I am highly recommending Foursquare to my hospitality and retail clients – Why? It allows users to interact and have fun with each other by demonstrating how much they love your business. They compete to be the Mayor of your establishment and they can only win if they are frequent customers. Here’s what Digital Media Buzz, Duct Tape Marketing and Poplabs Ref have to say about Foursquare.

Digital Media Buzz

Like many social media products, Foursquare started out as a way for friends to connect with friends and update their locations via text message from their mobile devices or device-specific applications for the iPhone and Android. Blackberry and Palm Pre apps are in the works. It combines friend-finder and social city guide elements with game mechanics. When users check in, Foursquare lets their friends know where they can find them and recommends places and things to do nearby. Those into bragging rights can become the mayors of locations by being the most frequent visitor. As with Twitter, it didn’t take long for businesses to see how Foursquare could make a great promotional tool by offering freebies like free coffee, free drinks, free food and free hotel stays to Foursquare mayors.

John Jantsch of Duct Tape Marketing

Users compete with check-ins to earn points for their city, badges for various types of activity and to become mayor of frequented spots. Just like Twitter back in early 2007 none of this makes much sense until you play with it a while and until you have some folks to follow and connect with. (In fact, it doesn’t really make that much sense then, but there’s something sort of addictive about it.)

Users also add and update information about businesses, write tips and make suggestions for anyone to consume. This rating and reviewing function treads on the turf of services such as Yelp! and acts as another data point for people trying to locate a good pizza on the Upper East Side for example.

Sal Baldovinos of Poplabs Refreshing Marketing

I’ve been actively using Foursquare for about three months, though I signed up for it many months prior. I thought it would end up being just another Brightkite with its own twist. I took a cynical approach thinking it was just another way for people to say where they are and what they’re doing, which it is. But, then I saw what local business like Coffee Groundz and Lone Star Chiropractic were doing with Foursquare.

If you’d like help devising a strategy for Foursquare, Twitter, Yelp or any of the other social check-in applications, call Julie Gallaher at 916-265-2521.

Does anyone get excited about their yellow page listings anymore? Not like this…

*the writing in the video is backwards due to copyright.

Businesses need to start preparing for the turning point – the day that social media is your most important lead generation vehicle. That day is not here yet, but Google is officially getting nervous.

JAY ALABASTER, Associated Press Writer – Mon May 25, 2009 – Google has long been the king of search, dominating rivals including Yahoo Inc. and Microsoft Corp. But it increasingly sees social networks such as Facebook as challengers to its search engine, a company official said Monday.

As people search out advice online for everyday, personal decisions, the standard list of links served up by Google is not seen as intimate or trustworthy. For decisions such as choosing a restaurant or a day care provider, social networking sites or known review sites have an advantage, said Google Group Product Manager Ken Tokusei.

*From Wikipedia – Battle of the Network Stars was the name of nineteen U.S. television specials featuring competitions among teams of popular television performers representing the three major broadcast networks at that time: ABC, CBS, and NBC.

The Coming Facebook Decade

Get on the Map can help your business learn about online customer engagement, and determine whether Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, LinkedIn or one of the 200 other social media platforms is best for you. Call 916-265-2521 for more information.

Related Posts Twitter for Business, Twitter Rules, Facebook for Business, Facebook Advertising, Facebook Classes, Sacramento Twitter Coaching

Researchers at Penn State University have released a comprehensive report on how consumers use the search engines.

Did you wonder why your pay per click advertising program wasn’t delivering the results that you wanted? It’s simple, only 6% of web searchers turn first to the paid or sponsored advertisements.

The report shows that 82% of the time, internet users first examine the organic listings. Just 6% of the internet users examine first the sponsored listings. 12% of the users scan the entire page.

When you focus all your internet marketing dollars on Pay Per Click you’re ignoring the much greater opportunities you could find in the regular organic listing section.

For a PDF copy of the report click here

Organic vs Pay Per Click

Get on the Map will help you get your business showcased in the organic listings. Call 916-265-252 for more information.

Seth Godin, best selling author of numerous business books including Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable and Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us is one of the leading business thinkers of the 21st Century. He’s been talking about the radically changed circumstances that newspapers and yellow page companies face because of Google’s dominance

Regarding the Yellow Pages industry, he said that, in the past, it was a perfect industry (like the music industry). Small businesses want to pay for media that works with an easy-to-prove ROI (i.e. phone calls) and directory publishers were the top dogs in that space. But things changed with the arrival of Google. He simply told me “Google is the Yellow Pages now” because of completeness of data and a ROI-driven business model. He then wondered out loud if Google would be a monopoly in local search, i.e. that they would be so powerful that consumers would want only one player. His answer was no. There’s certainly some place for another major player in the space.

Yellow Pages

One lucky reader will win autographed copy of Seth Godin’s book Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us. All you need to do to be eligible to win is subscribe to this blog by hitting the Subscribe link in the upper right corner of the page.

Local SEO

Get on the Map is a Sacramento consulting firm advising on all aspects of digital marketing: SEO, Social Media, PPC, Analytics, Reputation Monitoring & More.

It’s sometimes hard to believe, and even harder to keep up with, all the changes you face as a small business.  Just 18 months ago, the Google organic listings was not the most important marketing a small to medium size local business must deal with.  But now it truly is.  Depending on your industry, 30 – 60% of your prospects are looking at Google & the Google Maps when they are making a buying decision.

But the current Google Map format was just introduced in January of 2008

The new 10-pack seems to me a more equitable presentation of local data. It appears though that strongly optimized sites and local listings can still achieve authoritative status. It is not clear to me that the end user when searching on ‘Denver Flowers” really wants a single response and it seems to do a disservice to both the other businesses and the public.

- Mike Blumenthal, Author of Understanding Google Maps & Local Search

Local Search Optimization Sacramento

Businesses from Sacramento, Folsom, Elk Grove, Roseville, Stockton, Modesto & more can now Get on the Map with local search optimization. Call 916-265-2521 for more information.

Thank you all for the support, kindness & friendship you’ve offered in this first year of my business. It’s been fantastic and I want to offer you a couple of free gifts.

First, the fabulous Seth Godin has authored a new free ebook, What Matters Now.

Free ebook - What Matters Now by Seth Godin

- Marti Barletta, speaker, consultant and author of Marketing to
Women and PrimeTime Women; is currently working on her
next book, Attracting Women: Marketing Your Company to the
21st Century’s Best Candidates

He’s also got an extra present – In the Nick of Time featuring free chapters of 12 fabulous books (gift ideas )including my friends Chris Brogan and Julien Smith’s Trust Agents.

and for something personal from me – here I am with my singing teach wishing you the Happiest Christmas in the City (or the country)!