While I travel around Europe, I am always interested to see how local businesses try to attract new customers. When I am at a bar or cafe, I usually try to take advantage of their free wifi in order to save on data usage. A new trend that I am starting to see with regards to WiFi is free WiFi in exchange of logging into Facebook. How does this work? First, you find the WiFi network associated with the place of business, select it, and connect. When you are connected to the desired network, a splash page will open up in your internet browser and will ask you to sign in to your Facebook account. Once you log on, it directs you to Check In to the local establishment and once you do that, you are free to use the WiFi. I really was impressed by this method because it helps promote the local establishment through daily visits and grows a stronger social media presence.
This past weekend I traveled to Palma de Mallorca for 3 days and I visited two places, a restaurant and a beach bar which both had this Facebook Check-In for WiFi. The first place I visited was a restaurant called Restaurant Pesquero, which according to their Facebook page has 1,599 Likes and 4,017 Visits (Check Ins). The second place that I checked in was at Anima Beach Palma which has 3,059 Likes and 10,082 Visits. Both these places have people Liking or Checking In daily, posting pictures of food, or writing reviews. By going through this mandatory process of Checking In businesses are helping their brand become stronger and more people will be able to find it through search engines.
I decided to do some searching on my own to find out how these businesses were able to achieve this. After some searching, I found that Facebook has a list of wireless routers that will have this option and they have posted an FAQ on how to achieve this. As long as you find the compatible router, the setup is very easy and customers can begin using this feature to help promote your establishment. I found this article that talked about the benefits of this router. The owner of the cafe explained that he is seeing more traffic to their Facebook page and Check-Ins from actual customers. If you are a business looking for a great way to get more social media exposure, this an innovative option.