Being a waitress, I come across a multitude of different 
individuals who love to talk about the current trends of the moment. One hot topic that I hear frequently is people’s need to “check in” through sites such as Foursquare. People in our area seem to be attracted by the allure of receiving new badges and even becoming the mayor of different establishments. With this and other geo-locating services thriving in our area I was surprised to hear that as a nation the trend is not catching on as fast.
According to an Ad Age article, new information received from Forrester Research reports that nationwide, “only 5% of U.S. online adults use say they use location apps at least once a month.” Of the 37,000 respondents, there was a 30% increase in the overall familiarity of these services, but familiarity isn’t equating to actual use.
This research does show a slight increase from the year prior (up 4%), however, one would think that the numbers would be a lot higher.
Knowing this, should your business participate in Foursquare and other services like it? Well it depends…
One problem that is apparent is that these services appear to be really popular in more urban areas, but are not as prominent in rural and suburban ones. With this in mind, I would suggest that businesses in urban areas most definitely take part in using these services. Foursquare alone has reported as to having 15 million registered users. This huge number of participants shows that the services like Foursquare could be a major help in continuing the success of your business, when used in the right way.
For businesses in rural and suburban areas I wouldn’t necessarily go as far to say that you should not bother using these services. I would just say that you would need to think of ways to create a need and want for your customers to use these services. If you aren’t displaying and making their importance known in the heads of your customers, bottom line is, they aren’t likely to use it.
Do you promote the use of Foursquare and other services like it in your business?
The Ultimate Guide to Social Media for Small Business
Filed under Internet Marketing by on Dec 17th, 2011. 
Recently I presented on the importance of remembering the people involved in social media – who you are engaging and what they want from you. When brands struggle on Facebook or Twitter it is usually because they haven’t thought through what is in it for the people they are engaging. It is easy as a brand to decide how you want to use social media, and what you want people to do. It is less easy, but more important, to consider what the people you are engaging want to do.
I decided to show this through a simple story – that of Mary (a mum) and Jack (who works in marketing for a large FMCG firm). Jack wants to sell a new breakfast cereal to Mary and thinks that social media isn’t the answer. But he has made a big mistake…
The story is simple but it is one many brands can learn from – understand the motivations, needs and interests of the people you are looking to engage. If you don’t they probably won’t want to follow or Like you.
Engaging with people in social media
View more presentations from FreshNetworks
Filed under Internet Marketing by on Sep 17th, 2011.
One of the chapters in our new eBook, Content Supply Chain, deals with building a diverse mix of content amplification channels. Paid, Owned, mass social and earned media all play a role in content channel strategy.
Today the definition of earned media has expanded to include the social assets of consumers and other stakeholders. The mass social outlets of consumers and customers are one of the most powerful media channels. These spread word-of-mouth among family, friends and followers and drive the network effect that is so important in growing content equity. Making it “easy to care” and “easy to share” is key to success when trying to tap the personal networks of your customers and brand advocates. There are tools such as SocialToaster, Gigya and JanRain that make the sharing easier, but the passion must be born out of positive experience or a wonderful and useful piece of content that just screams “share me.”
Winning real estate on the Facebook pages of customer advocates or scoring a tweet that includes a link to a brand’s content carries the implied endorsement of the sender. In addition to creating content that people want to share, it is important to include content amplification requests when engaging customer and employee advocates or ambassadors.
In order for this to succeed, brands need to have invested the time and resources to build and nurture an advocate base. Here’s a few factoids gleaned from a variety of sources that show why this matters.
- Seventy percent more likely to be seen as a reliable source of information.
- Increase conversions by 166 percent through content amplification and referrals.
- Reduce cost of overall product support by ≥ 60 percent.
- Fifty percent more likely to create content that influences a purchase.
- Eighty-three percent more likely to share information.
Advocates will, of course, do more for the brands they love than just being a content channel. Smart segmentation of this high value group is essential to maximize their roles and contributions. How are you using advocates to socialize your content?
Filed under Internet Marketing by on Aug 14th, 2011.
This past week I realized I was getting more and more noise in my Facebook stream… and it was really frustrating. For a few moments I thought about posting something like Chanty Lang-Vermaas did a few weeks ago:
“Would like to say that if you wish to connect with me I am more than happy to so, however if when I view your page and all I see is marketing and nothing else I will not be accepting your friendship request. I have been receiving far too much spam/marketing posts. I find them impersonal and boring to deal with! Therefore please be a friend, not a marketing agent.”
But I passed on that and simply posted:
“I’m unfriending people today!”
No big deal right? 50 comments, 15 messages, 2 emails 3 DM’s and a conversation at a wedding 2 days later, I was starting to wonder why some people took me unfriending people so seriously. I mean don’t get me wrong there was a lot of joking, and people being silly about it. Lisa Gerber, even posted on her wall and tagged me, saying
“YAY! I made the cut! I’m still Justin Brackett‘s friend.”
There were, however, a few people in that mix of 50 comments, 15 messages, 2 emails 3 DM’s and a conversation at a wedding 2 days later, who sent me messages saying they thought it was rude for me to “unfriend” people and that if I did not want to see their posts I should just hide them. I had 5 different people send me instructions on how to hide people in your stream. I also had people who tried to get really philosophical, how if I unfreinded people I was becoming like the people who I was unfriending! When in reality I just wanted to delete, I mean unfreind, people who are always trying to sell me something. People I’ve never met in real life-yet they are always talking to me about politics, partying but have never connected with me on a personal level.
So in the society that we now find ourselves why do people feel so passionately about their “facebook connections?” To the point they are offended that you might not be their “Facebook” friend anymore? Has the value of Facebook friendships become more important than real life relationships? I mean I would love to say that my Facebook updates are so amazing that people are waiting for the next one to hit. But I know that is not true… So what is this? What have we hit on?
Filed under Internet Marketing by on Jul 5th, 2011.
While the warmth of the kissing couple may have brought a ray of sunshine to an otherwise horrific end to Stanley Cup series, other social media offerings from the Vancouver riots demonstrate just how low people will go in order …
Filed under Internet Marketing by on Jun 18th, 2011.
