Promoting Your Business with Facebook Nearby
Nearby – A New Facebook Feature
Part of the lineup of new features with Facebook’s most recent iOS and Android app updates, Facebook Nearby allows users to interact with businesses beyond what was possible before. Now, thanks to the inclusion of this new feature, users can find places and businesses near them based on the activities and recommendations of their friends.
How Nearby Works
From a business perspective, any business with a Facebook page can appear in the results and listings that are a part of using Nearby. All a business needs to do is make sure that their contact information (including physical address / location information) is up to date and filled in using the fields provided for this information by Facebook.
Users can search for and interact with businesses via their Facebook pages; this has always been possible, but with the Nearby feature there is a new way for users to discover places and businesses near them. When a user has friends who have interacted with a business near them, the activity of those friends regarding that business will cause the business in question to appear more prominently in the Nearby search results.
What Nearby Could Mean for Your Business
Businesses with physical locations or storefronts (known as “brick and mortar” businesses) have the most to gain from this new Facebook feature. Because Nearby focuses on physical locations, businesses with offices, storefronts, warehouses, or any sort of retail or official business location can benefit from increase virtual and physical traffic. Of course, any business with a Facebook page can appear in Nearby, so businesses that are primarily virtual are not automatically excluded. In such cases it is very important to include any location information that is relevant to your business!
If you would like to make sure that your business’ Facebook page is ready to be a part of the Nearby search results, make sure to take care of the following things right away!
- Update your business’ Facebook page – to include any relevant information that would help place your business in the right local area in a user’s Nearby results.
- Update your business’ category – to reflect the type of business that you are. This will help people who are searching for a specific type of business, i.e. a restaurant.
- Encourage interaction – between users and your business. Ideally, you want them to check in at your business’ location, “like” your business page, and recommend your business to their friends and contacts.
So what are you waiting for? Get to work on your business’ Facebook page right now and you will be ensuring that your business will look its best and be able to appear in the Nearby results of users in your area.
Comments:
What do you think of this new Facebook feature? Is it a good thing?
