps the most important lesson is to just be yourself. It may sound simple, but ultimately people are connecting with you because of who you are. “How people perceive you is through those interactions with your audience, not just a neat and tidy persona,” Naslund said. “People want to see the person behind the persona.”

Schawbel recommended being selective with your networks and genuinely connecting: “If your Twitter handle or Facebook page is your name, it has to come from you.”

That same sense of honesty can also be a great way to find customers. “These platforms are a huge opportunity to interact with users one-on-one,” Shapiro said. Connecting in an honest way can bring in new supporters for your product or brand.

Final Words of Advice

We asked our experts for a golden rule to managing your online identity. While there may not be one ruling maxim, here are some choice words of wisdom for cleaning up your social identity.

• “Commitment is really the key word,” Schawbel said. “Everyone keeps talking about passion, but commitment takes [it] into account. If you’re committed to this, you’ll succeed. Or, at least you’ll get something out of it.”
• “Be consistent with the tone and approach for all those social networks,” Naslund said. “Through all those profiles, it will feel like you. And that’s what people use social media for, to connect with a real person. Develop an identity you’re not only proud of, but can stand behind.”
• “I think you have to go into these sort of things acknowledging that compartmentalization is impossible. [It's] the same way in real life. We act one way around our parents, and one way around our boss, and one way around our friends, even if we’re still the same person,” Benton said. “Think about the image you want to present… and don’t be afraid to be human.”

Zachary Sniderman joined Mashable in 2010 as an Assistant Features Editor. An arts and culture writer, Zack previously wrote for Greenshoelace.com, Maclean’s Magazine, and a ton of Columbia websites. Zack graduated with an M.S. from the Columbia School of Journalism and his B.A. from Harvard University. He now lives in New York City and misses pond hockey.

You know your business can’t just wing it on Twitter (Twitter), you need a strategy. But how do you get there? A lot of social media advice revolves around confusing, high-concept buzzwords: There are only so many times you can be told to “listen” and “engage.” Concrete advice can be hard to come by, and while this guide won’t tell you what you need to tweet, it will provide you with the real questions you need to ask in order to craft a Twitter strategy for your business.

1. Choose Your Audience

Who do you want to reach on Twitter? Be specific and limit your scope to the demographic you really need; trying to reach everyone isn’t a great strategy. If you’re a B2B company, for example, you’ll probably want to reach other businesses and the people that represent them.

Here is a quick example: Look up at least 10 of your customers on Twitter (a quick name search on Google (Google) can turned up their Twitter profiles). Once you’ve found some, look at who they’re following and who they talk to. These people could also become part of your audience. Look at how they describe themselves and what terms they talk about. Use those keywords and terms to find like-minded people.

The goal here is not to find everyone you’d like to interact with (that would probably be next to impossible), but to find people who might fit into your audience. Try to pay attention to who has influence in your audience. For example: who are people talking to, about or retweeting? Who do they seem to ask for advice? Once you have a decent group, move on to step two.

2. Understand How They Speak

It might sound like I’m giving you clichéd advice to “listen,” but clichés exist for a reason. You need to understand how your audience talks, what they like, and what they share. Below are some solid steps to get you started.

* Look up what people are saying about your company. Are they saying good things or bad things? Are they asking for advice about what product or company to choose? Are they giving feedback about their experiences after the fact?
* Do the same for your competitors. Note if your competitors are jumping in or influencing any of these conversations.
* Notice the way your audience talks. Are they generally formal or informal? This will be very different depending on the companies you are tracking and the people you attract. It’s always good to match the tone of your audience.
* Look at what your audience shares and retweets. What kinds of links and articles do they like? What kinds of terms and ideas get them excited or annoyed?
* Note any hashtags or other ways your audience connects. Look up those hashtags to see if they have any real traction (if they’re all spam or if people are really using them to connect).

3. How Much is a Twitter Lead Worth?

This is a bit more theoretical but it’s an important step that many companies forget. The reason you’re involved with Twitter isn’t just to say you’re there, it’s because you’re looking for a good return on investment. So what is it that you’re after? It might be as concrete as sign-ups and sales or as ephemeral as buzz and brand awareness.

Depending on your goal, try to figure out how much each person is “worth.” This almost certainly won’t be an exact number, but you should get a general idea. For example, if you’re doing B2B sales and a sale is worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, you’re going to have a very different strategy than a company with millions of users that makes its money from advertising.

4. Set A Goal and Track It

Setting a goal is just the start of your strategy, you also need to track it with metrics. Choosing metrics does not just mean tracking your follower count because the count isn’t always a totally accurate measure of how many people are paying attention to your account.

There are obviously different approaches depending on the size of your fan base. If you have a large audience, you might not be able to put a lot of time into each lead. Your overall goal will likely be about brand awareness and creating buzz for your company. You should consider metrics that capture overall influence such as retweets, blog posts and clicks.

If you have a targeted audience, each lead probably carries more value. You overall goal will likely be to generate new leads. You should consider metrics like sales, email sign-ups, @messages, direct messages and clicks.

5. Define Your Approach

The language you use to tweet and what you choose to share should be targeted towards your audience. This means you should be thoughtful and accurate, not false and calculating. For example, if you’re trying to reach knitting mothers, you’re going to using a very different style of language than if you’re trying to reach hip hop aficionados. Below are a few main questions to consider:

* How formal or informal do you want to be?
* Should you include buzzwords or hashtags?
* How much effort should you put into reaching out to specific followers or finding new ones?
* What kind of links and content should you share?
* Can you do any special offers or campaigns on your account?
* What’s the style of your company? You have know your company’s message and define its personality. Your followers will appreciate the authenticity.

Any Twitter strategy is a perpetual work in progress. Just deciding that you need a strategy is an important first step that will have you thinking about what and why you tweet. The key is to keep experimenting: Twitter is ever-changing and to succeed on it you need to be flexible, but you also need to know where you’re headed.

Megan Berry is Marketing Manager for Klout, the standard for online influence. She also blogs at The Huffington Post and Brazen Careerist. You can follow her on Twitter at @meganberry.

I can find anything online, and this is a beautiful thing. Anyone can find anything online, and this is a troubling thing. You want to share and connect with your friends and family. You don’t want to supply endless personal data to marketers, spammers or individuals who may harm you.

Would you post a billboard downtown with your name, address, phone number, email address, who you’re dating or married to,  the names and ages of your children, where you went to high school and college, your political views, and a slew of pictures of you and the one you care about?

But we ALL happily post all of this information online for the entire planet.

So, let’s look at YOUR Facebook profile, shall we?

Log on to your Facebook account.
Click on “Account” (upper right hand corner) and click on “Privacy settings” in the drop-down menu.

1. Click on “Personal Information and Posts”

• You will notice “Photos” says “Edit Settings” – let’s get back to that one.
• Every other setting on this page should read “Friends Only”.
• You are also asked if you would like friends to be able to post on your wall. I say yes, but this is up to you.
• Now, let’s look at “Photos”. Click on “Edit Settings” and set every album to “Friends Only”. Now, go back to “Privacy Settings” again (upper left).

2. Click on “Contact Information

• Every setting EXCEPT “Add Me As a Friend” should read “Friends Only”.
• “Add Me as a Friend” should read “Everyone”, allowing all potential contacts to request you as a friend. Now, go back to “Privacy Settings” again (upper left).

3.  Click on “Friends, Tags and Connections”

• Every setting should read “Friends Only”. Now, go back to “Privacy Settings” again (upper left).

4. Click on “Search”

• “Facebook Search Results” should read “Everyone”
• “Public Search Results” is up to you. I allow search engines, such as Google, to show my profile in search results. Now, go back to “Privacy Settings” again (upper left).

5. Click on “Applications and Websites”

• Click on “What your friends can share about you “.  This is the most important application setting. By default, nothing can be shared except your name, sex, and profile photo — plus any information that fell under the Everyone option in the other privacy categories. Be certain all boxes unchecked. Now go back to “Applications and Websites” (upper left).
  
• Click on “Ignore Application Invites from Friends”. If you have certain friends who are always playing games, such as Farmville and seem to always be inviting you to join in the fun, just enter the friend’s name(s) here and you will still be connected to your friend in every way EXCEPT, no more annoying invites to participate in applications they consider to be fun. Now go back to “Applications and Websites” (upper left).
• IF you play games on Facebook, click on “Activity on Application and Games Dashboard. Be certain “Friends Only” is checked.  I highly recommend “Customize”, then click on “Only Me”. Now go back to “Applications and Websites” (upper left).
• Click on “Instant Personalization Pilot Program”. Be SURE the box at the bottom of the page is NOT checked. Recently, Facebook opened up Instant Personalization, another way for strangers and outsiders to view your personal information. Currently, there is a setting at the bottom of the Applications and Websites page called Instant Personalization Pilot Program. If you opt into this service, selected Facebook partner Web sites can instantly personalize their applications, based on your personal information.

You’re finished.

Please note the above suggestions are based on setting the highest privacy level possible. You may change ANY setting to offer less privacy, but I believe you should begin with the strictest settings and then decide where you want to relax your control.

As always, if you have any questions, just E-Mail Me.
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• If Facebook were a country it would be the world’s 4th largest.
• 65,000 videos are added to YouTube every day.
• 80% of companies using LinkedIn as a primary tool to find employees.
• Over 80% of online users have read a blog.
• 45% have started their own blog.
• 65% have joined at least one social network.
• 80% of Twitter usage is mobile…people update anywhere, anytime.
• FourSquare is increasing revenue for local, foot-traffic businesses.

Why You Should Care…

People are using social networking to talk about ~

• The products they love. The products they hate.
• Good service. Bad service.
• They are talking about you and your business.

Consumer Pulse™ reported in March 2010 ~

• 51% of consumers were more likely to purchase once they became a fan of a business on Facebook.
• 60% of consumers were more likely to recommend once they became a fan of a business on Facebook.
• 67% of consumers were more likely to purchase once they became a follower of a business on Twitter.
• 79% of consumers were more likely to recommend once they became a follower of a business on Twitter.

Do You Have TEN Minutes a Day to increase your revenues?

We Can Help.

Contact Us Today

for a free initial consult

So, what IS Kiva?

Pendo Luisi, 27 years old, borrowed $175 to open a cafe in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

Here’s what Kiva says…

Kiva’s mission is to connect people, through lending, for the sake of alleviating poverty.

Kiva empowers individuals to lend to an entrepreneur across the globe. By combining microfinance with the internet, Kiva is creating a global community of people connected through lending.

Kiva was born of the following beliefs:

• People are by nature generous, and will help others if given the opportunity to do so in a transparent, accountable way.
• The poor are highly motivated and can be very successful when given an opportunity.
• By connecting people we can create relationships beyond financial transactions, and build a global community expressing support and encouragement of one another.

Kiva promotes:

• Dignity:   Kiva encourages partnership relationships as opposed to benefactor relationships. Partnership relationships are characterized by mutual dignity and respect.
• Accountability:   Loans encourage more accountability than donations where repayment is not expected.
• Transparency:   The Kiva website is an open platform where communication can flow freely around the world.

As of November 2009, Kiva has facilitated over $100 million in loans.

Kiva does change lives. Yes, your loan helps a small business owner realize their dreams, but perhaps the lives most changed are ours.

The ones who dare to loan. Join me, won’t you?

I look out my window everyday at mountain peaks. I can hike and bike some of the most beautiful trails within a few minutes from my front door, I ski Champagne Powder, swim in crystal blue lakes and my tap water actually tastes good. Yet it’s hard for me to be conscious of the Earth; so I completely understand you may be thinking “let someone else do it”.  I drive an SUV because I live in the Colorado Rockies, way up in them… I pick my kids up from school every day when they could take the bus or ride a bike, because I treasure that time with them… I recycle, but probably not as much as I could. Point is, I’m not a fanatical tree-hugger-type, and if I can take a moment to consider what changes I can make, so can you.

It may take our generation a little longer and more effort to adapt. But if we develop good habits in our children, it will be easy for them. Remember when we didn’t wear seat belts? Our kids don’t. They jump in the car and buckle up without a thought. It will take a little effort, but you and I can leave behind a legacy of caring for this planet with just a few changes in our daily life.Here’s a few Earth Day tips to get you and I started.

Real Life (and pretty easy) Ways to Make a Difference.

1. Turn off the water while brushing your teeth.
2. Turn off the light when you leave the room.
3. Unplug that cell phone charger when you aren’t using it.
4. Pick a cause to change our world. Donate. Consider any of these top-rated charities: Charity Water,  The Conservation Fund, The Hunger Project, Care.
5. Reuse plastic water bottles for beverages for school lunches.
6. Use compact fluorescent bulbs – same amount of light, 1/4 of the energy of regular light bulbs.
7. Fix leaky toilets and faucets.
8. Ride your bike.
9. Recycle. Newspapers, plastic, glass and tin cans. It’s pretty easy to do.
10. Bring your own bags to the grocery store.
11. Use “Green” cleaning products. Yes, it matters.
12. Teach your teenagers to use a towel more than once before washing.
13. Turn your car off if idling over a minute.

These aren’t HUGE life changing actions, but they are HUGE life changing impressions on anyone who watches how you live. Your children, your friends, your neighbors. I realize I can make a difference starting today. Hope you will consider joining me. Right now.

Here’s to Earth, the only home we have and to those who make a difference every day.

Well, it’s time to get off the fence and join the party. Geotagging is here. It’s hot and it’s driving revenue into small “local” businesses right now.

Geotagging uses GPS technology and basically adds a location to media, such as photos, posts, websites, RSS feed, etc. Geotagging is used by mobile social networks. Foursquare is the leader, Gowalla is in the mix and Facebook and Twitter are fast adopting this hot new way for people to communicate, share and connect. Instead of spending big bucks worrying how your business places in a “global” search engine such as Google, Yahoo and Bing, you now have a tool which allows you to use the internet on a local level. Local search, local tweets, and local coupons are all part of how you can use location based services to reach your potential customers and reward your existing ones in new and fun ways! Location based social networks are all about real-time connections.

Let’s say you own a pub and business is slow tonight. You have a band coming in at 10pm with a cover charge. I’m visiting your small town from Dallas with 6 friends. We’re across the street at a different restaurant and bored. You “tweet” a 2 for 1 special on all drinks and free cover charge for the band later tonight to anyone who mentions your tweet. I happen to be using Foursquare to check in and I “view tweets nearby” and see your post.  My 6 friends and I head over to your establishment and spend the rest of the night and a lot of our vacation cash in your pub.  All you had to do is post an offer on Twitter, at no cost to you.

Maybe you own a hotel and occupancy is down tonight. You know there is a huge concert in town. Locals may not want to drive home. You post a deal specifically playing to that crowd. You sell 5-10 rooms that night.  You didn’t spend any marketing dollars and you had a positive affect on your revenue. All you did was send a tweet.

Starting to see your opportunity?

You can post a coupon, offer loyalty programs, even reward the person who checks in with you the most with the title of “Mayor” of your business. (And believe me, as a user of Foursquare, I can tell you that we fight ruthlessly to be the Mayor or just about every place we love to frequent.) This week, I got 10% off my purchase at Coldstone, 2 for 1 at a local water slide and the satisfaction of being the “Mayor” of a ski lift right before the season ended, meaning I’m the mayor until next season.

Think of it as a form of gaming, and the primary players are adults 24-55 with a healthy income. Wouldn’t you want to engage these folks?

Foursquare

Yelp, Twitter and Facebook are joining the game, but Gowalla and Foursquare are strictly location based mobile social networks and are the leaders. Foursquare offers Foursquare for Business, a program which keeps track of activity related to your business and even lets you know who your best customers are.

Let’s Play.

If you have a smartphone, you are in the game. Just download the application to your phone.  Obviously, I’m a fan of Foursquare, so we will be “playing with Foursquare”. As you go through your day, you just check in anywhere and everywhere. Foursquare is user driven, which means you can add places, provide tips for others, and make a list of things you really want to do. You can’t cheat.  Your phone has to BE where you are checking in, or the application will let you know you’re fibbing. You can check in, but you won’t get any points (or credit for checking in) and for those of us using location based social networks, it’s all about the game.

Foursquare awards badges for various achievements such as “Super Mayor” for being the “Mayor” of 10 places at once and “Local” for visiting a place more than 3 times in a week. You can even get a badge for visiting too many bars, or staying out “past 3am on a school night”. Accumulating badges is part of the fun and new badges are constantly being added.  There is even talk of allowing businesses to create their own badges.

Get Your Business on the Map.

You don’t need a smartphone – you just need to take a few minutes to sign up for Twitter and for Foursquare for Business. Both companies offer you lots of helpful advice and ideas to use their services to promote your business.

Foursquare is very new and growing rapidly. In the past THREE weeks, users have grown from 500,000 to over 725,000 and there is no sign of slowing.  This growth has made it hard for Foursquare to keep up with demand, so right now, only business “where people gather” (coffee shops, bars, restaurants, etc.) are allowed to join the party.  However, in the very near future, more “foot traffic” businesses will be invited to participate.

gowalla

The cell phone is the future laptop… well, not completely, but you get the picture.  People are demanding more and more of their mobile device and smartphone companies are delivering the goods. As people rely on their cell phone as their main contact to the planet; your deals, offers, reviews and information can literally be available 24/7 to your customer. Now is the time to ask yourself: Is my current website “mobile friendly”, as in – can people easily navigate my site on their phone? Am I represented on location based social sites?  Do I have a “social marketing strategy”?

Need help? Contact me. I love this stuff.

Social networking has finally become something “valuable” for brick-and-mortar businesses. Smartphones and location-based social networks allow users to interact, share, meet up, and recommend places based on their physical coordinates. This real-world connection to social media can mean more foot traffic and profits for business owners.

So-called “lo-so” networks like Foursquare , Loopt, and Gowalla enable any business with a physical location to not only communicate with customers online, but actually get more of them to walk in the door — and that’s exciting.

The question any brick-and-mortar business owner should be asking him or herself is no longer “Should I use lo-so networks?” It’s “How do I do it?” The following tips are essential to getting started.

1. Learn the Platforms

First of all, you need to understand how the technology works. Generally, people use lo-so apps on their phones to “check in” whenever they go places. Global Positioning Satellites (GPS) locate the users and determine what “venue” they might be at, giving them options to select a location or create a new listing. These “check ins” allow their friends to know where they are now, or where they frequently go. Some services allow users to leave location-based tips for friends to discover later, and several involve social competitions, or the ability to unlock digital badges, stickers, and prizes. Businesses can announce specials or promotions through these apps, so when users “check in,” they receive notifications of nearby deals.

Item one on your to-do list should be to become familiar with the prevailing platforms. Foursquare, Gowalla, Loopt, Brightkite, and Google Latitude are the most talked about in general, though others exist, and popularity varies by geography (e.g. Foursquare reigns supreme in New York City, and Loopt has a lot of clout in Silicon Valley). Other platforms to be aware of include Yelp and Facebook, which are just now dabbling in lo-so. Sign up for all of these, and download the apps to your phone if you can, so you can become familiar with how someone would use each one. Most of the networks have iPhone, Android, and BlackBerry (BlackBerry Rocks!) apps, and all of them allow you to “check in” via desktop and mobile web browsers.

2. Determine Your Goals

Before you can optimize your business for lo-social networking, you need to step back and determine what you want to accomplish.

* Are you hoping to increase foot traffic to your store?
* Do you want to sell more of a particular item?
* Do you want more patrons at certain times of day?
* Do you want to promote a specific product?
* Are you looking for new customer acquisition?
* Repeat customers?

You may say, “I want all of those,” but to be effective, you need to set specific objectives. These will determine your approach to the entire process. Luckily, if you need to change things around to fit new objectives in the future, the cost of doing so is very small.

One goal that should be on every business’s list is to be easily findable on every network, which brings us to number three:

3. Establish Your Presence

Make sure that your business is listed on each network. Then make sure the address, phone, and details are correct and current. Don’t assume that users have added everything correctly. On some networks, once a venue is there, it’s stuck. Others let you edit. Don’t be afraid to contact the network itself to ask them for help if you can’t fix your venue listing. Gowalla’s Jonathan Carroll says, “We receive dozens of e-mails a day from businesses around the world asking for additions or tweaks to their Gowalla locations, and we’re happy to help out with them.”

It’s also a good idea to put up notices or stickers (on the door, order counter, or table centerpieces, for example) announcing “We’re on Foursquare” or “Find us on Yelp.” This will remind people to “check in” and spread the word about you.

4. Customize

Different networks have different options for customization, but it’s important that you do as much as you can to build out your listing. Add your website. Integrate with your other social networking accounts, like Twitter (Twitter). Features are constantly being added to each network, but great customizations you can try right now include the following:

On Foursquare: Create to-do lists for users to explore around your area. And if possible, work with Foursquare to create a custom badge for your venue or event.

On Gowalla: Ask for a custom icon for your location, rather than the generic one for your category. Examples: Shake Shack, NYC, Austin Java, and Coop Ale Works.

5. Implement Compelling Promotions

Lo-social networks allow you to run promos to increase engagement and get people into your store. Foursquare’s Tristan Walker says, “Any type of in-store promotion you can conceive we want to make it so Foursquare can run it.” Many businesses offer specials like “check in 10 times and get a free appetizer” on all the major lo-so networks. Establish well-conceived promotions based on your goals, then evaluate the results. The biggest mistake you can make is to do this sloppily or half-heartedly.

Carroll cites Lift Cafe as a good example. “They offer 10% off every purchase when you check in on Gowalla, which they include in their description and also as a reminder in the success screen after check-in.”

“[What] we’ve seen across all channels again and again is that what works is a good local offer,” says Loopt CEO Sam Altman. Businesses with offers that cater to people “making that gametime decision” when they’re out and about do the best. “Offer value to the customer so it doesn’t feel like an ad,” he advises.

Shelley Bernstein, Chief of Technology for the Brooklyn Museum, talks about how the institution uses Foursquare to create a multi-faceted campaign and experience for museum goers.

“We knew that many people coming here wanted to know more about the local neighborhood, which is something Foursquare does well. We asked our staff for their opinion of the best stuff in the neighborhood … and left tips at all these venues for Foursquare users to find. Second, we added a promo for our mayor to reward the people who are consistently identifying themselves with us. Third, Foursquare has given us a badge which unlocks after three visits, and this helps reward our community for coming in the doors.

“All of these things together help create a total presence on the platform that works well for the Foursquare community, the Brooklyn Museum visitor, and the local merchants in our neighborhood.””

Common promotions across various networks include the following:

* Raffles (e.g. “Every person who checks in gets a chance to win an iPod.”)
* Specials for the user who checks in most often. This is a staple of Foursquare promos for a lot of venues (e.g. “Top user/mayor gets the first drink free every time he/she comes in.”)
* First check in specials (e.g. “Get 30% off your order when you check in for the first time.”)
* Digital punch cards (e.g. “Check in 5 times, get a free coffee.”)

Tips for developing effective promotions:

* Advertise particular incentives, rather than your business in general (“20% off between 2 and 4pm;” “Buy one burger, get one free;” etc.).
* On platforms that allow you create your own banner ads (such as Loopt), include your address and opening hours in the ad itself, when possible.
* Be creative. For example, Incase, the bag and protective case maker, recently ran a promo with Gowalla to put virtual versions of its products into the app to be collected and traded. Carroll remarks, “The result has been phenomenal: Thousands upon thousands of their virtual items have been distributed in Gowalla to an audience who could benefit from their products, but many of whom had not previously heard of Incase.”

6. Engage With Your Customers

It would be a mistake to use Twitter as a one-way corporate megaphone, never interacting with your audience. That’s a quick route to an audience of zero. One of the most effective uses of social media is personal engagement and relationship building with your audience. The same goes for lo-so networks.

7. Track Everything

Foursquare just released a slick analytics dashboard for venues to track their stats. Other networks have metrics you can view as well, and they’ll certainly be releasing better and better tools. From data you can study online to qualitative observations at your own store, it’s important to keep track of everything so you can learn what promotions work with your audience. Be aware, though, that your ROI may not be directly measurable, and aside from increased sales, you’re working for brand exposure and increased awareness of your business.

8. Be Prepared to Adapt

Location-based social network technology may be the newest and grooviest incarnation of social media, but it certainly won’t be the last. And in a year it won’t look exactly like it does today. Be prepared to adapt your methods when features change, as new tools emerge, and as you review your own promotional results. Again, keep your objectives in mind, and be ready to keep up with new technology.

9. Avoid Common Pitfalls

In talking with representatives from the major lo-so networks, several common mistakes came up. Here are a few things you should try to avoid:

* Don’t leave fake reviews or tips. They’re easy to spot, and you’ll lose all on- and off-line credibility immediately when people catch on.
* Don’t throw up poorly designed ads. “A badly designed banner ad performs so much worse than … a good one,” Altman says. “It’s an insane difference.”
* Don’t forget to monitor activity. Carroll points out, “Chances are if someone has a gripe or praise with their check-in, it’s a real-time thing: The patron is probably still there … so the business has a chance to make the experience even better.”

Sometimes we want to catch up on Facebook News, but just don’t have time to “visit”.

It’s simple to take yourself “offline” while surfing Facebook.

From your “HomePage” (not your “Profile” page)…  click on “Chat”

Then click on “Options” and “Go Offline”

Notes:

1. Return to “online (visible) status by clicking on “Chat” again. You are automatically back online.
2. You remain Offline until you make that change – even if you log-off and log-in again.