January 28, 2010

Location-based applications on mobile devices are all the rage. You might have already seen some hints of what local will do for you by using Google Local, but rest assured that this is just the tip of the iceberg. If you realize that more and more people are using smartphones, and that more and more people are searching for your business while mobile, you're going to have to shift some attention into how you show up in the location-aware world.

Get a Smart Phone

If at all possible, pick up an iPhone or a Motorola Droid or a Google Nexus 1 or a Palm Pre, or any of the other smart phones with a robust number of applications available. The applications you're looking to start exploring are Yelp, Layar, Foursquare, Twitter, and BrightKite to start. They each do something different. The point of this article isn't to talk about the apps. You can learn about those. My point is: get in the game. Without a sense of how others use these tools and see your business, you won't know how to prepare, and you won't have a tool to participate. It's part of business.

Start Creating Content

Start at Google Local and make sure you even show up there. If you do, consider writing a review. It's not clear whether these reviews go as far as a service like Yelp, but it doesn't hurt. Use FourSquare to create a location for your place. Check in via BrightKite. Tweet about the location. If you haven't built a Facebook Fan page for the business, decide whether that's a place you want to create and maintain. If so, make sure to include the physical address of the place, plus the name. If you have a blog or simple website, also make sure your street address is clear and obvious on the main page, as well. Part of getting local search to work is to anchor your web presence to your real-world presence.

Use a Listening Station and Comment Back

First, grow bigger ears, and use this to set up a free listening station. Then, when you see people talking about your business, make sure to comment back where appropriate, and mention also the location of your business (again, if it's appropriate). I mention listening a lot. The reason is that it's the most important part of marketing that you're not yet doing. (Well, lots of us, anyhow.) This step lets you be proactive in hearing if people are talking about you and being able to get location-specific in your responses.

Drive Location-Aware Contests

You can use Foursquare or BrightKite or even Twitter to start having more location-aware contests. For example, do something like "the person who checks in five times to your location in the next 10 days will get a free ______." There can be obvious variations, but that's a simple one to get your thoughts going.

What comes next is simply a matter of whether people searching for you on their mobile devices are finding you easily or not. The plus is that all you've done by performing the above efforts will positively affect people's search results, no matter what. The only minus is a matter of how long it takes people to respond more often to location-based marketing than to other forms, and whether they're finding the same results as you've set forth.

In any case, what you've accomplished by performing the above is effort well spent in helping people find your business.

Chris Brogan is co-author of the NYT/WSJ bestselling book, Trust Agents. He is president of New Marketing Labs, LLC, and blogs at [chrisbrogan.com].

Image Credit: Jwebb202

Join the conversation ( 5 )

• Jeanna Barrett 2 years 0 months and 0 days ago

  

  Hi Chris,
  Great blog post - this is awesome advice for business owners to become early adopters of location-based services. It can only increase the amount of people you're getting through your doors with minimal time commitment. Who would say no to that?
  I did want to chime in because Whrrl is part of the location-based mobile platforms right now, and we have a merchant offer pilot program as well that is free. Those four little letters are quite enticing, no? ;)
  Business owners who are interested can read about it and sign up here: http://faq.whrrl.com/merchants/

• Seth Goldstein 2 years 0 months and 2 days ago

  

  Chris great post as usual. Foursquare and other location based programs, apps and sites are a great way for businesses to go social and build their business portfolio.

• Jill Fehrenbacher 2 years 0 months and 5 days ago

  

  Agreed, great write-up. Local tech is still in its infancy, but the possibilities are limitless. It's going to be incredibly interesting to see what kind of advertising technologies come out of this trend. Before long, I have a feeling I'll get reports of fresh muffins from my local bakery right on the homepages of my favorite sites.

• Paul Janowitz 2 years 0 months and 5 days ago

  

  Hi Chris,
  
  Great post and perfect way for businesses to start out. A few points from a post I just posted in response to John Moore's "walking away from frousqaure".
  
  Retail is a $2 trillion a year business. And of that, 96% is spent at physical locations. Up until recently most of the innovation has be around the 4% spent online.
  
  With new smart phones, GPS services and a low cost of entry location-aware search and marketing is definitely the next “it” market that will explode.
  
  However, John Moore makes a point I agree with - games address a very small sector of the market. Many users will NEVER want to play a game or check in somewhere. I know my wife (who does the bulk of grocery buying and local retail for my household) has no desire to let people know where she is or become the mayor of anything…she is busy enough being the mayor of the house.
  
  However, there are services being launched that are melding local search and location-aware services that are quite useful. AroundMe is a great app that aggregates other apps for movies, restaurants and other venues.
  
  And, here is the self-serving plug, http://www.wantANDfound.com is a website and iPhone app that uses location-based-services to service a purpose. It allows shoppers to find, share and post deals from local businesses around them. It allows businesses to post what they need to sell today (a cancelled time slot, a jacket in June or mile that expires tomorrow). It gives businesses an online, social and mobile marketing platform in less than 1 minute. It is quick, easy and leverages all of the tools mentioned above, but not in a game. Games have purpose and I think you will see Foursqaure and Gowalla adding features outside of games, how, when and where are still a question.
  
  Utility will drive adoption, and that is coming. It will show up across many of these apps, we are all just going at it a bit differently.

• John Moore 2 years 0 months and 5 days ago

  

  Chris, great article and dead on about the power of local servies, local awareness and buzz. The only point I want to make for readers is that they should not invest time in "games" like Foursquare, not yet. It is a powerfully addicting gaming platform but is at least a couple of years away from being a powerful business tool. I wrote a piece about this yesterday, would love to hear your thoughts, or those of anyone that comes across it.
  
  http://johnfmoore.wordpress.com/2010/01/28/why-i-am-walking-away-from-foursquare/
  
  Thanks,
  
  John