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Via Ad Age: If you’re like me you probably watched and are digesting the Facebook Places announcement. I’ve had some time to check it out and to read the documentation and what follows is a brief perspective from my point of view.

What is it?
For those of you who have checked out services such as Foursquare, Gowalla and BlockChalk, the idea, concept and implementation will be very familiar. You can create and check in to places. You can see where your friends are. You can find new places, etc. There’s not much new here from an idea perspective. Facebook is getting into the market and they are starting by giving us all of the same stuff we’re already used to and little that’s new.

Why is it important?
Because Foursquare and Gowalla combined have just a few million users. Facebook has north of half a billion. When Facebook gets into a market, they bring everyone. Literally, everyone.

So that said, let’s talk about what it offers for marketers and developers.

API
Currently the API is limited to read access only. This means we can read information about places and we can ask users via an extended permission if we can read information about the places they are checking in to. We can’t currently create places or check people in to things via the API. This is what’s called a “write” API and Mark Zuckerberg said this is still a few weeks away.

Facebook Pages
Pages are what excite me the most. Every place that gets created will also get a standard Facebook-type of page that we’re all used to. Many brands, especially in retail and tourism/hospitality, are creating Facebook Pages for each of their locations, branches, etc. Now, those pages could be the actual “places” pages that are generated from this new product. I believe that this is what will happen and companies that jump on board early will see huge benefits of moving fast. We saw this with the “Page” product launch in March 2009 and the “Like” launch in April 2010.

Facebook provided some information for “claiming” a Place Page as your own and creating a real page out of it. Currently this seems like something that is still in the works. When a “place” is created it is not technically a page yet. The owner of that Place has to come and “claim” the Page. Officially, Facebook says, “Places can only be claimed by official representatives. Verifying a Place claim requires uploading some kind of official document, such as a local business license or Better Business Bureau accreditation.”

Apps
There’s absolutely an opportunity here for new Facebook apps, or “tabs,” on your Facebook page. Initially developers could probably easily build an app that reads in a specific “location” and displays all of the people who have checked in. There’s likely much more developers can do here, especially once the write API is opened up.

That’s all I have for now, but this should get the discussion started. Also, if you didn’t get a chance to watch the presentation and would like to take a look you can view a replay here. In addition, Facebook has updated its help section to include a FAQ specifically aimed at advertisers looking for information on Places. You can find that here.

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — Fast feeders, early data shows you’re indeed cool enough for check-ins.

Quick-service chains Subway, McDonald’s, Starbucks and Burger King have the most unique check-ins on MyTown, a location-based game with more than 3 million users that provided the data. Subway has seen nearly 6.4 million check-ins from more than 500,000 users since the app launched in December.

Restaurant chains make up eight of the top 10 most unique check-ins locations, along with pharmacies CVS and Walgreens. Restaurants saw the most check-ins by category in July, with 14.2 million. Businesses came in second with 8.5 million, mostly because people like to check-in at work, said Keith Lee, co-founder and CEO of MyTown developer Booyah.

For a category that’s become somewhat synonymous with Foursquare, a location-based mobile app that saw 20- and 30-somethings checking in to bars and restaurants in cities in its early days, MyTown’s results may seem surprising. But that’s the difference between checking in to share your location on social networks such as Twitter and Facebook and checking in to win a game, Mr. Lee said.

Foursquare is often used to build a “social profile,” said Allison Mooney, VP-emerging trends at MobileBehavior. While both Foursquare and MyTown offer points for checking in, MyTown users check in to get virtual goods or rewards to advance through a Monopoly-like game.

Top 10 locations on MyTown by unique check-ins since the app launched in December 2009 Location Total Check-ins Total Unique Check-ins Subway 6,369,560 512,695 McDonald’s 4,985,559 452,395 Starbucks 4,404,052 381,821 Burger King 2,507,445 287,898 CVS/pharmacy 6,204,216 285,380 Taco Bell 2,316,292 275,689 Pizza Hut 2,261,548 262,714 Walgreens 2,466,851 258,053 Domino’s Pizza 2,181,409 244,263 Wendy’s 1,502,047 217,553 Source: MyTown

“People are very selective of where they post on other location-based apps,” said Mr. Lee. “Most people don’t want to tell Facebook their day-to-day errands or places they go.” he said, adding that people are much more willing to check in at everyday places like Best Buy or McDonald’s on MyTown because they want to accrue rewards to advance in the game. Only 15% of MyTown check-ins are shared on Facebook, he said.

“We build our social profiles through editing and leaving things out as well as sharing,” Ms. Mooney said. “I don’t think everyone is embarrassed to check in at fast-food places, but for some people and social groups, there may be a stigma.”

That’s not to say quick-service check-ins aren’t happening at all on Foursquare, or that the app is motivating users with points. Noah Glass, CEO of GoMobo, a food-ordering mobile-technology company, said he used to check in to places such as Five Guys, Subway and Starbucks when he used Foursquare, to earn points and get on that app’s leader board.

“I think people are checking in to fast-food places either because they think they are cool or are trying to score points,” he said. “Or, more and more these days, people get benefits or direct incentives for checking in.”

Booyah’s Mr. Lee said chains are topping the check-in charts by virtue of having more locations across the country. Out of MyTown’s more than 300 million check-ins, he estimates 60% occur at big-brand locations vs. 40% in sole proprietors and mom-and-pop businesses.

Foursquare, which has 2.7 million users worldwide, with 60% in the U.S., reports that the most popular venues are transit-related locations such as airports and train stations, and also parks and museums. It declined to provide more specific data.

Even with its numerous quick-service check-ins, MyTown has not worked with any restaurant brands, while Foursquare has inked deals with restaurants such as Chili’s Grill & Bar, Papa John’s, Starbucks and Pizza Hut.

Instead, MyTown has launched programs for retailer H&M; Disney, to promote the movie “Sorcerer’s Apprentice”; and package-goods brand Pantene. Pharmacies also made a good showing in MyTown’s top check-in list.

By volume including duplicate check-ins by the same user, CVS has the second-most check-ins at 6.2 million. Rite Aid and Walgreens also made that top ten.

Facebook is having a big meeting on Wednesday and AllThingsD has the internet abuzz about whether it will finally announce its long-awaited plans for location-based marketing.

Long-awaited, indeed. Ad Age first reported on the social networking site’s imminent location intentions back in early May (Facebook to Add Location This Month, Integrate Brands Later). While an exec with knowledge of the plans said it would come that month, Facebook hit the brakes on location because of concern about the privacy uproar that would most certainly follow it. It had to get this right.

In June, I interviewed Mark Zuckerberg on stage at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival, and of course asked about location. He avoided specifics but said that “we’re happy with what we’re getting” and made it clear Facebook is treading carefully because of privacy issues. “It’s a very important area, but it’s also a sensitive one,” he said at the time.

Marketers are highly interested in geo-targeting and Facebook has been talking to them about how they can integrate with location features. McDonald’s is expected to be one of the early marketers involved. Incidentally, data from another location-based social service, MyTown, indicate fast feeders are the most popular category for “check-ins.”

Ad Age will be covering the announcement tomorrow, but if you want to bone up on the implications ahead of time, check out Ian Schafer’s DigitalNext post on the impact of geo-networking on Facebook and Greg Sterling’s post on the impact for the local-advertising market.

via Ad Age

I dated a girl in college who was my soul-mate. Or so I thought at the time. She was the super-cool, guy’s girl who could slam a can of Natural Light faster than any guy on campus. She was from Detroit Rock City, where she spent summers working at her dad’s motorcycle repair shop. I was totally head over heels.

Until graduation day, when she dumped me and moved back to Detroit to work full time in the shop. Damn.

There went my dreams of Kiss playing at our wedding, teaching the kids to slam juice boxes and someday taking over the family business of motorcycle fixin’.

Devastation. Life over. All was lost.

But of course life wasn’t over. It had just changed course.

Instead of motorcycle repair, I pursued a career in advertising. Years into my career, I found myself working for an agency that was enjoying a fruitful digital AOR relationship with a large adult-beverage marketer. Aside from creative duties, we were also managing all of its online media planning and buying.

We were only 50 or so people back then, so it represented a sizable chunk of our agency’s business. But it was a happy time and we took a lot of pride in the kind of work we were doing. We loved this client and gave it the attention you’d expect from an agency that has too many eggs in one basket.

Then, on an otherwise beautiful day here in San Francisco, our beloved client — with whom we shared countless nights out together, sharing the most intimate details of our personal lives (OK, the guy tells us he secretly loves Cher!) — used the word that strikes sphincter-contracting fear into the hearts of all agency folk: “consolidation” (read: “I may be moving back to Detroit to marry my high-school sweetheart.”).

As it turns out, one of the big networks offered to manage its media account “free” for one year if the client agreed to consolidate with it. So, yep, we were fired.

There may have been some drinking involved in the next few weeks as the agency management decided how to push forward.

In retrospect, I’d have done the same thing. The media business continued to become commoditized and if the client could throw back some cash to the shareholders that year, good on ‘em.

But more good came of this consolidation than just adding to our client’s shareholder value. When we lost that account, we decided to get out of the media-planning and -buying business as we knew it.

So where did that leave us? As a “digital boutique,” only focused on the creation of creative ideas, leaving the content distribution to others? It just didn’t feel right — like we’d be a less important part of our clients’ world.

But as our hangovers dissipated and our anger and despair lifted, we realized that we had a growing expertise that would change the course of our agency’s evolution.

Being located in the Bay Area, we were born from geeks. And that geekdom had lead us to the early adoption of social media as a way of learning, communicating, sharing and participating in our community. It wasn’t long before we realized how powerful a tool this new dynamic could be for us and for clients.

And for the past few years, that’s exactly what we’ve focused on. Killer content at the center of things, distributed in large part by understanding social dynamics and the technology that enables it.

It took us about a year to regain the size we had prior to the consolidation and another year to surpass it.

It was a tough time for the agency. Change is painful — especially when it’s not your decision to make that change. But if you view change (self-initiated or not) through the lens that more times than not, it pushes you forward, you’ll be more thoughtful in calculating how you can prosper from it.

Because who knows what this agency would be doing now if we never got fired by that client. Maybe we’d be living in Detroit, fixing motorcycles and slamming cans of cheap beer.

via Milan Martin for Ad Age