The future of local small business marketing
It used to be the ol’ sandwich board and big sign outside your business that brought traffic and new customers to your business. Which is great if you are in the middle of a busy street, but what if you’re a great cafe tucked away somewhere nice?
The era of social media and geo tagging is bringing a plethora of new software programs that run on smartphones like Apple’s iPhone. Your iphone is now your street directory and with geo-tagging, tagging a specific location with exact co-ordinates so that your smartphone can display it on a map, your iphone can not only show you where you need to go but reveal all the other possible locations around you. Applications like AroundMe (http://bit.ly/dzpN28) allow you to find exactly what you are looking for while showing you how far away they are from you and if you want to get really advanced you could consider Augmented Reality (AR) that shows you on your video screen where cafe’s are as if they are an enemy aircraft.
What does this mean for small business? Well, I’m a little more tech-friendly than many people but I am now taking photos of food and restaurants and becoming a critic, writing comments about their venue, quality of food and service and I’m starting to see many more people “checking in” with these programs. My favourite application so far has to be Gowalla (http://bit.ly/cIAN2o). It’s simple (made in Texas) and allows you to do all the things you would want to do to tell friends and family about a place you like or dislike.
At this point, it is important for small businesses to be aware of these applications because whether they like to keep up with technology or not, younger people will use these applications to explore the area they have just moved into and there’ll be an opportunity to build a cult following with your customers and advocates.
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