9 Killer Tips for Location-Based Marketing. Social networking has finally become something valuable for brick-and-mortar businesses.
Smartphones and location-based social networks allow users to interact, share, meet up, and recommend places based on their physical coordinates. This real-world connection to social media can mean more foot traffic and profits for business owners. So-called "lo-so" networks like Foursquare, Loopt, and Gowalla enable any business with a physical location to not only communicate with customers online, but actually get more of them to walk in the door — and that's exciting. The question any brick-and-mortar business owner should be asking him or herself is no longer "Should I use lo-so networks? " It's "How do I do it? " 1. First of all, you need to understand how the technology works.
Item one on your to-do list should be to become familiar with the prevailing platforms. 2. Before you can optimize your business for lo-social networking, you need to step back and determine what you want to accomplish. Twitter and Facebook follow Foursquare – 2010 is the year of location-based social media tools. It is a truth universally acknowledged that everybody makes predictions at the end of a year about ‘the big thing for next year’.
Sometimes they’re right and sometimes they’re wrong. And sometimes you only really start to notice trends and change when you are in them. In social media it is becoming clearer and clearer that the big thing for 2010 is location-based tools. We’ve posted before about how businesses can use Foursquare and only yesterday about Fourwhere, the Foursquare and Google Maps mashup. Foursquare is a great tool that lets you share where you are and add tips and reviews of cafes, shops, restaurants, bars, theatres. Why are location-based social media tools growing? Location based social media tools are possible because more and more people own mobile phones that are GPS enabled.
There are many instances where location can add significant value to an online community: What’s happening and what’s coming. 9 Killer Tips for Location-Based Marketing. 6 Tips for Getting the Most out of Foursquare. Shane Snow is a technology journalist in New York City.
Follow him on Twitter at @shanesnow. The Interwebs are buzzing, and by now you've probably heard about a social network called Foursquare that's apparently a big deal. So you cracked open your smartphone (or at least, gingerly removed it from its dock) and downloaded the Foursquare app. After signing up, you scrolled through the tabs and figured out how to “check in” at whatever restaurant, bar, store, or train station you happened to be at. And then you said, “Now what?” Just like Twitter, at first glance Foursquare may seem a bit inert. 1. Using Foursquare by yourself is like playing tennis alone. The caveat: don't add people you aren't really friends with.
Unlike Facebook and other social networks, friend count doesn't show up as a profile stat. However, when you check into a location, you'll be able to see who else is there, which could be an opportunity to meet like-minded people and make new friends in real life! 2. 3. 4. 5.