ArticlesHow Location Based Services Can Benefit Your Business

As a growing platform, location-based services (LBS) now transformed into varieties of applications, and will continue to widen its audience.

The sharing habit shaped by the social media boom has surpasses the boundaries and definitions of personal and public spaces, and provide businesses with more promotional leverage.

Below are a few things from a strategic LBS execution that will benefit your business:

Shared experience.

As FourSquare’s success ripples the geotagging-app area, startups are continuously developing and exploring every possibility brought bya the LBS. The results are apps like Highlight, Gowalla and Facebook Places; they generated an automatic street campaign. Stories posted, seen, shared, acknowledged, justified and becomes word of mouth. This will attract new customer’s curiousity and enlarge the prospect.

Monitored comments. 

Comments are insights and response to the stimulus that is your business’ service. Praise the Internet for real-time reactions, now you shall receive the research materials delivered to you. As positivity goes, bad comments travels faster than the good ones, but -thanks to social media monitoring- your chance to fix the current issue will be better, stronger, faster.

Insights for customers, from customers.

Your customer is the best critic. Why? Because they spend their money to purchase your product, spend their time and energy to write few words about your brand/product while checking-in during a visit. Whether those few words are good or bad, appreciate them for the effort. Why? Because the ones reading those few words most likely are your market as well.

Social Referrals.

Since it’s shareable, why not sync it with other social media accounts? As the customer gain some sort of ego-boost from checking-in at your business place, they also announce their presence to multiple social media platforms, exposing your map pinpoint-address-brand name and promos to their peers. It is a win-win for both business owner and customer.

Increase interactivity between seller-customer, online-offline.

Do a check-in special, engage with your customer directly regarding to their online activity, encourage them to post more about your business. LBS naturalized the environment of online and offline marketing integration by benefiting both parties involved. Involving your customer in your business’ development is also a part of marketing that’s rather rewarding.

Free to low cost.

LBS can be used for free and some offers more perks if you’re willing to pay for a certain period. As this is a growing area, most LBS producers are still open to suggestion and ideas to how you want them to bend the service to benefit you more, without losing its characteristics.

Target Specifically.

First of all, you’re embracing your current customer. You treat them online and offline at the same time, and let them promote your business on their behalf. This goes back to the point #1.

Searchable Trace.

FourSquare check-ins are ‘googleable’ and search engine friendly. Even when your business’ website didn’t show up at the top of the search result, you can sit tight and enjoy the ride when the check-in traces leave a strong mark on the search engines.

Measurable.

Track check-ins like you track daily visits. Crosscheck them to get a more precise result about people’s awareness of your business name.

As LBS hopped in to the social media bandwagon, it tapped the core of what ‘social’ activity is; sharing. As a double sided dagger, sharing activity can raise or bring down business; all depends on the business owner’s reaction to such stimulus. It is quick, it is precise, and it is unavoidable. Equip yourself with proper knowledge about LBS, and roll the dice while harvesting the beneficial real-time response of the customer.

 Image source: techcrunch.com + thesocialpath.com