By Mikal E. Belicove|For Entrepreneur magazine|October 1, 2010

After months of speculation, Facebook made it official: It’s in the location game. The company released its retort to Foursquare in August, a location-based check-in tool called Facebook Places that enables customers to see a map on their iPhone or other mobile device that includes your business (the Place) and a list of their Facebook friends who are currently or recently checked in there.

If you haven’t claimed your Facebook Place yet, it’s critical that you do so now. It’s a lot like claim-jumping in the Old West. By staking your Place, you and only you can control its physical address, hours, contact info, profile image and administrators.

Here’s how:

• The first thing you must do as an owner, manager or representative of your business is to verify that you are who you say you are. Find the Place on Facebook that you want to claim for your business and then click the link “Is this your business?”
• Complete the verification procedure to “claim” your Place. After completing some additional steps, you can access the application on your iPhone or mobile device using the new…

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