What the....?

Prostitutes using location marketing the next big thing?

In a strange city with no idea of where to eat out? Imagine being able to go for a wander down the street and your mobile phone alerts you as to specific cafes and restaurants with specials on in you vicinity or where the local brothel is. Now  whether you find this creepy intrusive or can't wait to try it out it is a reality.

One example of companies developing this technology is Placecast a private equity backed company specialising in location based mobile marketing. Placecast are developing their "opt in" service where consumers can join through the facebook page, choose what they want to recieve updates on and get location specific specials, updates from advertisers in their vicinity. Check out their Youtube video here to get their very own (tacky) take on the service. Tacky the video may be but this technology surely will take off with the ever growing capabilities of our mobile devices and millions being invested into geotagging development

I can see this taking off as advertisers see the benefits in location specific advertising and potential benefits over such mediums as yellow pages.

How would you feel about getting alerts via your mobile while you are walking past a store.

How far will it go and what would the restrictions be on advertising?

Now prostituion is legal in New Zealand - Imagine wondering down the street and getting an alert from the local hooker "quiet day at the office? Meet you on the corner of X & Y streets at 3 for a $50 special"

Personally I am not sure I would subscribe to the service as I am a 30 something shopaphobic guy who makes a beeline for the shop he needs to go to and gets the hell out of there as soon as he can.  But hey if I was young single desparate and drunk maybe it would have its benefits.

The Power of Twitter

Once again I was reminded of the power of twitter in both B2B and B2C relationships today.

My company (Vidcom NZ) specialises in providing audio visual services and support to conference venues and companies for events, trade shows and presentations. I have a number of different twitter searches running on tweetdeck to monitor social media traffic different competitors, prospects, customers and look for potential business opportunities. One five star hotel tweeted out a "today only" special to fill some spaces in its luxury spa for masage treatments which I promptly replied to and then booked my better half in. I then retweeted and within an hour they were fully booked for the day. A couple of friendly tweets back and forth and the next I knew my partner was given extra special treatment and an additional half hour session plus free membership to a discount club.

Over the course of the day I also came accross three leads for conferences coming up that my sales team could target and also managed to put out a SOS call to help fill a vacancy for a junior account managers position we are creating. In the evening one of my tweetdeck searches revealed someone in the UK wanting advice on conquering nerves before giving a presentation so I was able to offer some friendly advice and refer them through to a couple of helpful websites and blogs. His response ("I asked, and Twitter gave. Thank you @Glennmarvin") sums up how things really are moving.

People aren't just using Google as the almighty search engine oracle, they are asking their ever growing global network utilising social media. Social media in business is going to be even more critical in the times ahead. The relationships we grow through social media can be as powerful as the more traditional face to face business reltaionships as we have more opportunities to offer assistance freely in an online world than off. One thing that hasn't (and I hope never will) change is that people like doing business with people they know and trust. Those that take the time to build relationships online and openly and genuinely interact and help others online will benefit the most offline.

DONT TRY AND SELL TO EVERYONE YOU MEET!

Help others, offer assistance where appropriate and people will end up coming to you!

Are Inbound & Social Media Marketers in NZ missing the mark?

I couldn't believe the poor ranking when searching for additional assistance for inbound marketing strategies for our companies based in Australia and New Zealand. First things first using Google I was faced with page after page of inbound travel information pages from various airlines and car rental companies when searching under "inbound marketing adivce New Zealand". The one and only relevent hit that came up on page one was the online marketer blog by netconcepts (big ups to you guys).

Thankfuly when searching for social media marketing in NZ there was a plethora of sites and bloggers to trawl through. Once again onlinemarketer came in top dog so great work going on behind the scenes there! With the term "inbound marketing" rapidly becoming the preferred terminology I was surprised that so few experts in SEO and inbound marketing weren't ranked much higher.

While I may be relatively fresh on the scene surely we all pride ourselves on keeping ahead of the curve. Are we behind the eight ball? Do social media marketers have to position themselves better under the more corporately palatable term of "Inbound" marketers to get more traction in the B2b scene? Or am I just over reacting? Would love to get your feedback.

How can social media help when unions take strike action?

Bristish Airways has recently retained the services of DigitalAgency.com to create a social media strategy for them to increase the touch points with its customers base and provide them with the ability to get updates on availability of services etc out fast if the upcoming threatened industrial action goes ahead.

CEO Willie Walsh has even got in behind the strategy posting a "personal" two and a half minute video clip on YouTube in which he outlines his and the airlines position and how dissapointed for their customers he is that the strike action has been called. He also states they have done everything they can in the negotiations with the union.

By getting the message out through social media there is no doubt that the negative impact on BA's brand will be reduced as many customers will at least have an understanding of the issue and be kept informed of what is happening in a much more real time way than in the past when strikes were in place.

This is going to be a dogfight and it will hurt everyone however by utilising mediums such as twitter to update travellers BA may also enjoy the flow on effect of reduced calls and complaints over the strike period so whilst not directly contributing to additional sales in this manner social media is protecting the lifetime value of clients.

Is Myspace going to suffer and slow death?

Here today gone sometime next year? Will Myspace be one of the next big casualties in the in the social media space. With failing popularity and advertisers drifting away Myspace are trying to go back to basics and revive the site. The following article from IR Alert (An investors info site) sums it up nicely. IR Alert | | As MySpace Slips Far Behind Its Social-Media Brethren, Company Makes Last-Ditch Effort to Remain Vital By Returning to Its Roots and Abandoning Portal-Like Features

Labels: advertising inbound marketing, marketing, myspace, social media