Social Media Marketing

Social media has exploded over the past few years, it’s no secret what was once old is new again. Social media has and is becoming a marketing platform that brands can’t simply ignore anymore. Marketing today is about using multiple platforms to get your message out there, even more so, it’s about fishing where the fish are, your customers. Depending on your industry, your customers are online using multiple social platforms and networks to make purchasing decisions. This brings us to the continuous upward shift in technology and communications, Mobile marketing. As marketers, we must expand our tool set and look beyond the status quo of Twitter and Facebook. If we stop to think about the two heavyweights that I just mentioned, the vast majority of the user generated content pumped into these networks comes from, you guessed it, Mobile devices. Let’s not forget how these sites are accessed, iPhone, iPad, EVO, Android, just to name a few.

Mobile has made us a hyper-connected society:

Some estimates put the number of devices connected to the web at a billion or more as of the current year. The growth rate of mobile devices is 2.5 times that of PCs. The advances in smart phone technology, spurred by Apple with the launch of  the iPhone in 2007, and other companies such as Google and Nokia have propelled this industry forward. Brands are thinking and re-thinking their Mobile marketing strategies. The numbers speak for themselves. We are a hyper-connected society tethered to our mobile devices, thirsty for data with no time limitations or boundaries.

Mobile marketing has been around for a while, mainly via SMS, MMS and the usual banner ads. Those methods are ancient and to some extent irrelevant. They are out of touch with today’s consumer. They lack the holy grail, the fountain of youth, the social component. This is the core component of social media, the two-way form of communication we expect from Brands today. Simply having an optimized-for-mobile website is not enough, but it’s a start. Brands need to be thinking about mobile 2.0;  iPhone and Android apps; claiming and monitoring their profiles on sites such as Yelp, Urbanspoon and Foursquare; promotional based marketing using location based services for check-ins, traffic and sales drivers.

Location-based services needs to be a factor in your marketing plan:

Examples of location based services are websites such as Yelp and Urban spoon. They both have mobile apps that allow you to find places of interest based on your geographical location. They take it a step further and add in the referral/recommendation component aka reviews. If you’re in the restaurant industry it’s vital that you maintain a profile on these sites, and continuously monitor them. Check-ins now allow us to broadcast our location at the various public venues we visit each day. Who are we broadcasting to exactly? Most likely our inner circle of friends, family and coworkers, or just about anyone who would need to know our physical real-time location. Brick and mortar Brands can now identify and reward loyal mobile customers who check-in, and that’s where Foursquare gets interesting as a marketing platform.

Check-ins are the act of reporting your location in real-time:

We have been doing this on Twitter both on mobile and desktop since day one, it’s nothing new. Geo location technology, thanks to the advances in smart phone innovation, can now allow anyone to check into a location/event/venue etc with almost surgical precision in real-time. Apps make the experience fun, they add a social layer thanks to GPS that never existed on mobile devices. The buzz used to be all about Brightkite, and if I’m not mistaken they were first in this space with their iPhone app. I remember being wowed watching Robert Scoble demo the product. They are still around and have a dedicated community of users, but have evolved more into a Twitpic type of service, a site for photos geo-tagged to a location on Google Maps. I don’t really see any Brand involvement or real buzz about the service anymore.

Check-ins for the consumer: the game, the competition, the rewards

The consumer experience starts with their smart phone and an application such as the one pictured in the above screen shot, Foursquare. Foursquare describes itself as a ” cross between a friend-finder, a social city-guide, and a game that rewards you for doing interesting things.” Foursquare is hot right now, real hot. Foursquare in conjunction with GPS, uses your geographical location to determine public locations and venues that are close to your proximity. These locations can be anything, your home, McDonalds, the local mall, gas stations, local roads, etc. If your location is not in the Foursquare database, you have the option of adding it. You’re are awarded points for your crowd sourcing efforts and are well on your way to unlocking badges and thus becoming a Mayor! You can leave notes for others about the venue, often these are notes  about the service or promotional offers the establishment is running.

Mayorships add a competitive reward component to the game for end users:

Checking-in to a specific location will give you a certain amount of points, the points vary on a number of factors. Checking into a location that has no current Mayor will earn you the coveted title of Mayor for that location. You can be dethroned as Mayor if someone else checks into the location more frequently than you in a certain amount of time. Mayorships allow you to edit a venue’s location information and entitle you to certain promotional offers, if the merchant is participating and or they claimed their business profile on the service. The sport of checking-in can be addictive, just ask Louis Gray. I admit, I’m now obsessed with checking into every location I visit. That obsession takes us to the next component of the game:

Foursquare for the brand: the benefits and bottom line:

Foursquare may not be a perfect match for every type of business, but it certainly seems to be working for the hospitality industry. Restaurants, bars, hotels, cafes, fast food and just about any brick-and-mortar store selling physical merchandise can claim their profile and start offering specials to mobile broadband users.

Once your business is verified, you can do a variety of things on the Foursquare system such as:

• Mayor Specials: unlocked only by the Mayor of your venue. (the user who has checked in the most in the last 60 days)
• Check-in Specials: unlocked when a user checks in to your venue a certain number of times.
• Frequency-based Specials: are unlocked every X check-ins.
• Custom branded badges: offered and exclusive to your establishment only.

Users who reach the above criteria usually win a free or discounted product. This spurs friendly competition — over the Mayorship, to win that free iced coffee or french fries. This is a great engagement tool that will surely keep customers, at least the loyal ones coming back. You can also offer specials to anyone for just checking-in, so this way everyone has an incentive for checking-in.

These aren’t your typical Boy Scout badges!

Badges along with Mayorships are the rewards you earn based on your check in habits. Visiting certain locations at certain times for example, will earn you a “School Night” badge, like I did for checking in after 3 am on a weekday, or a “Super Mayor” badge for holding down 10 Mayorships at once. Brands that have partnered with Foursquare such as; Starbucks, Bravo, The Wall Street Journal, VH1, and MTV offer special branded badges for following them on Foursquare. They offer tips on check-in locations, where users can earn those coveted one of a kind badge of honors. Starbucks customers who check-in a certain number of times can earn a special “Baristas” badge.

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Brick-and-mortar locations should use signage to promote their Foursquare specials:

I always advise the hospitality clients that I consult and manage social media campaigns for to brand all marketing and customer facing material, including venue tickets, menus and sale receipts with their social media accounts. I also recommended POP displays (Point of Purchase Displays). Once your business is verified according to their business page, they will send you free window signage to display, thus promoting your business on Foursquare to your customers. Let’s not forget about creating a custom badge for your establishment, read the paragraph above.

Foursquare has a growing ecosystem for developers:

Foursquare has an API that developers can tap into and help feed the ecosystem, one of the main reasons for Twitter’s success. Foursquare is starting to see integration points with other social networks such as Facebook, and web and mobile applications such as Seesmic. There are a growing amount of applications being built to interact with the foursquare platform. Imagine integrating this data into your Website, or an iPhone application for your restaurant. Having an API means possibilities and innovation, that’s a good thing. The true core and the essence of the experience in using Foursquare will always be that of a mobile device, in my case it’s my iPhone.

At the end of the day it comes down to key metrics:

The badges and Mayorships are nice eye candy, but at the end of the day, the metrics tell the story. I’m going to verify the company I work for at some point on the Foursqaure system, so that I can view the stats dashboard and get a feel for what type of data can be analyzed. Without actually verifying a business and going through the process first hand, screen shots and data directly from Foursquare’s website is all I have to go by. The dashboard screen shot above tells the story, the analytical reporting and tracking is good, solid, useful data that can be used for creative and strategic marketing.

Real-time venue stats include:

• most recent visitors
• most frequent visitors
• the time of day people check in
• total number of unique visitors
• histogram of check-ins per day
• gender breakdown of customers

In closing: it’s all about one word, omnipresence

Foursquare is a great opportunity for brands to test new waters in mobile marketing, be trend setters and engage with consumers on a different level through  a new marketing platform.  The future is here, and it’s called Mobile.  We as marketers and brands need to start thinking outside of the box with our creative marketing hats on. There is a whole other world out there besides a blog, Twitter and Facebook.  Successful marketing and advertising campaigns all consist of one shared property, the property of being everywhere. Only an omnipresent brand is capable of achieving this.

Related posts:

1. Social Media Marketing: Empower the Crowd!
2. Social Media Marketing: Ten Tips For Beginners