Facebook has just introduced its new feature – the Facebook Places. It is one of the best efforts from Facebook to get their rapidly expanding members linked to the real world. According to the site’s blog, Facebook is set to give answers to "Where", as it had done for "Who" and "What" all these years.

Facebook Places like other location sharing services enables users to let their friends know where they are by using their mobile phone to "check in" to a location. The features of Facebook Places are such that it stands out prominently from other location sharing services such as Yelp and Foursquare.

Features of Facebook Places

• Friends tagging ability. Now, its possible to tag friends who are with you at your location just like videos or photos.

• Ability to integrate with various location apps such as Yelp and Foursquare. These two as well as Gowalla and Booyah announced at the presentation, that they will incorporate Facebook Places into their applications.

• The "People Here Now" section. This feature gives users the opportunity to connect with friends at the same location and at the same time. In addition, they can connect with people who they may not know, but probably have the same interests as theirs.

• User-friendly privacy settings. Facebook Place’s default privacy setting just enables friends to see the location of a user. From that point, it is easier for users to enable everybody to view location updates for just some friends.

• Feature that enables information sharing about a place. With this feature, reviews become easily accessible, including information and pictures about their location from those who visited initially.

• Although Facebook Places bring a couple of great innovations to the table, the biggest contribution it has made is most likely to introduce location sharing to the mainstream. It’s true that location sharing popularity has spread like wildfire over the previous year. Booyah and Foursquare membership is miniscule when compared with Facebook’s half a billion active users. As Facebook Places introduces location sharing, it opens up lots of new business opportunities for the business owners.

Significance of Facebook Places to Your Business Plans

• Send coupons to Facebook users as part of your business. In essence, you can send coupons, tips or promotions to people when they check into your business.

• Claim your business. Those who officially represent a business can claim it, which transforms the place to a Facebook Page. You can start posting updates from there to those who are interested in the page, get your business info updated and accomplish other things.

• Interaction promotion: Users are encouraged to interact with your business Facebook Places page as you offer incentives for stuffs such as feedback, review and others.

• Obtain real-time stats concerning your customers. With Facebook Places, you have a powerful tool to learn more about those that check into your business.

• Loyalty is encouraged. For a long time now, businesses have been employing the reward system of sites like Foursquare to offer discounts to frequently visiting users. Although Facebook Places does not feature a gaming tool like Foursquare, you need to offer promotions to those that visit frequently.