Geolocation is the “site” of a big “turf” war forcing marketers and techies and users to take sides.
The two apex companies in this segment right now: Gowalla and Foursquare are taking shots and keeping their developers up all night. Both of these games have users embracing games/applications with increasing enthusiasm. Meanwhile techies and marketers are twitterpated with the possibilities. For marketers, the opportunity for trackable partnerships is endless, from coupons and promotions to custom partnerships with either company. Small business promotions can be remarkably affordable.  Further, (since Gowalla released version 1.2 last fall) both of the games are social, both with friends and other social applications like Twitter and Facebook.  From a techie perspective, the expansion opportunities are endless and with open API’s on both, expect to see lots of applications. Unlike other social applications both have a concept whose use within retail and restaurant space is immediate and obvious.

The skirmish between the two companies has been fairly visible, both from the corporate and end user camps. The basic premise of both is the same and both companies have been around since 2009 when they launched at the proudly geeky SXSWi (South by Southwest Interactive). Both entice their user to check-in on the application where ever the user happens to be by offering status rewards and even coupons. Using GPS, the applications pinpoint within relative accuracy where you are and confirm that you are actually “checking in” from the right location. Digital and coupon rewards are offered for various reasons including frequent check-ins to encourage users to continue playing.   While they are similar, they offer distinct experiences for the end user, which is important to businesses looking to take advantage of these unique traffic driving applications.
Foursquare, the current popular favorite, gives “badges” (graphic images) to represent achievements such as most check-ins or first check-in. Foursquare rewards regular visits by identifying the most frequent visitors as the “Mayor”, then they take it to the next level by making you “Super Mayor” if you are the “Mayor” of 10 or more locations. New this year are promotions and badges which can be “unlocked” after a certain number of visits to the location, making marketers jump with joy. From the techie perspective, Foursquare recently had to adjust its programming to prevent users from cheating their location and cheating their badges. Some users don’t like the “Mayor” concept, because it creates “ugly” competition, but marketer (those paying for services) will continue to appreciate this feature.
In addition to awarding “pins” for achievements, Gowalla adds an additional “gaming” elements and gives the player “items” which can be traded and exchanged with friends. Dropping off items at locations has endless promotional and gaming possibilities and users seem to like the “collection” aspect of the game. “Trips” are another uniquely Gowalla component, trips are comprised of a series of locations that share something in common. It could be a pub crawl or visits to certain locations within say, a zoo as  they’ve done with the zoo in Fort Worth, TX. Gowalla’s latest update included letting users update photos of the location. National Geographic and the Washington Post announced branded “trips”with Gowalla just this week. Custom “items” can be created and dropped off at locations for users to pick up, giving marketers tingles.
But while the two companies are fighting for supremacy, the solidarity among users seems to be gelling. Let’s not forget that both of these companies make money by offering promotions and what essentially amounts to digital couponing for businesses large and small, so its more than bragging rights at stake here. Foursquare seems to be winning over the masses with over 400,000 users and corporations such as Starbucks (with a specialized badge) and Zagat and while Gowalla has bagged the Travel Channel with “Food Wars” pins and announced in January that it was approaching 100,000 users. Up until recently, Gowalla could have been considered a technical darling with a more graphically pleasing and friendlier interface, but its recent API snafus may change that.
As usual, the choice of which to partner with isn’t as easy as it sounds. From a marketing partnership, the number of users might seem to make Foursquare the no-brainer, but Gowalla seems to be returning to its gaming roots with an emphasis on adventure with its National Geograhic partnership. So it may well be like many other social media tools, the tool of choice, may depend on your type of business. Restaurants and retail may gravitate towards Foursquare while services and adventure related companies may find Gowalla the better partner.  The question of who else will get into the geolocation market (Twitter? Facebook? Google?) remains prescient and relevant to those looking down the line at the future of this unique marketing tool.
No doubt as soon as this article is launched, there will be changes in the geolocation clash.

What do YOU think? Are you a user? A marketer? A techie? Which do you prefer and why?

I had a conversation yesterday with a new client that just sums up the relationship that small business owners have with social media. I was referred to these particular clients by my SEO partner, Rob Bertholf. While he is working on the SEO segment, they asked him if social media could enhance their SEO presence. Rob answered in the affirmative and referred them to me.

This particular business is a growing web-based business with the potential to have tens of millions of dollars in revenue, but for now, its two guys with guts running the show. Both are “all in” its what they do and from what I can see, they do a darn good job. But now what? They want to grow. They want to tackle their internet competitors. Their aspirations are admirable, but as any small business owner knows, growing a business takes complete focus and dedication, and sometimes, ironically, marketing falls to the wayside.

In the case of our friends, marketing hasn’t fallen by the wayside; actually the opposite. They have some good tools already: a targeted Facebook page that funnels to their site, a web forum where they interact with customers and brand with some potential for “oomph”. For many social marketers, this would be a dream client. They have content, brand potential and a trackable web-based business. Secondarily, they have one store-front and plan on opening another in a particularly high traffic destination. They get all their retail traffic from foot traffic, but they’d like to increase it. Sounds like a geolocation marketing opportunity to me. We’ll start off simple with geolocation, getting them listed and doing offers on Yelp, Gowalla, 4square to start, as their retail location is a unique concept. Once we get a feel for the success, we’ll consider expanding.

Now we start discussing Twitter, it was another story. Right off the bat, I am told that “Twitter doesn’t work for our business. We just want to use Twitter for the SEO benefits (thank you, Google).” I am intrigued by this belief since a quick overview before our meeting showed that their product was being discussed on Twitter, but their BRAND wasn’t. I suggested that while they have a Twitter account, they engage with their customers a bit.  My potential customers said they did do that, and when it happened, they saw a 30% spike in traffic to their website, but it wasn’t new customers. WOW! 30%! If I was getting 30% every time I Twittered, I’d drop all other advertising and Twitter regularly. None the less, Twittering worked for existing customers almost exclusively. Why? They were reaching out to their customers in the medium they preferred: the internet. There are great ways to get new customers on Twitter too, but they haven’t found them with the use of bots which was the first attempt at building their followers.

I don’t believe in bots. I believe in genuine engagement. I believe in following people who are talking about your ideas, passions and products. Authentic=success in social media. Twitter needs to be approached with strategy. Twitter is deceptively simple looking, yet its a complex tool. Its a conversation starter – not a blow horn. I think you get the most out of Twitter with GENUINE discussions.  If you aren’t interested in having conversations with your customers try print advertising, its fast and easy..its also a sink hole for most small businesses (I can say that: I used to sell print advertising). Using bots on Twitter is like doing print advertising: you have 25,000 followers, who don’t really care about your product. Your just spewing 140 character advertisements at your followers and they are turning you out or unfollowing because THEY DON’T CARE. Plus, you aren’t engaging them because you have nothing in common. See where I am going with this?

Beginning engagements and discussions takes strategy and time. That’s why I have a job. I think about it. I analyze it. I work with my SEO partner in tandem to create an actual strategy.

THAT’S the nitty gritty isn’t it?  Time and strategy.

After further discussion it isn’t that my clients don’t believe in Twitter, they just don’t KNOW how they can use it. They’ve scratched the surface. They don’t understand how to use it-why would they? They are business owners, sales guys, not social media experts. If I were a business owner with employees and payroll, I would outsource this too. As it turns out, Twitter DOES work for their business, they just need to know how to really use it.

At the end of the discussion, we agreed to define a strategy for Twitter, using YouTube, their site’s forum and even a geolocation strategy. We’ll use it to build their brand, engage new and existing clients and drive traffic to their content-rich site. Then, we’ll track our analytics. We’ll tweek and refine. We’ll kill what doesn’t work and beef up what does. Social media marketing is dynamic, that’s the good news. The bad news is that you want to stay on top of it, otherwise you’ll lose opportunities because you aren’t responding to the dynamic elements.

Almost all small businesses think that social media is a waste of time. I contend they think so because they aren’t using it correctly. More businesses can benefit than they believe, they just need some assistance in doing so.