Facebook Places and Google Places: What’s in a Name?
Last night, Facebook sprang its new Facebook Places product on the world. At its core, it’s a lot like Foursquare. It allows you to “check in” at a location using the GPS on your mobile device. The major 
difference is that while using Places, you’re not competing to become “mayor” of anything, as you are on Foursquare. With Places, you’re simply sharing your physical location with Facebook friends.
Google has its own location product. Interestingly, it’s called Google Places.
Despite using the same names, Facebook and Google Places are completely different products.
Facebook Places is simply adding another way you can tell people what you’re up to, by using geolocation.
Google Places is a re-branding of Google’s Local Business Center. It launched back in April, and included a ton of new features. Its basic goal is to get local businesses to “claim” their Google Place page on the web, fill it up with information, use it to serve things like coupons, and then (hopefully) buy advertising with Google to direct people to it. Geolocation is a feature, but it’s not even closely related to how Facebook is using it.
For Facebook, this new product is a great idea. While squashing competitors Foursquare and Gowalla (I know those two companies are “partners” in Facebook Places, but that’s really only because they don’t have much choice but go along) a logical function is also being added to Facebook. You can already tell your Facebook friends what you’re doing. With Places, you can show them where you’re doing it.
Google Places is also a great idea. It’s an attempt to expand its local search offerings. Search and other Internet services are what Google does best. There is no social aspect to Google Places, which is a good idea given Google’s lack of success in social media offerings.
We’ve determined that these two services are only slightly related … so, why do they have such similar names? I can’t imagine. Maybe all of the words that don’t mean anything (see also: Twitter, Gowalla, Foursquare, Vimeo) are already taken?
Facebook’s Weekly Page Update
I wanted to be one of what surely will be many Facebook Fan Page administrators to applaud a new offering from the social networking service. Today I received a handy little email from Facebook called the “Weekly Facebook Page Update”. Being an administrator on two of my own Facebook fan pages plus several more client fan pages, it’s sometimes hard to keep track of stats. These new weekly updates do it all for you. The email put all of my stats for the week in one easy-to-read list. Here’s a sampling:
Here is this week’s summary for the Facebook Page: Sheltering Arms Physical Rehabilitation
+8 Fans this week (188 total Fans)
6 Wall Posts, Comments, and Likes this week (5 last week)
130 Visits to your page this week (101 Visits last week)
It gave similar stats for the fan pages for SleepBetter, EndGame PR, FightSMA, and all of the others I administer or co-administer.
I get a LOT of junk emails from social networking sites. It’s nice to get one that, while unsolicited, is extremely useful to me!
Facebook is Better for “Old Folks”
There’s a great post today on Mashable about something I’ve been talking about with clients and when I present to groups for quite some time — the fastest growing segment of the social media world has grey hair.
The article, Baby Boomers and Seniors Are Flocking to Facebook, has some great stats about the growth of the number of Americans 44+ on Facebook.
A Facebook and Twitter Primer, Part 2
This is the second part of a two part primer on social networking giants Facebook and Twitter. The first part gives basic information on using Facebook. This post will cover basic information on Twitter. This primer came about when a client asked me to send him an email on how to use the two sites. The information I emailed him ended up being longer than he was likely expecting. When I was finished, it occurred to me that I could re-purpose this information into a two part blog post. Bear in mind when reading this that I’ve edited it somewhat, but it was originally written in more of an email format than a blog post format.
This isn’t a complete textbook on Twitter, nor was it meant to be. It’s merely some information to get you started. Whether you’re just learning, or you’re a social networking pro, please be sure to follow me on Twitter, at @stevemullen!
A Primer on Twitter
While Twitter and Facebook have some similarities in what they’re used FOR (at least when it comes to business), the atmosphere at each is very different. Using Facebook privacy settings, you can control who sees your posts. On Twitter, everything is out in the open for all to see. Additionally, there’s the 140-character limit to deal with on Twitter, which means posts are usually limited to a sentence or two and a link.
A Facebook and Twitter Primer, Part 1
A client recently asked me to send him an email on how to use Twitter and Facebook. I wrote him what amounts to “Facebook and Twitter 101″. I don’t think he realized just how long this email was going to be. When I completed the long email, it occurred to me that I could re-purpose this information into a two part blog post. The first of those two parts is below. Bear in mind when reading this that I’ve edited it somewhat, but it was originally written in more of an email format than a blog post format.
This isn’t a complete textbook on Facebook, nor was it meant to be. It’s merely some information to get you started. While you’re learning, please be sure to become a fan of EndGame PR on Facebook!
When you’re done reading this post be sure to read the sequel, A Facebook and Twitter Primer, Part 2!
A Primer on Facebook
The general idea of social media, whether it’s on Facebook, Twitter, on a blog, or somewhere else, is to provide something of value that people want to consume — whether it’s an article, blog post, video, audio, or something else. Before launching a social media presence, think about what you’re going to do with it. That may tell you which site is best suited for you, or that none of them are.
There are a few different types of Facebook presences:
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