Tag: Local & Mobile

No, I’m not talking about stealing office supplies. Swype is an awesome keyboard replacement tool for Android phones. It comes standard on some phones like the Samsung Epic and I have used it on my Evo and my Nexus S. You can get it for your phone at http://beta.swype.com…

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via geekculture.com

 

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Groupon logo.
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Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt has announced that the search giant will launch its Groupon competitor on Wednesday, starting with Portland.

The news that Google is getting into the daily deals space is not a surprise. Google attempted and failed to acquire Groupon for $6 billion last year. A few months later, Mashable exclusively learned that Google was developing a Groupon competitor called Google Offers.

At the D9 Conference in Palos Verdes, California, Schmidt and Stephanie Tilenius, Google’s VP of commerce, demonstrated the company’s new product. It’s just like Groupon in that it provides users a daily deal from “thousands of merchant partners.” Google showed off a deal for $10 worth of Floyd’s coffee for $3 on stage.

The big selling point for Google Offers is that it will integrate seamlessly with Google Wallet, the company’s NFC-based payment system launching this summer. Instead of printing out a coupon or barcode, completed offers are put into a user’s Google Wallet, where they are automatically saved and redeemable. Eventually they will be utilized automatically through NFC.

Google Offers will be available Wednesday in Portland and eventually will roll out to New York, San Francisco and other cities during the summer.

via mashable.com

Bye, bye Groupon…

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Today in the news, mobile social media usage is soaring…

Digital measurement firm comScore released a study today highlighting the rise in social media access via mobile phones and offering some comparison metrics for some of the biggest social networks and their usage on mobile devices.

comScore measured the changes in both mobile browser access to social networks and the access numbers to specific social networks from January 2009 to January 2010. Source: Mobile Social Networking Usage Soars [STATS]

But who’s using it? Not who you think…

Despite a previous Ofcom report showing that for (UK) 16-24 year olds the mobile phone was the second most essential piece of media behind the TV and ahead of the PC, metrics firm Nielsen says that it’s really people aged 25+, and in particular 35+, who are most likely to be going online via their mobiles. Source: Think mobile social networking is all about teens? Think again

Now that you know it’s not all about teens, let’s take a look at social media by gender…

Men are more positively inclined towards social media activities and use social networking sites more than women, according to what Liberty Mutual called a “comprehensive national survey” of online behavior it released yesterday. This is somewhat surprising, since it’s the exact opposite of what other surveys have found, including a recent one from Royal Pingdom that looked at user profile data from some of the major social networks. Source: Who Uses Social Media More, Men or Women? – GigaOM

Questions? Feedback? Comment, call or contact me…

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Please forgive me, but it’s not my title! The content is that good…

You can read the transcript if you click ‘continue reading’… Continue reading “What the hell is social media?” →

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via google.com

Comment below or ‘connect’ above to discuss how this applies to you and your organization…

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I found a great post on the Duct Tape Marketing site that was very timely for me…

To help website owners take full advantage of the most important online marketing opportunities, here are 3 things small businesses can do to attract and engage new customers.

Content Publishing & Marketing – Consumers are interacting with multiple content sources before purchase and businesses that provide useful information beyond product features and benefits can attract more traffic and referrals.

Tips, articles, videos and experts interviews provide customers with the information they need to buy and refer to others. Useful content optimized with keywords also attracts more search engine traffic and links.

Social Media & Networking – 90% of marketers say that social media is important for their business according to the 2011 Social Media Marketing Report. Word of mouth, referrals and buzz on social networks can increase awareness, build trust and influence sales.

Social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube offer useful platforms for small businesses to be helpful and share information with networks far beyond their customer base.

Local & Mobile – By 2014, mobile Internet will take over desktop Internet according to Microsoft Tag Lab. Small business websites can increase page views by offering a mobile friendly version of their website. They can also increase visibility on local search by making sure they’ve claimed their listings on Google Places and Bing Business Listings.

via ducttapemarketing.com

I just spoke last night to a group of independent home inspectors about these very issues. Some didn’t even have a site. Those that did had ‘brochureware’. The problem, I explained to them, is how will someone know you’re an expert if they can’t google you? That’s now this next generation of buyers will make there decisions…

The answer is as easy as using a free WordPress site as your business blog and adding Google Apps for corporate email. Next, link the rss feed from your blog to your Facebook page, Twitter account, LinkedIn account and your MailChimp newsletter. Then all you need to do is use Google Reader to ‘listen to the internet’ and make the information you need come to you. Out of that listening will come a lot of great ideas for you to create or curate on your website. This is the ‘lather, rinse, repeat’ cycle of ‘thought leadership’ marketing. I call it the ‘e1evation workflow’.

Anyone who can send an email can use these tools to get known by Google and the best news is every single one is free and completely cross platform right down to the smartphone level. Comment or ‘connect’ so we can talk about how this applies to your organization…

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If you’re a business owner and you’ve heard the recent news about Facebook’s attention-grabbing new feature for location-sharing and checkins, you’re probably itching to find out what Facebook Places can do for your business and how it can help you reach out to would-be customers and loyal regulars in your community.

While Facebook isn’t ready to announce any special brand-platform relationships or tie-ins just yet, one Facebook ad exec told us that the company does have plans to integrate Places with its larger marketing offerings for SMBs. The best thing a business owner can do to prepare for those offerings is get familiar with the ins and outs of Facebook and location marketing now.

Here are a few pointers for how SMBs can use Facebook Places and other marketing tools starting today.

via mashable.com

You can follow the ‘via’ link above to go to the source and read the rest of the article if you’d like to dig a little deeper…

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Nice praise for one of my favorite tools…

“Financial Times reports that Gmail has about 100 million users and the growth rate is still significant: “[Gmail] has been gaining ground in the US over the past year, with users growing by more than 40 per cent, compared to 2 per cent for Yahoo and a 7 per cent fall in users of Microsoft’s webmail.” 

Even though the competing mail services improved their offerings and storage is no longer an important differentiator, Gmail still offers an unmatched user experience. After using Gmail, you’ll no longer understand why Yahoo Mail places the “Send button” above the message, why Yahoo Mail thinks it’s more important to show news and weather information instead of your inbox, why Yahoo Mail still charges for features that are available for free in Gmail, why Hotmail shows a large banner at the top of the page or why you can’t auto-forward mail to a non-Hotmail account. Gmail made so many right choices that it’s easy to ignore some of its quirks, downtimes or bugs.” Source: On Gmail’s Success

Don’t forget that you can also outsource your corporate email to Google as well! Ask me how…

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via convinceandconvert.com

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Reaching out to mobile travelers is good business, especially where I live on the Door Peninsula of Wisconsin. Every year, thousands of wired [that means “internet connected” for you folks from the U.P., eh?] travelers drive through our area on their way to Door County. The smart restaurateur should be looking at ways to figure out how to get their fair share of that mobile business! Here’s a interesting article that I found on the topic…

“For my project, I had a chance to develop top-level social media strategies and participate in the day-to-day management of social media presences. There is no better way to to hone your social media skills than to roll up your sleeves and “just do it” as this process gives you a way to see firsthand what works and what doesn’t work so well.

Based on my experiences, I have come up with a list of “7 Must-Do’s” for the restaurant industry. Some of these tips are no-brainers and can be implemented immediately. Some of the other tips are bigger projects and tasks that will need to be updated and monitored on an ongoing basis. Each of these tips will contribute to what should be the social media goals of any business: expand corporate mindshare, augment and expand existing marketing channels and increase the number of customer interactions.” Source: 7 Social Media Must-Do’s for the Restaurant Industry « Social Media Musings by Tom Humbarger

You’ll have to click through to the source to get the author’s thoughts, but here are the tools he recommends…

  • socialmention
  • Google Local Business Center
  • Yelp for Business Owners
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Wikipedia
  • Blogging

It’s all great stuff and I recommend the tools he suggest for any small business looking to connect with wired travelers. Unfortunately, however, he forgot to mention Foursquare which is rapidly emerging and Snacksquare which is a location based coupon provider that sms’s coupons to people looking for places to eat in your area. Here’s the skinny:

“Users can get a glimpse of deals on a map, filter by category, check in at venues and have specific deals sent to their mobile phones. From a consumer perspective, Snacksquare offers a nifty way to explore deals before heading out.

The site also caters to hungry business owners anxious to get into the location-based promotion game. Essentially, merchants can use Snacksquare to add their venues to Foursquare (Foursquare) and to compile an SMS contact list of past and present customers for push marketing purposes.

Merchants can send friend requests to customers via Snacksquare and the customers that accept these requests can opt in to SMS messages from the merchant in question. Merchants can then use this SMS list to blast out automated location-based alerts to customers within a specified radius of the venue based on their most recent checkin. The service does come with associated costs, but businesses that sign up for the upcoming Foursquare Day can get free beta access.” Source: Snacksquare Connects Foursquare Merchants to Customers

Cool, huh? At the time, though, only ONE restaurant in northeast Wisconsin is using Snacksquare — The Pub on Main Street in Green Bay. What about your restaurant? Offering deals to wired travelers is what’s next and I can help you figure it all out…

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I’ve heard it all before… “my company just needs a good website to get my product out. Trust me they will come”… or another good one, “I have a facebook profile and now I can send out product updates and people will just get them.” Er, no. For years Business to Business companies have been trying to match the success, and sometime failures, of traditional media that Business to Consumer companies have had. Then the internet seemed to even the playing field. Only problem was, B2B companies didn’t have the budgets B2C companies had to market that cool website. Plus, the market for their products is much smaller. When I mean smaller, I mean I know a few companies that only have about a dozen or so potential customers. You could technically buy a dozen donuts and email each prospect one. As long as it’s not jelly filled, because that could get messy.

So back to facebook.com and can it work for B2B? The answer is yes. But it does come with a few caveats. Nothing, and I mean nothing, will work without a sound marketing strategy. Also, one of the main reason’s any tactic will fail is lack of follow through. Let’s face it, nobody has any time to do any marketing things during our busy work day right? Wrong. How may of us check our facebook account as often as we check our email? Lots, ok, we also check on our farms, but that’s totally different. So just by checking your facebook account, you have time to add a update that can make your business more relevent to prospects and current customers. So I have written five steps that can help any B2B company get more out of facebook.

via macdesign13.wordpress.com

I’m so glad I know Kiar Olson and I love his perspective on this topic — you can follow the ‘via’ link above to go to the source and read the rest of the article if you’d like to read his ‘5 step’ program…

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via youtube.com

Over the weekend, I posted on social media tools for restaurateurs. Google has already updated one of the tools since then. Google Places is a powerful tool that will put your business on the map — literally and figuratively. Why haven’t you looked into it? Seriously!

Posted via web from e1evation, llc

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