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Location, Location, Location!

af Lara Mulady

If you're anywhere near anyone with an iPhone, or even remotely interested in anything digital or technological, you've probably heard of Foursquare. For those of you who haven't, it's a simple web and mobile location-based social network, where users can 'check-in' wherever they are, letting their connections (solely on Foursquare, and/or through Facebook and Twitter) know where they are. You can read more here. It was really only a matter of time before this 'next big thing' was either picked up as a marketing tool, or had its ground challenged by Facebook. Did I say 'or'? I mean 'and'. 

 

Yes, having witnessed the phenomenal boom of Twitter, there's no doubt that marketers pay close attention to new networking services, and with Foursquare and Gowalla being lauded at the South by Southwest Festival in Austin, TX last month, all eyes are on location, location, location. At the festival, it was claimed that these services would become the dominating technology in 2010, and so far, not surprisingly, they're right. Foursquare and Gowalla are pretty much neck-to-neck in the race, with both seeing a massive jump in users after the festival. Foursquare, despite just being launched in March 2009, is already past 600,00 users, and while Gowalla haven't released any exact figures yet, it can be safe to assume they're not far off. 

Any networking service that allows us to connect and share through mobiles and/or the web, is likely to catch on today, and although the reach might not be as great as with Twitter (you wouldn’t want anyone and everyone to know where you are, and that you’re not home), the authority is higher; while you might have 500 followers on Twitter and 1000 friends on Facebook, the amount of friends you have on Foursquare might only be 20. However, these 20 are likely to be trusted ‘actual’ friends, so what they say, is likely to carry more weight than that guy you met 4 years ago and bonded with. While drunk. At a full moon party. It’s the old ‘quality not quantity’ rule. The point is that while the marketing reach might be smaller than Facebook, if you can get someone to talk about your brand, it will get attention.

And with that, come the campaigns. There are (to date) 11 campaigns to be found; Bravo, The Wall Street Journal, Zagat, MTV, Starbucks,Tasti D-Light, Pepsi, Planet Hollywood, Lucky Magazine, Financial Times, and Jimmy Choo. 

These range from your simple ‘check-in X times and get a free drink’ etc, to by-passing pay walls providing you check-in at certain locations. Pretty smart ideas, and no doubt ideas we’ll be seeing much, much more of. However, I like Jimmy Choo’s campaign the most. It’s different. It’s really engaging, and it makes use of Foursquare, Facebook, and Twitter, and, it has a significant prize at the end; a pair of Jimmy Choo trainers.

Facebook_choo
Foursquare_choo
Twitter_choo

The trainers check-in at different locations around London, posting their location on Twitter and Facebook (and of course Foursquare), and it’s up to their followers to literally hunt them down, and catch them. With 1,192 followers on Twitter, 586 on Facebook, and 740 on Foursquare, it’s clear that this is an appealing way to get people talking. Interestingly, it has, as a luxury brand, also managed to make the transition in to social media smoothly, and successfully. Many similar brands worry about losing their ‘exclusivity’ when they branch in to social media, but in this case, it seems that only those fans willing to literally run around London after a pair of shoes, have joined up, thereby keeping numbers down, and exclusivity up. Can’t help but wonder what other brands we’ll be running after in the future?

But, with Facebook has realising the potential, perhaps this exclusivity will be short lived. A ‘source', as well as the founder of Foursquare, says that they fully expect Facebook to launch a check-in function, allowing users to broadcast their location when they log in to Facebook. Obviously the implications could be huge, and could squash Foursquare, but the marketing possibilities it presents would be very different. As said, your friends on Facebook, are (most likely) not as trusted as those you have on Foursquare, so direct WOM marketing wouldn’t have the same effect, yet in terms of reach, Facebook would blow Foursquare out of the water, with targeted adverts depending on your location.

We’ll have to wait until the not-so-distant future to see, but one thing we can be sure of is that location-based services are here to stay. We love to network, and combining the virtual networking angle of the web, with the physical angle of, well, life, Foursquare and the others have pressed a button. 

Facebook advertising can be effective

Effectiveness of Facebook ads is connected with understanding and integrating the paid and earned media. Strong Facebook network will increase the effectiveness of paid advertising. Those are the key conclusions of the latest Nielsen study "Underastanding the value of a social media impression".

Integration is the magic word. The communication planning silos aren't helpful. Understanding how everything is connected and being social is very useful.

Understanding the Value of a Social Media Impression

How Nordic journalists, communicators and PR consultants work with social media

Cision conducted a survey where they looked into how Nordic journalists, communicators and PR consultants work with social media. It is interesting to see that journalists are frequent users of social media. Here are a few key numbers for Denmark: 26% Danish journalists read blogs daily, 6% never reads blogs and 15% write a blog as a part of their job. Blogs are primarily read for research.

89% of Danish journalists have Facebook account, which is the highest in Scandinavia. Facebook is primarily used for getting connected with new contacts and research as well as sharing news.

64% says to have very good or good knowledge about social media and 84% believes there will be an increase in use of social media.

Find out more here