'Net Features : foursquare

Run a Special on Foursquare, Gain Visibility

Allison Howen — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 20:35:00 GMT

If you are a merchant who uses Foursquare to connect with your customers, you should consider running a special tomorrow in order to receive additional visibility from the location-based social network.

Foursquare has dubbed April 16th “4sqDay” and encourages people to celebrate by getting together, throwing parties and checking-in to their favorite local restaurants, bars and stores.

According to a blog post from the social network, “Offering a special for 4sqDay is a great way to take part of the celebration and get new customers checking in and spreading the word about you.”

This is because Foursquare will automatically feature any business that offers a special in its search results. This can help businesses not only increase their visibility, but also their foot traffic.

In fact, the social network even provides participating businesses with a sign that they can print out and put in their windows to publicize their promotions. However, in addition to publicizing the promotion in-stores, businesses should also consider sharing their Foursquare promotion with their Facebook and Twitter followers in order to reach a larger audience.

Multichannel Retailing in Focus

Administrator — Sat, 08 Dec 2012 19:47:00 GMT

Christmas and other gift-giving winter holidays are getting closer and this year is expected to see more online shopping than ever before. Will this holiday shopping season be a sign of things to come – culminating in the end of the humble Main Street? As online technology and product delivery mechanisms improve, will we become a nation that only shop via screens, staying in and waiting for our goods to be delivered?

The way we research and buy online may be changing significantly, but Main Street USA can still play a major part in this development. Technology will ultimately enhance and rejuvenate brick-and-mortar shopping, creating a more interactive and enhanced shopping experience.

Econsultancy’s Multichannel Retail Survey claims just 14 percent of people surveyed believe that retailers do not need to operate across the various channels. What retailers and brands need to do is promote their technology and channels effectively, or else risk losing profits to those who are.

The Multichannel Main Street

Technology gives brick-and-mortar retailers the chance to extend their sales reach beyond their store. As consumers look for the easiest and cheapest shopping solutions, retailers need to utilize all their creative powers of engagement to fend off the competition and get holiday shoppers into their stores and onto their e-commerce and m-commerce sites.

By distributing products effectively, and making them more accessible in e-commerce channels, retailers can make the shopping experience simple and, if executed properly, fun.

However, merely making this technology available is no longer good enough. Marketers need to become adept at making channel-specific offers and promoting them successfully, improving channel adoption by word of mouth.

They also need to educate the consumer in ‘how’ to engage with them across the channels, making sure that any problems that could lead to abandoned transactions are resolved. This work needs to be analysed and tied in with effective contact and CRM mechanisms.

The idea of having someone ‘in-house’ to deal specifically with content and how best to market and promote it across all channels is a good start, as retailers that can consistently personalise content to consumers via different methods will generate incremental sales.

M-Commerce

Mobile's influence on shopping is well-documented, but according to research from the IAB, only 40 percent of major brands have an optimized mobile website, which during the holidays can make all the difference when people are shopping on the go.

Websites that aren’t compatible with Smartphones frustrate potential customers, take longer to load and ultimately drive people elsewhere. If retailers don’t have an m-commerce site, they should still embrace the power of mobile with an optimized information page detailing nearby stores, holiday hours, etc. Having a presence on social media also generates free advertising each time a customer shares a retailer’s update. Both of these can increase traffic both online and in-store.

Fashion retailer Pretty Green, set up by singer Liam Gallagher, is embracing mobile and has adopted Mobile Money Networks’ (MMN) Simple Tap payment method to make customers’ lives easier. Once registered, customers can buy items securely and have them delivered to their home address with just one simple screen tap.

Pretty Green incorporated this concept after its mobile traffic rose almost 200 percent in less than a year. As MMN’s mobile checkout is much easier than using an e-commerce checkout on a mobile, customers are less likely to abandon the transaction halfway through.

SoLoMo

The fact that a fictitious meerkat has more than 50,000 Twitter followers shows that social media can be a powerful influencing tool. Many stores are beginning to recognize the combined power of social, local and mobile (SoLoMo), offering free in-store Wi-Fi so that customers can ‘check in’, read product reviews, compare prices, find offers and share pictures before making a purchase.

Inviting customer interaction generates a buzz around the merchandise and, if combined with mobile and local targeting, should extend the longevity of brick-and-mortar stores. Retailers should utilize social media popularity as a clever way to reach smartphone users with offers and vouchers, particularly during the holiday season when people are looking for good deals.

According to TradeDoubler, 32 percent of smartphone owners search for coupons each month, so retailers can improve the shopper experience by targeting customers with deals before they look elsewhere.

Vouchercloud and Foursquare use geo-technology to discover a customer’s location and target them with specific offers from local retailers, which according to TradeDoubler, almost 60 percent of people are happy to receive. If customers are given an incentive, such as discounts or promotions, when they ‘check in’ to a store on their mobile, store traffic increases and retailers can see linkage from an online to offline conversion.

Today’s retailers have access to huge amounts of customer data, but very few make the most of it. Businesses that engage with their customers, offering targeted discounts based on previous purchases, recent tweets and current location, are destined to succeed. Retailers who are yet to embrace SoLoMo and are doing nothing to enhance the customer journey are likely to lose sales to their mobile-savvy competitors.

Interactive Stores

Although holiday shopping is often regarded as a national pastime, the convenience of online does threaten brick-and-mortars and retailers need to do more to convince customers to leave their devices and make the journey into their stores.

Marks and Spencer is one retailer that’s using the latest technology to provide an interactive in-store experience. High-definition screens advertise the latest trends, sales assistants use iPads and creative use of data feeds provide personalized product recommendation.

The new Burberry store on Regent Street in London integrates digital technology to create an exciting customer experience. Here too iPads are aplenty and, when approached with an item, the store mirrors transform to show the piece on the catwalk.

Although some features in these interactive stores are more for show, others have genuine practical uses. Interactive mirrors show customers how they look in several different garments and suggest matching items and accessories to complete the outfit.

By combining technology with practicality, retailers will ensure that customers have a reason to come into the store, rather than ordering everything online from the comfort of their sofa.

Online In-Store

Of course, busy people often do order online for convenience, but as we are all out and about, home delivery can be inconvenient. Providing a click-and-collect service lets customers pick up items ordered online from their local store. According to Econsultancy’s report How the Internet can save the High Street, 80 percent of people surveyed had reserved items online to collect in store, showing its popularity. Click and collect also gets e-shoppers into stores where they may be tempted by other last-minute gifts, driving incremental sales.

Several retailers have reversed this concept and created an Internet café-***-store. House of Fraser.com stores provide free coffee and access to their online inventory. Customers cannot take any products home, but clothes can be tried on and purchased online in-store and delivered the following day to the customer’s home or local store.

In India, Asian Paints use their Colour Store, not to sell, but to educate their customers. Visitors to the store can take part in colour workshops, create their own paint shade combinations and receive decorating advice from in-store staff, before purchasing their chosen paint online.

Apart from offering customers useful skills and a convenient way to shop, these ‘stores’ help to enhance brand reputation and customer feeling by promoting themselves as a company that doesn’t just focus on sales, but is dedicated to providing an excellent customer experience. They also provide consumers with the convenience of delivery on-demand, rather than the unhappy task of having to lug bags around all day.

The Future of Multichannel Retailing

As the Internet continues to dominate our lives and smartphone popularity increases, the simple Main Street retailer needs to move with the times and investigate additional channels to boost sales and maintain the customer experience.

When choosing which channels to target, retailers should consider the long-term advantages and retail benefits of each one. Retailers can now find out not just who their customers are, but also where they are and how to engage with them. All this data that customers are willingly providing should be exploited to get their attention.

Customers expect a good shopping experience in-store and online, so with multichannel retail the connections need to be smooth and consistent. According to Hitachi Consulting UK, more than 80 percent of customers will leave a store if the product they want is out of stock, especially in the run up to Christmas, so it is essential that store products are available online so that the sale can still be made even if the customer cannot take the item home that day.

Amazon and Tesco remain two of the few retailers that have an integrated desktop and mobile commerce site. Products added to the customer’s basket on a laptop will also appear in their basket on a smartphone, making it easy for people to continue their shopping on the move.

The main thing that retailers need to remember is that customers expect a good overall experience. Customer service now needs to extend from having polite sales assistants, to responding quickly to a tweet and providing a simple online checkout process. By keeping this in mind, retailers will be able to seamlessly adopt, not just multichannel retailing, but omnichannel retailing.

About the Author: Rob Durkin: A natural entrepreneur, Rob’s first foray into Internet marketing was when he set up a DVD e-commerce site at the age of 16. His success and interest in this field led to his decision to read Computer Science at Girton College, Cambridge where he met fellow student and entrepreneur Chris Conn. Upon graduating they formed a partnership and began working with e-commerce and data extraction. After teaming up with Lee Brignell-Cash their business focus shifted more toward marketing and thus FusePump, of which Rob is the CEO, was created in 2009. FusePump provides simple and profitable marketing technology solutions for e-commerce retailers. Its e-commerce marketing platform allows websites to effectively promote their products in all the major online channels (affiliate, comparison shopping, marketplaces, search, display etc.) with little or no technical effort, improving the consumer buying experience and driving increased sales.

SoLoMo: Location-Based Mobile Marketing For Non-Brick-and-Mortar Businesses

Administrator — Mon, 05 Nov 2012 19:30:00 GMT

How do you ask your customers to “check-in” or use a geo-social app when they can’t walk into your building?

It can be a challenge for any business or brand without a store or physical location to create location-based campaigns, but the ideas and creative examples below can get you started, including:

• Marketing businesses with no brick-and-mortar location

• Expanding the definition of a location

• Choosing the appropriate medium

• Optimizing location-based marketing with creativity, motivation and value

Introducing SoLoMo

Does anyone even remember the first smartphones now? It’s been about a decade since they started coming out – with those touch screens and stylus pens and the first Blackberries for email in 2002.

Our mobile devices have come a long way in 10 years, and a lot more of us are using them. The latest Pew research report shows that 67 percent of U.S. adults aged 18-24 have a phone with an advanced operating system. Even including every age group, the number is still 46 percent. Also notable, is a Pew study stating that 83 percent of Americans have a cell phone. That’s more than 250 million Americans with a mobile device of some kind, smart or otherwise.

Mobile is obviously a huge, and still growing, market; more people have access to a mobile device than to the Internet and those people are doing a lot more on their mobile devices than they used to. For instance, Marin Software reported that sales from mobile devices during the 2011 holiday season doubled to 11 percent versus December 2010.

With mobile usage likely to pass desktop use by 2013, how can marketers take advantage of everyone carrying their online world in their pockets? What can you do with all of these consumers carrying around cellphones and smartphones, doing their emailing, talking, texting, browsing, playing, shopping and more?

You can connect with consumers wherever they are. Mobile devices are key to connecting a campaign to a consumer’s physical location. That’s why we have buzzwords like SoLoMo or LoSoMo – successful marketing now makes things Social, Local, and Mobile. While location-based mobile marketing isn’t ubiquitous for mobile users, it’s a growing trend you can – and should – be utilizing. Location-based mobile marketing connects the consumer to your campaign because it’s real-time, personal and engaging. It’s your brand wherever they are.

Businesses with No Brick-and-Mortar Location

You don’t walk into Coca-Cola’s lobby to buy a Coke. Does that mean brands like Coca-Cola have to miss out on location-based mobile marketing? How do you take advantage of location-based mobile marketing when your brand doesn’t have a physical location? There are a few key ideas to keep in mind when creating a location-based mobile campaign for a brand without a physical location. This article will share some examples of how it’s already being done and ideas to continue innovating location-based mobile marketing.

Before we get into some examples, I want you to rethink your definition of “location-based” marketing. It’s easy to get stuck on the idea that location equals Foursquare, when in reality there are a lot of ways to approach location-based mobile. There are platforms that allow you to set up a series of location-based challenges or a scavenger hunt for your consumer, there are campaigns using SMS to deliver relevant location information, and there are QR codes that are most relevant when you are physically standing in front of that code. With a mobile campaign, you can also think of your consumer as the location. Your mobile marketing campaign can designate the “location” as wherever the consumer is using the product, engaging with the campaign, and using their mobile device.

Examples

--Take Heineken’s campaign with the StarPlayer mobile game. The app let fans interact in real-time during the Champions League soccer games by asking questions and predicting outcomes throughout the actual game. In this scenario, the games had a location, but not every viewer could be there. Instead, Heineken made the location wherever the consumer was watching the game. Using mobile, they brought a location-based experience to every consumer.

--The Red Cross operates blood drives at all kinds of locations, many of them mobile and temporary. Working with Foursquare, the Red Cross introduced the “Blood Donor Badge” which can be unlocked from any blood drive, at any location. The user simply needs to check in at their location, and then give a shout-out using the words “Red Cross” “blood” and “donate.”

Like in these examples, it’s important to create continuity between a consumer’s physical location and the mobile experience with your brand.

Expanding the Definition of Location

There’s a lot of room to be creative when you don’t have a door people can walk through. Let’s look at three ways you can create your own location.

Attend events and conferences. Obviously a booth at a conference has a limited lifespan, but use that to your advantage. It becomes an exclusive opportunity, and you can make your booth more engaging by using it as the location-hub of your campaign. Animal Planet promoted their “Finding Bigfoot” special with a booth at New York Comic Con 2011. When visitors found Bigfoot at the booth, they were encouraged to tweet a photo of themselves with it to be entered in a contest. It didn’t use geolocation technology, but users had to visit the booth to tweet the photo. Similarly, 2010 Comic Con attendees who checked in on Foursquare unlocked a special Green Lantern badge and were given a tip to visit a particular booth, where they received a Green Lantern replica ring – an exclusive product for checking in on mobile and visiting a particular booth.

Another way to create a location for your brand is to associate yourself with other places, products or ideas. Consumers can’t actually walk into the History Channel. I mean, you could just walk into their headquarters, but security probably wouldn’t let you get far. However, History Channel’s consumers can “check-in to history” by checking-in at various historical locations around the US and the UK. The History Channel is associating their brand with relevant locations and giving their consumers additional value – limited edition Foursquare badges and history facts about the places they’re visiting in the Foursquare tips.

Another company that approached this challenge creatively is Beck’s beer. They created a mobile game app to help gauge whether you’re sober enough to drive. If you fail the game, the app uses GPS to send a taxi right to you. Beck’s doesn’t have one location. They’re using the consumer’s location and associating their brand with responsible drinking.

Brands can also get creative and partner with other venues. Say your product is served at a particular restaurant chain. Send out an SMS coupon and pick three restaurant locations every week where people can redeem it. Partner with the restaurants so consumers checking-in there receive a coupon for your product. Rovio and Barnes & Noble created a partnership like this where both brands benefitted. Angry Birds doesn’t have a physical venue, but if you played it in a Barnes & Noble store during the campaign you could access special features.

The third way to create a location is using temporary or advertising space as your location. Tesco’s Home Plus grocery store chain is a great example. In South Korea, Tesco was number two in the market and needed to expand without adding stores. The solution was creating virtual stores in real places their consumers were already spending time – subway stations. These graphics look like real supermarket aisles with whole walls, shelves and products. While waiting for trains, consumers could use their mobile phones to scan the QR codes next to each product. Those products were added to their “shopping cart,” packed up, and then delivered to their homes. After more than 55,000 successful transactions in South Korea, Tesco launched a similar model in the departure lounge of Gatwick Airport in the UK, hoping to achieve similar success among people waiting for a flight, who can order a grocery delivery for their return from travel.

Another great example of a temporary space is Unilever Turkey and Cornetto’s takeover of the outside of a building with a simple projector system. Using SMS, anyone could move images around the wall to participate in the larger-than-life game, and win free ice cream.

Not every campaign requires geo-location technology, and these campaigns demonstrate the creativity and continuity it’s possible to create between a consumer’s mobile device and a physical location.

Choosing the Appropriate Medium

When creating a campaign, it’s easy to get caught up in the creative aspect and forget some of the basic rules. I think it’s worth mentioning to ensure you don’t create a great campaign that falls flat because the technology isn’t reaching your audience. Let’s look at a few ways that applies to mobile marketing.

Text-marketing company Mobile Commons helped the California Department of Public Health organize a database of flu vaccination clinics. People could text in their location to receive a text back locating the nearest clinic. During the H1N1 crisis, thousands of people used the service.

Obviously the goal here was to give as many people as possible location-specific information. A mobile app would only have reached consumers with smartphones. SMS was the best option because it was accessible to anyone with a mobile device. It’s also a better choice for an industry like public health, because once you have a customer’s mobile number you can establish a relationship. The California Department of Health can text that same person again next year with a flu shot reminder.

On the other hand, when marketing a new version of Angry Birds, the audience is more specific. UK agency Stupid created illustrated and functional QR code for airports and subway cars – both locations where you know consumers have time to kill. Take advantage of your consumer’s location and create a mobile opportunity – this code takes them directly to the download for a new game they can start playing while they wait for their flight or train.

Optimizing Location-Based Marketing

Location-based mobile does present challenges, and there are many campaigns out there failing to really engage the consumer in a location-based experience. Let’s look at a few things to keep in mind when optimizing a location-based mobile marketing campaign.

Creativity

Just putting a QR code on your product or billboard does not create a location-based mobile experience, and a QR code that only leads to your homepage does not create a location-based mobile experience.

Creating a scavenger hunt where your consumers need to find and scan the QR codes on billboards around the city is an experience. Using geolocation to create a virtual pop-up store so users can only purchase a limited-edition product when they are standing in front of your advertisement is an experience. Offering an augmented reality app that allows users to view works of art from certain spots around their city is an experience.

Motivation

One of the hardest things to do is get people to take action—to pull their mobile device out of their pocket and engage with your campaign. This can be even harder when you don’t have the resources to offer 20 percent off for just walking through your doors and checking-in to your store. The most successful campaigns I’ve mentioned motivated their consumers by being easy, timely and solving an immediate need. As an example previously used, Tesco created a virtual grocery store in subway stations because South Koreans didn’t have a lot of time to do their grocery shopping – but they did spend a lot of time waiting for subway trains. Another great example is German brand pet food GranataPet’s billboard that dispensed dog food from the billboard upon Foursquare check-in. It’s hard to nail down a location for a product that is sold at many different grocery stores and small shops, so they made their location a billboard in a high traffic area and then provided customers with motivation to check-in – free dog food. It’s simple, innovative, requires minimal effort by the customer, and provides tangible benefits – ideal conditions for a marketer.

Value

Foursquare badges and mayorhoods are successful because they’re exclusive; you can’t get a badge just by visiting a website, and only one person can be mayor at a time. The History Channel’s tips and badges provide consumers with extra value and status. If you’re going to ask your consumer take an action, you need to motivate them with something valuable. For example, if you set up a campaign where five billboards around the city each have a different text code, you could reward consumers with an SMS coupon tailored for something in the immediate vicinity of each billboard. If consumers can pull the same coupons off of your website, they’re no longer receiving something unique and valuable from your location-based mobile campaign.

SoLoMo Moving Forward

We’ve really only seen the tip of the iceberg for location-based mobile marketing for non-brick-and-mortar businesses. Even without a permanent location, there are lots of ways to create an alternative location – at an event, becoming associated with another place, using your ad space as a location, and by using your consumer as the location. At the very least, you should ensure your website is mobile friendly and monitor the amount of mobile traffic your business is getting.

Expect to see more location-aware technologies developed, but no matter which technologies are available, you need to use the one best suited to your audience and the goal of your campaign. Four out of five teenagers have a cell phone, but only 33 percent have a smartphone. However, according to Pew, only 18 percent of teen smartphone owners even use their phones for geolocation services — that’s something to take into consideration if the audience for your campaign is under 18.

Some of the main challenges for these campaigns heading forward are creativity, motivating consumers to engage with your campaign, and providing them with value. Don’t waste time and money creating some great scavenger hunt across New York City and having it flop because it’s too hard for users to engage, or because the consumers don’t think the reward you offer is worth their participation.

Ultimately, you don’t have to be a brick-and-mortar business to operate a great location-based mobile campaign. Location-based campaigns allow you to make more than just a static ad. This is your opportunity to create a truly engaging experience.

About the Author: Kaitlin Carpenter is a marketing associate at Carousel30, which is a full-service digital agency that builds brands through engaging audiences and delivering experiences to connect them with brands, causes and products.

2012 Local Holiday Marketing Guide

Allison Howen — Mon, 22 Oct 2012 19:30:00 GMT

It is time to get serious about the holidays, because as of today, merchants only have a month to prepare for the busiest shopping day of the season – Black Friday.

While most merchants are putting the finishing touches on their 2012 holiday marketing plans, there is one strategy in particular that shouldn’t be overlooked, which is location-based marketing. This marketing strategy has become of utmost importance due to the growing use of mobile – especially among shoppers who use these devices to locate nearby stores.

In fact, a new report from online advertising network Chitika reveals that a quarter of Google searches are local, and 16.37 percent of those local searches come from a mobile device. This means that more and more consumers are using their devices as a tool for discovering nearby services and businesses, and this number will most likely increase during the busiest shopping season of the year.

In order to take advantage of the mobile mania, merchants should use location-based marketing tactics to help bring in more traffic at their brick-and-mortar locations. To do this, merchants must first claim their venue on some of the Web’s most popular listing websites, such as Foursquare and Yelp. (Check out Website Magazine’s “Get Listed – Merchant Marketing for 2012” for a full list of discovery websites.)

Not only will listing a business on these sites provide retailers with more visibility on the World Wide Web, but many of these sites also offer tools that can help merchants connect with their customers, as well as can be leveraged to implement location-based marketing campaigns. So once your site is listed, check out the tips below for bringing in more local traffic to your stores:

Launch Local Advertisements

Since many consumers discover nearby locations through search, it is a no-brainer that merchants should spend time and money on increasing their local visibility within the search engines. While the best way to do this is by making sure your business is listed on popular discovery platforms like Google Places, merchants can obtain additional local visibility by starting an advertising campaign with Google AdWords Express. This service helps small businesses get discovered by customers who are looking for specific local services both on the Web and on their mobile phones. To run an advertisement, merchants simply need to set their budget and provide the business information that they want their customers to see. Then, the ad is displayed either above or below relevant search results, and the merchant’s business is also marked with a blue pin on Google Maps so that consumers can easily identify its location. Additionally, it is important to note that with Google AdWords Express, merchants only pay when someone actually clicks their ad.

Run Foursquare Specials

Merchants must provide consumers with incentives for shopping at their business on busy shopping days like Black Friday. Luckily, Foursquare makes it easy for merchants to do just that. In fact, once a venue on Foursquare is claimed, merchants have the ability to run free promotions, including discount specials, freebie giveaways and loyalty rewards. For example, last year, Sports Authority offered $25 cash cards for customers that checked-in with Foursquare and spent $100 or more. That being said, merchants can also consider using a flash special in their Black Friday Foursquare promotions. This is because a flash special enables merchants to set a number of specials that can be unlocked per day. Similar to a door buster sale, merchants can use the flash special to reward a specific number of customers on a first-come, first-serve basis.

Target Local Fans

Merchants can captivate the attention of their local fans by launching promotions and advertisements on Facebook during the holiday season. In fact, a recent Marin Software study revealed that launching a Facebook advertisement campaign during the holidays can provide merchants with a high return on investment (ROI). This is because many consumers search the popular social network during their hunt for deals around Thanksgiving time. Merchants can take advantage of this by using Facebook’s targeting features to narrow in on a local audience when creating a social holiday ad campaign. However, that is just one way that merchants can leverage the world’s most popular social network to target a local audience. Aside from running display ads, merchants can also run daily deals through Facebook Offers, which allows merchants to create a promotion or deal and send it directly to their fans’ newsfeeds. These deals can also include barcodes, which makes it easy for customers to redeem at in-store checkouts.

Get Help with Yelp

More than 78 million people visited Yelp in Q2 2012 to make purchasing decisions, which makes this a very valuable platform for local businesses. Not only should a merchant make sure their business is listed on Yelp, but they should also use the platform’s tools to connect with their customers. One way that merchants can do this is with Yelp Deals, which, similarly to Facebook Offers, allows merchants to offer discounts to their customers. The deals are displayed on the merchant’s business page, and customers can purchase the voucher directly on Yelp. It is important to note that although there are no upfront costs with these deals, Yelp retains 30 percent of the price for each deal sold. That being said, these deals can be a good way to bring in more local traffic during the holiday season. However, merchants can also target local customers by launching an advertisement campaign on Yelp. Ads can be set up to be placed on Yelp’s search result pages or on related businesses’ pages. For instance, the search ads are displayed above Yelp’s natural search results to users who are searching for businesses in a specific area, while the related business ads take direct aim at the advertiser’s competitors. This is because these ads are placed on the business pages of the advertiser’s biggest competition, which can lure the traffic out of a competitor’s door and directly into your store.

Seek Professional Assistance

Although merchants can implement all of the aforementioned local marketing techniques by themselves, they can also seek out the services of a professional platform, such as Geotoko or Silverpop’s PlacePunch. These platforms not only help merchants launch location-based marketing campaigns, but also provide analytics for monitoring the campaigns. For example, Geotoko helps merchants build and launch location-based promotions on Foursquare, Facebook and Twitter, as well as provides real-time analytics and insights that can be leveraged for optimizing strategies. Conversely, PlacePunch helps merchants launch local offers and contests as well as loyalty programs, which allow customers to earn rewards through frequent check-ins.

Tapping into the Craft Beer Craze

Amberly Dressler — Tue, 02 Oct 2012 16:15:00 GMT

From IPAs to IBUs, the beer world not only has a lingo all of its own, but also its very own single platform, app and more.

Taplister, which combines crowdsourced tap lists with menu management software, enables consumers to discover craft beers and bar and restaurant owners to promote them, announced its new website and app for iPhone. Additionally, the company announced its integration with RateBeer and Foursquare. While Ratebeer helps to make the craft beer discovery platform an educational experience (by providing detailed beer descriptions), the integration with Foursquare helps the company expand to new cities by using Foursquare's location information. Taplister doesn’t have check-in capabilities yet, but already has thousands of bars and restaurants listed in more than 50 cities.

There is big money to be tap into. This craft beer niche accounted for $8.7 billion of the $101 billion beer industry in 2011 with one third of restaurant companies spending at least $300,000 on technology (Brewers Association).

Beyond the numbers, there is an increasing number of self-proclaimed beer geeks, like the company’s CEO, Kerry Finsand, who call from bar to bar looking for a popular or up-and-coming craft beer. They also hop from website to website, only to continually find dated tap lists.

The disconnect is two-fold. Most bars and restaurants do not have a way to seamlessly update and promote beers on tap. They also have little to small marketing budgets. Taplister addresses both needs

Taplister’s tap list management system allows bars and restaurants to instantly publish their changing beer menu to a Digital Beer Board™, Facebook, Twitter, mobile devices, a website and Taplister.com. The Digital Beer Board is the first digital signage platform for bars and restaurants designed specifically for craft beer menus, and displays rotating taps and additional information in real time inside establishments. For businesses, the fee for Taplister's services range from free to $99 a month (consumer services are free).

As for extending beyond beer, Finsand says wine would be the logical next step. He’s had different people contact him from the wine industry. But first, he wants to fully dial in on the current platform.

Full Speed Ahead with SoLoMo Platform Velocity

Amberly Dressler — Wed, 22 Aug 2012 17:55:00 GMT

Scalability, automation and speed to market are three things Velocity platform by SIM Partners is hanging its hat on.

Platforms like Velocity, a software-as-a-service (SaaS) solution works with large, national brands to fill the increasing need of maximizing social, local search and mobile and the location level, play tribute to the growing focus on SoLoMo (social, local and mobile).

SIM Partners Director of Client Strategy Tara Thomas says what is happening with smartphones and technology as a whole, and what giants like Facebook and Google are doing (through Facebook pages and Google+ Local pages, respectively), is driving the need for localization.

The change should alert business owners to put a premium on localization, which includes launching geo-location and hyperlocal strategies, registering for services like Yelp and Foursquare and more.

The numbers back the idea.

73% of all online activity is related to local content (Google)
82% of local searchers follow up with a phone call or show up on your doorstep (TMP/Comscore)
66% of Americans use local search to find local businesses (Comscore)

As important as the stats, are the search implications. Businesses can no longer appear at the top of local search pages without a local presence. Velocity works to optimize everything for local search by creating standard and mobile business profile Web pages for a company’s locations and optimizing them to improve ranking and increase local traffic for all major search engines on smartphones, tablets and computers.

Using the Velocity platform, SIM Partners recently completed a full rollout (10,000 locations) for a leading national insurance brand thanks to a successful pilot program (of 250 locations). They were able to connect higher sales and engagement at the local level.

This isn’t an isolated case study. Velocity boasts a 95 percent renewal rate, based on the product’s performance. Part of the success is the malleability.

“If I am a large brand and need to create consistency, and every one of my locations needs to be on board and increase sales at their stores, using a platform like ours is successful because it’s automated and scalable,” says Thomas. “I can roll it out to 5 or 10,000 with the same system, using the same platform.”

Big or small, businesses needs to be hyperfocused about hyperlocal.

Foursquare Offers Post Updates to Merchants

Allison Howen — Mon, 23 Jul 2012 21:51:00 GMT

Foursquare merchants can now share their business’s latest news with loyal customers on the location-based social network.

The new local updates feature enables merchants to connect with customers through posts that can include photos and feature specials, as well as can be easily shared to Facebook and Twitter.

According to Foursquare’s blog, local updates are “like being able to put the chalkboard where you write your daily specials in tons more places.” This is because the updates are displayed on business pages, are shown to fans, appear after a consumer checks in, and can be seen in Fourquare Explore.

However, local updates aren’t the only new merchant feature from Foursquare, because the company also updated some merchant tools within the redesigned merchant dashboard. The revamped tools enable merchants to better manage multiple locations by allowing them to choose specific locations that they want their updates to be shared from, as well as allow merchants to better measure their brand’s success with more robust analytics.

Check out this local update from Luke's Lobster:

Here are examples of the updated merchant tools:

Foursquare Explores Social Search

Allison Howen — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 15:00:00 GMT

Foursquare wants its users to explore.

The location-based company launched an “explore” feature for smartphones last March, and the feature has now migrated to desktops, which allows users to discover new places based on other users’ recommendations and check-ins.

The Explore option can be thought of as Foursquare’s first go-round at social search.

“Most real-world searches are one-size fits all. You search for pizza, and it gives you the same list of pizza places, whether you like deep dish or thin crust, whether you want a slice or a sit-down meal, or whether your friends would love it or hate it,” says the company’s blog. “But not with Foursquare Explore, because you and your friends’ check-ins (along with the 1,500,000,000 more from the foursquare community) help us personalize our recommendations for you. Every time you check in, we get better at finding places you’ll like.”

This social search option is personalized and specific. For example, if someone types in “thin crust” they won’t just get results for pizza places, but instead specific results will appear for restaurants with thin crust pizza. Additionally, users can type in adjectives such as "fun" or "romantic", to find spots to their liking. Users can also specify certain options when typing in a keyword, which filters places that the user hasn’t been to, has been to, their friends have been to, or places that have Foursquare specials.

The service is powered by 1,500,000,000 check-ins, tens of millions of Tips and over a half million lists. The service should prove to be especially useful to local businesses, since all of the searches are tailored to local results – unless specified for a different city.

Friday 15 for Web Pros

Pete Prestipino — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 20:00:00 GMT

Friday is the perfect opportunity to take a moment and look back at the most important and interesting business and technology developments of the week – those that will influence you in the future and likely are impacting some aspect of your Web enterprise right now. This week, let’s look at 15 key developments in the world of Web business.

- The Open Commerce Ecosystem of Ebay Arrives
Ebay has been the talk of the Web this week with its X.commerce effort, which aims to connect developers with merchants to create a complete commerce operating system. A few of the integrations announced at the Innovate Developer Conference include those with Facebook (integrating Open Graph functionality through Magento and GSI), Adobe (integrating its digital marketing platform), Kenshoo (which automates digital marketing campaigns) and online bookkeeping tool Outright.

- The Value of Real-Time Search Data
URL shortener bit.ly played its trump card this week – an immense set of real-time data. The company released a reputation monitoring service for enterprise customers based on its search technology which weighs results by cross-platform social engagement. Bit.ly joins several other vendors in the real-time search and analytics space including Topsy and Google.

- Google+ Closes in on Twitter
The Google+ network/platform has surpassed the 40 million user mark, inching ever closer to the 100 million active users of Twitter but still quite a distance from Facebook's 800 million users. Revenue was up 33 percent year-over-year, and quarter revenues were just short of $10 billion for Google, but questions remain about its ability to foster social communities.

- Can Anyone Save Yahoo? Comscore Search Data
Comscore reported that Google’s share of the search market increased a half percentage at the expense of Yahoo – which fell to its lowest search volume levels ever. Perhaps an Alibaba acquisition isn’t such a bad idea, after all. While Yahoo! has a strong foothold in the display advertising market, the network might have seen better days.

- Let’s Take it Offline
Mobile payments company Square, which offers apps that allow merchants to process and manage credit card transaction with a swiping device that plugs in to the headset/microphone jack, announced that it is now processing 2$ billion in payments volume per year. Square also announced that it is dropping several requirements for new Swype merchants.

- Jumping on the KickStarter Bandwagon
Crowdfunding service Kickstarter has seen 1 million people sign up and offer financial support for projects listed on its site. Kickstarter also indicated that of those who have backed projects 89% of them have supported at least one idea that was successful.

- Search Ad Spend Rebounds
SEM and software provider Covario released its global spend search ad spend analysis which indicated that PPC spending was up 26 percent from the previous quarter and 24 percent versus the same period last year.

- A Local Vibe from MapQuest
MapQuest unveiled Vibe this week, a local search/mapping tool which identifies neighborhood-level hot spots. MapQuest Vibe profiles more than 50,000 neighborhoods, 27,000 cities and 50,000 hotspots in the U.S., reaching 98 percent of the population.

- Ad Boosters from GreyStripe
Mobile advertising network GreyStripe released several new industry-focused and social ad units this week dubbed Ad Boosters. The customizable “boosters” allows advertisers to direct users to take specific actions. A retail booster, for example, could include a “Find Store” button, a coupon or buy now button. This is somewhat similar to the way that Google has introduced the +1 button on its display ads.

- Foursquare Gets Real with Radar Notifications
It seems as if the hottest new trend on the Web is in real-time data retrieval, and now location-based social media service Foursquare is hopping on the bandwagon. Earlier this week they announced Radar, a new real-time feature that will sends notifications to users when they're close to businesses that fit into their "to-do lists", or any other Foursquare lists to which they've subscribed. This tool will be especially useful for driving relevant customers to local businesses when they're in a city or area that they're not familiar with.

-Location-based Marketing with Hootsuite
HootSuite acquired location-based marketing tool Geotoko this week. This geo-aggregation tool collects audience information from check-in tools like Facebook Places and Foursquare. The integration of this tool with HootSuite will especially help multiple location brick and mortar businesses better understand audiences, based on data such as location, sentiment and demographic. With this data, businesses will be able to reach out to consumers with specific offers, promotions and campaign adjustments.

- Google Commerce Goes Mobile
Just two years after Google Commerce was launched, this week Google announced Google Commerce Search for mobile. According to Google, the launch of Google Commerce Search for mobile came about after consistently finding an increasing number of shopping queries from mobile phones. Timberland is one of the first Google Commerce for Search customers, and claims that since its mobile-optimized website launched, mobile sales have grown 20 times faster than desktop sales.

- LinkedIn Acquires IndexTank

Linked acquired hosted search service IndexTank this week, which will integrate its technology with LinkedIn’s search. IndexTank’s real-time search technology already powers many searches, such as Reddit.com, Twitvid and Spoke. Currently, LinkedIn claims that it will release key components of IndexTank as open source software, which will allow others to run the IndexTank API.

- Microsoft and Skype Seal the Deal
Microsoft finally made it official with video/chat software application provider Skype after being in talks to buy the company since May. The software giant finally closed the deal and purchased Skype for $8.5 billion. For now, Skype will operate as an independent division, with their offices and employees remaining and over time it will be integrated into Microsoft products like Xbox Live and Windows Live.

- Facebook Friendly
Facebook, the reigning King of social media, recently acquireded the startup friend.ly, the company behind a popular social question-and-answer service featured on the social network. Friend.ly will still exist and operate as a standalone service on the site, while the company’s team will begin focusing on new projects at Facebook.

Better Business Through Foursquare Lists

Allison Howen — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 22:00:00 GMT

Foursquare has introduced a new feature called Foursquare Lists.

Creating lists enables users to assemble and share lists of places they have been or places they would like to go.

This feature is useful for the average joe that wants to list their favorite nightlife spots for their friends, or for someone that is going on vacation and wants to research and create a list of tourist attractions to visit.

However, businesses can also take advantage of this feature by creating lists for their consumers. For example, a pet store owner can make and share a list of the best dog parks for their consumers to visit.

The lists are created on the profile page, and can either be customizable or made from Foursquare’s suggestions based on check-in history. The lists also have an auto-complete and suggestion feature, which aims at making the process of assembling the lists easier.

Create a Business Page on Foursquare

Allison Howen — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 22:00:00 GMT

Foursquare pages can now be created by any brand, organization or publication.

Originally, a template was setup by Foursquare when Intel became the first organization with a page on the site in 2010, and approximately 3,000 organizations obtained a page after that and followed suit.

But now companies can create their own pages. Pages can gain followers, share tips, check-in and reach fans. Some brands that already have pages include MTV, the New York Times, NASA and Tiffany & Co.

Brands can market themselves with check-ins, which can be pushed into Facebook and Twitter (although, how often do most companies check-in anywhere?). Another desirable feature for bigger companies is the ability to make multiple people brand managers.

Once the page is created and some tips are added, the page is featured in Foursquare’s page gallery. Visit Foursquare to sign up for a page with your company’s Twitter account.

Is Facebook becoming the new Foursquare or Yelp?

Administrator — Sat, 25 Sep 2010 19:30:00 GMT

How companies need to re-think their customer review strategy

: By Scott Esmond and Tony Felice :

In a matter of weeks, Facebook became much more than a place where old high school friends keep in touch or talk about things that they “like” with one another. The introduction of Community pages combined now with the location-based Facebook Places service it launched just last month has put the relevancy and longevity of other outlets like Foursquare and Gowalla into question seemingly overnight. Moreover, the popular social media site’s current testing of ratings and reviews functionality in their ads changes the playing field for the likes of Yelp and other similar outlets. In short, Facebook has become a bona fide, real-time, lead generation and customer feedback tool for companies around the world and in their backyard.

Organizations that are savvy and flexible enough to capitalize on this trend have much to gain in terms of increased brand equity, lead generation and customer loyalty, but only if they take certain steps to ensure that it happens. Here are some examples:

• Posting boring pictures or “hey guys” status updates won’t cut it anymore – Simply blasting out the latest company updates won’t increase followers or drive community engagement. While that may not be a new revelation, organizations now need to take it a step further by crafting their Facebook status updates and page content in such a way as to invite conversation among various target groups.

For instance, a trendy retail clothing chain can offer its fans a five percent discount if they provide reviews and feedback for a particular outlet in Downtown Denver. Such promotions can be not only fruitful, but packed with real-time trend data that the company can use for similar initiatives in other markets.

• Pay closer attention to feedback – Facebook’s upcoming ratings and reviews feature will become a staple on the social media site in short order. Using the Denver clothing outlet as an example, people can now tell their friends to what degree they “like” the store, going so far as to qualify that on a rating scale and comment section. The expanded physical dimensions of Facebook’s newest tentacles will create powerful waves online – shifting the focus from attitude to action.

• Control the message even less – As if marketers weren’t having enough trouble controlling their message, Facebook just made its users even more powerful with these few features to now take over a brand by offering far greater opportunities for folks to discuss, review, comment and complain about the brand away from the company’s corporate Website. Organizations will need to join in these conversations in a more frequent and personal manner than ever before, and avoid the perception of broadcasting. Listening and responding to questions and comments will be more important than ever before. Above all else, companies should respect customers for their new found social media capabilities.

• Dedicate Resources – Of course, organizations should establish solid social media policies up front, and clearly define the company’s online voice. The executive team should seriously consider designating a seasoned Community Manager to track and converse with customers and interested parties on Facebook and other social media platforms. The ability to monitor and quickly respond to online comments is of even greater importance now, and shows no signs of waning. While Facebook’s entrance into Yelp and Foursquare’s territory won’t necessarily mean that the other sites will go away, it does mean that marketers might want to adjust their thinking and approach to include Facebook places. It will be a matter of winning or losing business.

About the Authors: Scott Esmond is the Director of Business Development and Tony Felice is the Senior Strategist at Red Door Interactive, an Internet Presence Management firm with offices in San Diego and Denver that helps organizations profit from their Web initiatives. Clients include Petco, Garden Fresh Corp, California Avocado Commission, Rubio’s Fresh Mexican Grill and Cricket Communications. Follow Scott and Tony on Twitter: @sesmond and @tonyfelice

New York Businesses Cozy Up to Foursquare

Mike Phillips — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 01:30:00 GMT

Add New York magazine to the growing list of businesses in The Big Apple who are taking advantage of Foursquare; joining The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and Time Out New York.

These publications have partnered with Foursquare to distribute news and editorial content to users when they "check in" using the social location sharing service. So, a user might check in at a local restaurant or pub then have the option to read any related editorial content from one of the partnering publications. It's another value-add to the rapidly-growing service.

For New York-based businesses, this is a good reason to spend a little time optimizing your Foursquare account - including coupons, special offers or freebies for users who check in and "mayors" of the location.

You can expect more of these types of partnerships in the weeks and months to come, far beyond New York. All businesses - particularly brick and mortar - should have Foursquare in mind. Read more about marketing your business on Foursquare, from the August 2010 issue of Website Magazine.