Geolocation for Business - It's a Good Time to Start

Aside from my normal occupation (which has nothing to do with social media) and random lifestyle, I have not yet learned much in the realm of social media for businesses. I have however been an early adopter to whatever flashy comes my way. I've been hearing about Foursquare and Gowalla (mainly from the TWiT network) for some time now but did not bother to investigate, until now.

When I heard the announcement of Facebook Deals and Facebook Places for Android, I figured it was time to investigate. After being extremely jealous of my iPhone friends being able to do something I couldn't. I've been on a 2 week binge of learning about these services and "games" and installed them all on my Android to give them a try. BrightKite, Foursquare, GetGlue, Gowalla, SCVNGR, WHRRL, YELP, Google Places, and Yahoo Local to be exact, thanks to Checkin Addict .It usually takes me about 15-20 minutes to check into them all at once - if I don't have to create the place of course...

What I've learned so far is that they are quite fun. GetGlue being my favorite because you are able to check in to absolutely anything and not tailored to geolocations. And because of this, I'll mention it no further. For the rest, I couldn't stop but to constantly think about how useful this could be to small business owners. I live in a small Wisconsin town and usually end up at the same bar if it's one of those nights. There are, however, about 15 more to choose from in a 5 minute radius.

So imagine the benefits; someone is a Facebook fan or friend of one of these bars (most small businesses aren't aware there's a difference) and sees a promo for a free draft if checked in via Facebook Places. The curious patron visits the bar, whips out their Android or iPhone (the majority of the market today) and sure enough sees a Deal icon next to that bar's name in the list of places to check-in. They accept it, show it to the bartender, get their free draft (costing the bar $0.10?)  and then it shows up on their Facebook wall. The average Facebook user has 130 friends and considering the age range that includes, that user who has one of these phones and at the younger bar-going age, probably has more.

More than likely, one of those friends is at the same time wondering where they're going to head out to first, and while pondering this, they are scrolling their Facebook Feed. On which, is a mention that one of their friends just got a free beer somewhere. 'Nuff said. But let's continue. They head out, get their free drink, and meet up with the friend that is already there, leading to conversation, and more drinks being bought at this cool bar that offered them something seemingly free.

Pretty darn good way to advertise your bar I'd say...