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Social commerce is a growing trend in today’s recessionary economy. As a result, retailers and service providers are having to rethink the way they employ their marketing tactics to drive traffic. As consumer buying patterns shift toward a greater use of social commerce, brands will have to start experimenting with these approaches if they want to survive and succeed in the marketplace.

 

Click here to read the full article.

 

 

In the ongoing war of location based iPhone apps, we now have a new contender: Facebook Places. Will the 300 lb. gorilla that is Facebook smash the leading competition– the tiny, but mighty foursquare? The Loud Few heads to the Boat House of Forest Park in St. Louis to unlock the coveted I’m On a Boat Badge and debate the two options.

Check out the video above for our badge unlocking and the video below for our location-based app debate (on boats).

So, to recap, here are some key comparison notes in the battle to become location-based app King:

Facebook Places

PROS:

• 500 million Facebook users.
• Businesses will have check-in information displayed on their Page once they are merged.
• Facebook users are very active and are likely to adopt this new change quickly.

 

CONS:

• Audience misunderstanding of proper location-based app use (a lot of users are checking into their homes, which could be a safety issue. e.g. PleaseRobMe.com.)
• Claiming your Facebook Place is complicated for businesses (they have to submit multiple articles of organization currently.)
• Facebook will upset users with poorly planned privacy issues again (you can check in other friends on Facebook Places without their approval, unless you opt-out of this feature in the privacy settings.)
• Facebook is only available via their iPhone app currently (to both check-in and create a Place.)
• Facebook has not released any info on how to merge your Facebook Page and Facebook Place.
• Facebook Places has no gaming element, no reward or check-in specials available currently.

 

foursquare

PROS:

• Foursquare is considered the “cool kid” on the location-based app block.
• Businesses can easily provide specials to foursquare users.
• Foursquare has an addictive gaming element, where you can earn badges and compete against friends.
• Foursquare users can already push their check-ins to Facebook, so what is the incentive to check in on both platforms?
• There are already a lot of businesses easily found on foursquare, but not very many on Facebook Places.
• Foursquare allows users to leave tips and To-Do’s specific to that business.
• Claiming your business on foursquare is easier to do than the current verfication process for Facebook Places.
• Foursquare has free and useful analytics available to business owners about key metrics.

 

CONS:

• Foursquare has less users than Facebook, and even fewer outside of the tech world.
• Foursquare is only a location-based app, and not a multi-purpose social network like Facebook; users may gravitate to a platform that provides richer social connections.
• Current users of foursquare may drop it to consolidate their social media platform use.

Those are just a few of our thoughts, but we would love to hear what you think. Will you use Facebook Places? Do you use Foursquare? Will you favor either one? As a business, which platform do you see as most valuable?

Related Posts:

Mobile Marketing Tips: How to Create an Effective Foursquare Special

Your Business Needs Social Media: No More Excuses

The Social Media Merit Badge is Here

About the Author

Lisa Keller is the Marketing Project Manager at The Loud Few and specializes in online marketing strategy and management. You can learn more about L3J here or follow Lisa on Twitter.

Sometimes, there are sad days in mobile marketing. For me, that sad day is when I see a lame foursquare special. I’ve seen these missed mobile marketing opportunities come from both social media mavens and newbies. Bad foursquare marketing can happen to the best of us.

Whether you are new to location based advertising for your business or are A.J. Bomber’s savvy, here are some tips to help you create a stellar special that will make me want to check-in to your place over and over again:

Show me where to check in.

Claim your business on Foursquare and if there are any duplicates, remove them. Foursquare will delete any duplicates for you; just send them the duplicate venue ID numbers. The venue ID number is the last group of numbers in the URL of the business listing on foursquare.com.

If your employees use foursquare, add them as employees of your business on foursquare.com, so they cannot be mayor of your business. If you have a lot of employees and do not have the time to do this, just never add any mayor specials, because your employees will win.

Make your special actually special.

If you offer me the same “special” via email, on your website, on your Facebook page, on your business cards, through your tweets and then as a foursquare “special”, then it’s not special. If you want your followers to check all of your social media channels for exclusive offers, then you have to make those offers exclusive to that channel. Otherwise, I will stop subscribing to your email, not follow you on Twitter, unlike you on Facebook, and well– you get the idea.

If you offer a special via a social media channel, make it exclusive to your audience on that channel. It makes them feel special and they’ll love you for it. And brag to others that they got it. And then you have more audience for that channel. Boom.

Make your special worth my time.

Sooner than later, there will be a lot of yellow “special here” notifications when I check in on foursquare. If you want me to go to your place over the other businesses, then make it a special worth my while.

Social media darling, Starbucks, actually missed the boat on this one. But social media marketing is also about making mistakes and learning, so we will learn from Starbucks here. Their national offer on foursquare was: Become Mayor of Starbucks and get $1 off your Frappuccino.

Why this special is lame:

1. Do you know how many people check-in to Starbucks? Becoming mayor will take some serious time. And all I get is $1 off? Bleh.
2. Many foursquare mayors of Starbucks are the employees because they have not been added as an employee to each location on foursquare, which would block them from becoming mayor. I should not have to compete with an employee to receive $1 off a coffee drink.
3. They didn’t alert their frontline workers to the campaign and how it works. More on this later.

If this special was something more achievable, such as, “For every check-in get $1 off”, it would be worth it. But, it wasn’t, so I went to support my local coffee shop instead.

Tell your employees and the world that you have a special.

One of the reasons Starbucks ended their foursquare special is because they didn’t properly alert all of the store employees that customers would be redeeming this mobile advertising offer. Backlash ensued.

Do a pre-shift, send a memo or internal carrier pigeon before your special goes live and during the campaign to remind employees that clients will be asking about foursquare and redeeming the special.

Print out a picture of what the special looks like on a phone to make it easier for them. Post this next to the register. Hint: these are easy to find on foursquare.com.

Advertise you have a foursquare special in your store, restaurant, etc. Foursquare is working on providing window clings to businesses, but until then, has images available for you to make your own and use in other in-store advertising.

Let’s see some foursquare specials St. Louis!

I hope this gets you started on creating awesome foursquare specials for your mobile marketing. St. Louis needs a few more, so let me know what specials you have and I will be there!

What are some other tips you have for businesses using foursquare? I’d love to know in the comments.

Thanks!
L3J

Related Posts:

Your Business Needs Social Media: No More Excuses

The Social Media Merit Badge is Here

About the Author

Lisa Keller is the Marketing Project Manager at The Loud Few and specializes in online marketing strategy and management. You can learn more about L3J here or follow Lisa on Twitter.