From a user standpoint, there will be security issues which is not unusual when Facebook makes a change. Also, there are the typical privacy issues that are associated with using a location based service. Wayne Sutton has a great post up already with how to update your privacy settings on Facebook that you should check out.

What I’m most interested in is what this move by Facebook means for location based applications. By adding it to a network that already boasts 500 million users, it is bound to become more mainstream. For business, this means that more people visiting your business and sharing it on Facebook, and therefore something that can no longer be ignored.

This is something that I plan to follow, so I can provide my thoughts on how businesses can utilize Places as another marketing tool. I also will track what this move means to Foursquare, Gowalla, Yelp and Booyah users since many businesses already have these programs in place. The next few months in location based services should be fun.

What do you think of the announcement? Will Facebook come out on top?

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With this change you might also have realised that noticed some other changes. For example when you take a look at the area where it used to have the images of your ‘Fan’s’ it now says  ‘xxx People like This’. One of the impacts of the change is that you can no longer click on the link of those photos and scroll through them and add one of the fans of your Page to become an admin of your Facebook Page.

So here is how you now add Fan’s to your Facebook Page.

1. Select the “Edit Page” option when you are viewing the Page you currently administer (under your image on the top left of your Facebook Page

2. On the right hand side you will see a link for ‘Admins’ and click “Add.”

3. You will be able to see all your friends and can then add people from your Friend List that you would like to be an Admin of your Facebook Page. If the  person you wish to invite to be an administrator of your Page is not presently a member of Facebook, you can invite them to so  by typing their email address in the “Add Admins via Email” field. They can then register on Facebook and will need to accept the invitation to become an admin as they join Facebook.

4. Click the “Add Admins” button.

The Facebook Friends you select will be able to help you manage your Page.

This means that any adminstrator of your Facebook Page must now also be connected to you as a Friend.

What other changes have you noticed as a result of this change to Facebook Pages this week?

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1.    Hellotxt.com – I use this micro-blogging aggregator to instantly update my status on virtually all of my social networks at one time. While there are other great tools for this you can investigate, this is the one I use. (You might Google “microblogging aggregator.”)

2.    SocialOomph.com and Hootsuite.com – These nifty services can
do a whole bunch of things including:

• Acting as a microblogging aggregator
• Sending out an automated tweet when someone follows you, and

  auto-following them back

• Forwarding you any direct messages sent to you via Twitter
• Tracking when someone uses your hashtag
• Having your preset tweets to go out at certain times and days. This is especially handy if you’re going out of town, but good any time to keep your “tweet stream” fresh.

3.    Utterli.com – I use this free service to create audio podcasts (with transcripts even), and have them post automatically to my Website and blog. All you need is a phone and you’re good to go.

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According to Nielsen, users of the social networking website Facebook spent over 82% more time on Facebook in 2009 than they did in 2008 Furthermore, the average amount of time spent on Facebook by each user is six hours per month.

This article reviews the top five Facebook Applications.

Facebook Desktop Utility – Chit Chat for Facebook

The Facebook Messenger, Chit Chat for Facebook, makes it possible to use Facebook Chat from your desktop. As a result, you can access Facebook Chat much like you would AIM or Windows Live Messenger (MSN) on your computer.

This Facebook application provides a variety of benefits over using Facebook Chat from your web-browser. Chit Chat for Facebook allows you to save your chat history, receive sign in alerts and you can even format your instant messages.

Facebook Game – Games By Mesmo.TV

Despite there being a lot of seriously bad games released as Facebook Applications, Mesmo have actually managed to create a Facebook Game that is genuinely fun and doesn’t just try to get you to send a lot of invite spam.

The Facebook Applications is broadly titled “Games” revealing to new users that isn’t actually a single game but compendium of Games. My favorite games on this Facebook Application were Crazy Tax, Space Invaders and Pacman.

Crazy Tax is a game whereby you race a taxi cab for extra time earning points, however there is traffic in the road that acting as moving obstacles that you have to both steer around and jump over in order to get to the next level.

Pacman is essentially very similar to the classic game, although, it’s been spiced up a little bit in this Facebook application presumably to avoid copyright issues – for example, the maps are different and so are the ghosts.

Facebook Game Space invaders, is pretty similar to the classic game, essentially you have a space craft that you use to shoot alien spacecraft. There are two basic differences between this Facebook application and the original. Firstly, the alien spacecraft genuinely look awesome on this Facebook application. Secondly, if you shoot the alien mother space craft that flies past every now and again you can collect a passage gives your spacecraft special powers.

Whilst I’ve only mentioned three games, Mesmo actually provides 72, yes – seventy one Facebook games on its Facebook Application “Games.”

Space Invaders on Mesmo’s “Games” Facebook Application

Facebook Utility – Webmessage- free SMS

Let’s set the scene. You are out of credit but you must urgently reply to your girlfriend’s text message.

Thankfully, and conveniently, from your Facebook account you can now send free SMS – worldwide. I particularly, liked the phone book that the application provides.

One criticism I have of this Facebook Application is that I didn’t like the use of the use of free SMS incentives to get people to sign up to websites that were irrelevant to the application.

Facebook Game – Word Challenge

Word Challenge is a game whereby you make as many words as possible out of the letters provided. To be honest despite being very engaging, it really tested me. If you have a spare few minutes it may be worth checking out this Facebook Application. The artwork in this Facebook application is tip top! In your Word Challenges, don’t forget your plurals!

Facebook Game – Sport Citizen

If you’re one of those people that like Sports trivia then you’re going to love Sport Citizen.

The Facebook Game, Sport Citizen tests you knowledge on a wide range of sporting subject matter – from entire categories to selected teams. Whilst Sport Citizen had questions for Football, Cricket, Rugby, NHL, Formula 1 and the Olympics there were plenty of other sports for which Sport Citizen had questions.

TwitCause, the brainchild of Experience Project, is a concept that builds on the idea that people are more willing to spread the word about good causes. You begin by following TwitCause on Twitter, and each Thursday they choose a new cause to tweet about. The included link sends you to a page where you can donate to the cause via PayPal, or you can choose to help by simply pressing the Retweet button and educating your followers.

Additionally, people can nominate the charities that they think should be supported by TwitCause, which then get voted on to be next up. TwitCause is hoping to get more businesses and brands involved by sponsoring matching donations, or having people tweet in order to get the brands to make donations.

In a recent guest post on Beth Kanter’s blog, Julio Vasconcellos, who manages TwitCause for Experience Project, wrote that it’s difficult to fundraise via individual donations. People are less likely to open up their wallets than they are to help spread a message to the people in their network.

In my opinion, it’s the latter concept that is most sustainable, and recently it’s looked like corporations and brands are beginning to take that stance as well. In my own recent experience with Home Depot, I had initially asked if they’d be interested in matching whatever I raised for the New Orleans rebuilding organization LowerNine.org. They generously surprised me by coming back with an offer of a $10,000 donation of gift cards from their Home Depot Foundation, arming the organization with the tools and supplies they needed most to get their work done.

You’ll find Pepsi following suit with their Refresh Everything contest, while Chase Bank just wrapped up a contest where people voted on which charitable organizations they wanted to win cash. Perhaps this is the next phase in the evolution of TwitCause?

Have you had an experience with TwitCause or using Twitter as a tool for raising awareness? I’m interested to hear about it in the comments.

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