Marketing for the Holidays!
Posted by admin
Well, it's officially here. It's November 1st and that means the Holidays are just around the corner. This is the time of year that most business ramp up their marketing efforts and consumers are inundated with specials, coupons, and promos from every which way. So how can you move above the noise and make sure that your customers eyes are seeing your efforts?
Two ways, the first of which is by using Social Media. Your brands Facebook and Twitter pages work as a direct line to your audience. Use that community that you've grown over time and tap into them. Run promotions that require the audience to get involved, and this will spread among their friends and followers, garnering you more eyes on your campaign. Your consumer base is more likely to enter contests around this time of year because it's been hardwired into our society to think of giving and gifts, so design your contest to look the part.
Check back next week for part 2, where we will discuss email marketing!
Social Media to Ease the Commuter Blues
Posted by admin
Ahh the morning commute. Always the best way to start your work day isn't it? If you live in one of the top 10 traffic cities chances are you need quite the head start just to make it to work on time. Well, there is a new social network built with you in mind. It's called Waze and it currently has a network of 7 million drivers across the globe.
You need a smartphone to get started, but once you download the app you are all set to go. The social navigation app gets smarter with each new driver who passively or actively reports data from the road in real time. Waze has evolved to become an essential everyday utility for millions of drivers, CEO Naom Bardin says. But can Waze replace the traffic report as we know it? Bardin says yes — eventually. “It will take a while to replace … but what we’re providing is much more granular.”
The Evolution of the Check-In
Posted by Ryan Johnson
Location-based services have been popping up everywhere over the last few years. And while it all started as a way to find your friends, it has evolved into much, much more than that.
When Twitter first arrived on the scene, the status box was empty, with a grayed out question asking, "What are you doing?". Now, we have services like Gowalla and Foursquare asking, "Where are you?" and "Who are you with?" While GetGlue and ShopKick ask "What are you watching/reading?" or "What are you buying?"
While some might say that the age of overshare is upon us, I feel that this is a perfect way for brands to connect with their consumers. I don't necessarily mean checking in to everything we do, but a more subtle approach where programs and services integrate with one another, and then give feedback to the company. Allowing them to build a better product, or deliver a better service. Or even making new product recommendations based on the way a consumer interacts with their service.
I might be getting ahead of myself, since location-based tech has yet to be adopted by the masses. But if/when it does, look for a more integrated relationship between consumer and brand.
Foursquare Gets Down To Business
Posted by Michael Herman
I've been convinced over the last few months that location based services like Foursquare are going to be huge this year. Foursquare's latest move may be the just the catalyst needed for this technology to catch fire.
Foursquare is now making itself much more business friendly by offering a suite of tools for business owners to use in conjunction with the service.
Now every unclaimed business venue has a link asking, “Are you the manager of this business?” The link takes managers to a page asking them for proof that they are indeed the manager so that Foursquare’s sales team can call them to set them up with tools for claiming their venue and managing offers. There is also a new Businesses page explaining the different tools available to local merchants.
Businesses who claim their venues on Foursquare get a dashboard with realtime stats on number of check-ins, times of day people check in, most recent visitors, and most frequent visitors. They can also manage the offers and badges people get when they check in. These include Mayor specials, specials for people who check in a certain number of times, or wildcard specials which can be customized. A special can be anything from a free drink to 20 percent off a purchase.
This is pretty exciting stuff. I can imagine this being very popular with businesses. The marketing potential of this technology is impossible to calculate at this point because it's just too new. Mobile technology in all its forms is getting more popular by the second largely due to the iPhone. Local businesses need a way to cash-in on this technology and integrate their brands with it. Foursquare is undoubtedly the first of what will be many companies developing ways to do that.
Businesses should take advantage of this and give it a try. There's no downside to registering your venue on Foursquare and creating a couple of promotions.
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