Facebook has announced to launch much anticipated location based status updates in coming weeks, much similar to twitter who launched their location feature two months ago. Now fb users are also able to track the current location of their friends.This is going to be a serious potential threat to Foursquare and Gowalla as this location feature was available with them only.
Facebook is one of the largest social networking site and having the feature of adding a location map in your status update has many advantages for marketers. This point is quick and fast realized by McDonalds which is going to be the very first user of this service. McDonald is using the services of digital agency Tribal DDB, Chicago to build an app with Facebook which would allow users to check in at one of its restaurants and have a featured product appear in the post, such as an Angus Quarter Pounder, say executives close to the deal.
The Biggest disadvantage of this Feature may be that it may again looked down by normal users as a breach of privacy. Suppose you make an excuse of sickness to your boss for not attending the office one day, and in the noon you update your status in a restaurant inviting one or more friends for lunch, then your boss can catch you red handed by your Facebook’s status update.
As far as monetizing of the features is concerned Facebook enjoys an image of not charging developers to use its platform but in this case it is estimated that this time McDonald might have been charged as a part of negotiations of a bigger media buy.
Kevin Colleran, director-national sales at Facebook says “We never launch a functionality with the intent of monetizing it,” he said. “The best case in point would be [advertisers] are frustrated. We will not allow them to buy an ad on mobile.”
Further he also adds that although they have largest number of mobile application users but they are not going to charge a single penny from them, revenue will be generated from the advertisements on Facebook.com only.
The larger number of user provides it an winning edge over the other social media platforms. A marketer’s advertisement on Facebook with geolocation capabilities will have a bigger exposure creating a vast and deeper impact, a Real value of Money.
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