Geolocation
Category Archives:Geolocation
Does your business think local?
It should go without saying that its no good having a great product or website if people cant find it, almost pointless in fact.
We’ve written previously about the importance of a Google local listing and it is vital that this is optimised so that your business can be found by local customers. Local information is becoming increasingly important in search engine results pages and Google continues to to show and place importance on mapped and local results wherever possible.
So how does your business fix this?
- First of all if you haven’t already then you need to claim and verify your Google local business listing, ensuring it has the correct details, name, address and opening times are key.
- Then optimise content, keywords and contact details, all useful information for anybody searching, you also need to make sure your contact details across the web are universally consistent.
Finally the ‘icing’ on top is by collecting reviews, and yes this is difficult, you’ll ask far more customers than will give you reviews but do you ask?
Just for the record you can read our Google reviews here and our facebook reviews here both actively collected and always asked for….
Getting your business listing correctly on all search engines shouldn’t be an afterthought – the businesses that succeed will be the ones that make it integral to their strategy from the start. If you need help in ensuring your business is listed correctly then please call us on 01392 241653 or contact us through the website here for a no obligation conversation.
Ask your audience
Asking your audience surely has to be an easy way for your business to engage with its customers doesnt it?
By asking your audience you can gain valuable input into what your customer would like to see happen so hopefully you can provide just that.
Up and down the country you will see pollsters asking your opinion, but maybe your business could take it one stage further and ask a direct question about what product they’d like you to sell, if you’re a coffee shop, ask what cakes your customers would like or how about if you own property and a commercial unit is vacant, why not ask….
Tell us what you would like to see in this unit
And as the audience you can answer by simply using the QR code or heading to a web link where you can ask ; ‘tell us what you would like to see in our vacant units’.
So what would your business have to gain from asking your audience? we’ll take the example of the property looking to rent a vacant shop unit:
1.You are making the customers of the shopping centre feel involved somehow in the development of this resource.
2.The shopping centre is seemingly closer to the community as they are asking the community and not just putting another retail unit in that can be found in any high street.
3.The shopping centre is collecting data from everyone who engages from them, could they then use this to form a focus group and get face to face with their audience?
So can you business ask your audience and get them involved in what you’ve done well or maybe you have a direction that you want to go and not sure, maybe this is stocking new products or moving into new markets, either way asking your audience can be a big help. Of course this should then be embed into a full Digital Marketing Strategy then we are the team to help, please get in touch here.
Geolocation with Foursquare, Gowalla and Facebook places
Geolocation is a service that predominantly works when mobile, you don’t take your laptop but you take your smart phone, simply put applications like foursquare or Gowalla and facebook check in highlight where you are , or things are – more usually it covers both and you are done.
So how does it work?
How does it all work you ask, well with geolocation you pretty much are showing off where you are and even who else is there with you. Some users are addicted and check in pretty much everywhere, compared to someone like myself who is far more selective and just checks when I feel it to be right.
Of course the downside to geolocation is that you expose your location to everyone on the internet, so if you check in at your house EVERYONE knows where you live, you only need to go onto facebook places to see how many people have checked in at their back garden or house.
Why check in?
You get a badge, yes really a virtual badge – I at the moment am Mayor of 12 locations (woop woop), and yes it does get a little boring after a while. So what is in it for the user, what do they get out of it? Some companies offer incentives for the user who is the Mayor (the most check in’s) or even just check and you get x, a larger coffee than the one you ordered perhaps.
The problem I think is that geolocation hasn’t reached a mass audience yet! Foursquare, which is the largest geolocation network at the moment, has about 10 million users (source 4sq)compared to Facebook’s 750 million. It’s only 1.3% of total users Facebook currently has.
So as a business how can you take advantage of this service and the user base, can you yet? Well firstly with the numbers there is no direct way to get a lot out so for me this gives the best reason – you can innovate, give you customers and fan’s who are active users something great to talk about – if you give them this, they will spread your message like wildfire.
Foursquare is growing steadily and with the launch last years of facebook places opening geolocation to the massive facebook user base this surely must have great potential?
Have you tried geolocation for your business? are you on foursquare or have you checked in on facebook? we’d love to hear your thoughts….
