Five Minute Marketing: Locations, Geotags, and Check-ins
Have you ever seen someone ‘check-in’ at a location on social media and wondered how they did it - and why? Do you want to be found when a potential customer is scrolling through Instagram? Here’s how to use location services, geotags, and check-ins on social media to increase your reach!
In short, all three of those terms refer to using a platform (mostly on social media) to indicate where you are at a particular time. On Instagram, the location appears just below the username on a particular picture or video. On Facebook, the check-in appears beside text, images, or videos, and the actual location appears below the title. Below are a few sample images so you can see exactly what I mean.
Facebook Location Sample
Instagram Location Sample
Tagging locations are a great way for your business to be found, especially on Instagram. When potential customers are browsing through, searching particular hashtags, or posting on the platform, they are more likely to be shown content that is local to where they are. For brick-and-mortar businesses the advantage is obvious, but even for online-only businesses, this strategy can be used to target customers at different locations.
You can also increase your reach on Instagram by tagging a particular location and using hashtags associated with the city, store, or region. (Even though hashtags can be used on Facebook, there has been little to no evidence that people use them to find products and services in the same way as they do on Instagram.)
Another huge advantage of location tags are that you can take control and browse the location for potential customers. Use this to your advantage and interact with people in your local area, or who have similar interests to that of your business. This is one of the easiest, but least used, ways to find customers on social media!
In short, using locations on your social media posts can mean huge growth for your business, and it only takes a few minutes to add! Make sure your location services on your phone are turned on, then…
On Facebook, simply use the ‘check-in’ button to add a location.
On Instagram, when creating a post, simply tap ‘Add location’ on the last screen and search for your desired geotag.
On Instagram stories, tap on the sticker in the upper right corner and choose the ‘Location’ button, then search for the desired place.
It’s as easy as that! Now go out there and get more customers, local or otherwise!
