Back in January, Place Tips was introduced by Facebook, and was a way for businesses to serve marketing messages to people visiting their real-world locations.
This feature was triggered when the user checks in at a location, or have their location settings activated in Facebook mobile apps. If one or both of these two triggers have been tripped, than Place Tips will offer advice and recommendations, along with other information from friends who have visited the location and from the business itself.
If there’s any information that Place Tip can display, it will appear at the top of News Feeds for those in stores or other businesses. This gives those locations a great opportunity to connect to consumers.
Everybody’s Place Tips are going to be unique, and according to Facebook n a blog post:
“At a restaurant, Place Tips can show the menu, reviews and frequently mentioned information about the establishment, like a signature cocktail or popular table. Place Tips for a retail store can help customers find business hours, locate popular items and learn about upcoming events.”
According to Facebook, it seems that Place Tips have caused an increase in Page traffic from in-store visitors for local businesses who using them.
Several days ago, Facebook announced a way for more businesses to optimize their Place Tips. The social network company offers free Bluetooth beacons to US businesses, which expands support for such devices beyond their experimental trial.
Even though Facebook tracks a user’s location with cell tower and WiFi triangulation and GPS location, these bluetooth beacons will be the best way to trigger Place Trips, at least for those who are using Facebook’s iPhone app. At this point, Android users will still be able to utilize Place Tips, but they will be served through the other location signals. Android support for beacon triggering is coming soon, according to a Facebook spokesperson.
If your a business who is interested in applying for a free beacon, you can sign up here.