HOW TO: Claim Your Nonprofit’s Spot Page on Gowalla

[tweetmeme] Gowalla may not get the online buzz that Foursquare does, but where I live it’s more popular than Foursquare. Similar to Myspace and Facebook in 2007 and 2008, there’s seemingly a geographic difference between Foursquare and Gowalla users. In large urban areas Fousquare dominates, but in smaller towns across America (and the globe) there’s a growing number of Gowalla users.

That said, if your nonprofit is location-based the number of users doesn’t matter much. Whether the community has 10 million users or one million, a good social media manager must claim and take command of their Spot, Venue and Places Pages on location-based communities like Foursquare, Gowalla, Facebook Places, Google Places and Loopt. To claim your Spot Page on Gowalla, go to gowalla.com/business and search for your nonprofit:

Once found, if you see a green “Do you run this place? Claim it now” message on the right, then that means your Spot has yet to be claimed:

Next, of course, click to claim your Spot Page and complete the information fields. A phone is required. Gowalla will confirm your claim request by calling you will a Pin #:

Once you claim your Spot Page, you can then edit your Spot’s contact and location details and add a website link, preferably your nonprofit’s mobile website since most Gowalla users will be viewing your Spot on their smartphone. Even better, and unique from Foursquare and other location-based communities, you can create message that pops-ups when Gowalla users check-in to your Spot and purchase a Custom Passport Stamp:

Finally, if you do a search on Gowalla and your nonprofit does not appear, then you can create a new Spot Page for your nonprofit on their mobile website and then follow the steps outlined above to take possession of it.

Related Links:
Webinar: How Nonprofits Can Successfully Utilize Mobile Social Networking Tools and Location-Based Communities
@NonprofitOrgs on Gowalla
Mobile Technology for Nonprofit Organizations LinkedIn Group