If you are delivering products or services from a physical store, Facebook Check-In feature can help you with marketing a lot. The good part is that you actually need not pay for this Check-In feature!
What is Facebook Check-In Feature?
You must have observed people using Check In when they are at some hotel, restaurant, saloon, shopping mall, multiplex, garden, hill station, etc. locations. Let’s say you are at a popular restaurant in your city and you want to announce this event to your Facebook friends. So, you will tap a Check-In button on your Facebook. With this tapping, you will see a list of places nearby. Just select the restaurant name where you are and the world will know it!
Once you successfully Check In to some location three things will happen. First, your Check-In will be published as a new story in your friends’ News Feeds as Your Name is at Location Name (i.e Kirit JAsani is at Crowd Multiplier). Second, it will be added to your own timeline as a post. So whenever someone is scrolling through your profile they will see the post by date and time specified for that location, such as Kirit JAsani checked in to CrowdMultiplier June 1 at 10:48 am, Ahmedabad. Third, it will be added to the visitor count of the page under the community section. There is a location symbol, besides which something like this is written ‘99 people have visited’ (99 is just an example) there your Check-In will be added to the current visitor counts.
Why People Use Facebook Check-In?
Opportunity to Meet: All the time you really cannot have an idea about where your friends and family members are? As your Facebook Check-In creates a story in your Facebook Friends’ News Feeds they will know about this event. If someone is nearby, it brings an opportunity to meet, which otherwise could have been missed!
It’s a habit: These days cell phone usage and clicking selfie are slowly getting cultivated as new addiction, maybe for many, it is already! The same way many users are having the habit to Chek-In almost everywhere they go.
Show-off: People at large, especially youth, faces peer pressure and so they show-off almost in everything. Particularly when one is staying in luxury resorts, traveling from the airport they Check In undoubtedly.
Genuine Sharing: There are people who genuinely want to help their friends and relatives in finding new places. For this purpose, they Check In to new locations they visit and also share their experience.
How to Enable Facebook Check-In Feature on Your Brand Page?
If you are not seeing any Check-In on your business page, chances are you have not adjusted necessary settings. Let’s do it now. Go to your Facebook Business Page and locate About section on the left side of the page. Now click Edit Page Info. These should open a pop-up window with General, Contact, Location and Hours button, as shown below.
Click on Location button and tick mark the box ‘Has a street address’ and add an address of your business, if not done already. Now drag the map to reposition to a correct location. Below this map, you will see a box titled as Show map and check-ins on the page. Tick mark this box and click Save Changes button.
Now you should be able to see your page in Check-In. If you don’t find your page there, you might need to change your Facebook Page Category.
Facebook Check In Marketing Strategy
The biggest benefit for the marketer is the free reach. As and when someone Check-Ins to a Facebook Page it gets published in their friend’s Newsfeed free of cost. Normally marketers are required to pay to reach the same audience with Facebook Advertising.
So, how you can increase such free exposers? Well, there can be a number of ideas depending on your business category. Let’s say you are a Cake Shop. Probably you can offer free pastry with purchase of cake if customer Check-In to your Facebook Page. If you are a coffee shop you can offer upgrades in size with Check-In. If you offer Spa services you can give 10 minutes extra time to those customers who Check-Ins to your Facebook Page. You can promote such offers offline as well.
If any of such offers go viral, it can increase many Check-Ins on your page. This increased Check-Ins will help your brand. If you observe community section of your page, you will notice people visited figure goes up with each new Check-In. Psychologically, if more people are visiting your location, your services tend to be better. This helps to attract and convince new customers.
If you don’t want to give any offer, then you may say something like this, ‘Like our services? Announce it by Check-In on our Facebook Page. Believe me, if you ask people to Check In, many will do.
Let’s take your Facebook Marketing a step further with Facebook Check-In. If you need any help do contact me. If you need professional services visit Crowd Multiplier.
Nice one