FreshNetworks Blog

This week’s New Media Age contains a feature on location-based marketing looking at some case studies of where it has been used well and the opportunities for it as part of the marketing mix. We’ve written before about opportunities that location-based services offer to marketing. From using Foursquare as a small business to the many ways to use Facebook Places, location-based services offer many potentials for experimentation and new ways of communicating with and marketing too consumers.

As I comment in the NMA article, there is “a temptation to think that location-based marketing is the next big thing”. A temptation for marketers to put their efforts into location-based-marketing because it is new and because case studies are emerging of it being used in a way that really adds value to the business. But really we are entering a period of experimentation with these tools. Marketers should be using them strategically and trying them as part of their marketing or broader social mix.

Marketers need to be sensible in their use of location-based marketing. It’s important to think strategically and assess whether or not it can add value or have an impact. In the next year there’ll be more experimentation and more campaigns, some that work and some that fail.

This is an exciting time, there are many ways in which location-based marketing can be used but three clear ways where we should see experimentation are all areas where the services actually add real value to consumers.

1. Help me to filter information

This evening I was looking for a restaurant for dinner with a friend. One of the most important criteria was that the restaurant was near where we were when we decided to go and eat. Location was a significant variable in our choice. Or rather ‘near me right now’ was the filter we wanted to apply. Location-based-services allow consumers to apply a simple but effective filter to information they are searching for – especially when that information is reviews or advice. And it allows them to apply it instantly.

This is very powerful. It helps a consumer get straight to the information that is relevant, and provides a real use for reviews and advice not just as a planning tool but also to influence consumer behaviour in real-time. I like to think of it as there being reviews dropped on streets across the world that my phone lets me read. Secret messages that location-based-services unlock when I am near them and when they are relevant to me.

2. Help me to find people like me

Location-based-services not only know where I am, but also where other people are. Putting these together means that I can easily find people or other groups. And the power comes when you use this to help people connect if they have similar interests or concerns. Online communities are successful where they connect people with similar problems, questions, interests, issues or concerns. And they can be particularly valuable at getting people who don’t know each other to share and discuss – from people who want to talk about a broadband provider to those with a particular medical condition who want to talk to fellow sufferers even if they don’t know any personally.

Location-based-services can take this experience of connecting affinity groups and make it happen offline too. You can find if people with similar interests to you are nearby. Maybe you enjoy softball and want to find out where others are playing one Sunday morning, or maybe you just want to find other people like you. A highly successful iPhone app has done that for a niche market (the gay dating app Grindr) and similar behaviours can benefit many other groups.

3. Help me to organise events, parties and rallies

What’s the simplest way of knowing how many people are at a protest? You could count them all, or you could ask them all to register. But how about getting them all to check-in. This not only gives you a count of how many people have joined your event at a particular location but will give you access to lots more information about them and, perhaps critically, a route to contact them again after the event. Location-based-services, and particular the notion of checking-in, allows a number of existing processes to be both simplified and enhanced.

Could we use location-based-services to let a restaurant know we’ve arrived and are waiting in the bar for our table? Could we use them to gain access to parties, or can we use them as a way to organise and direct political protests or rallies. Location-based-services provide a number of potential organisational uses that need to be explored and experimented with.

As a follow on to the success of our social media monitoring tools review earlier this year,  we’ve been carrying out detailed tests on nine of the leading social media monitoring tools in order to assess how effective they are at identifying influencers.

We’ve tested Attensity 360, Brandwatch, Radian6, Alterian, Scoutlabs, Sysomos, Synthesio, PeerIndex and Social Radar in detail, as well as looking at Visible Technologies‘ tools.

Over the next few weeks we’ll be blogging about some of the key insights from the report  including:

• What is an influencer?
• How to identify influencers
• Influencer scores
• Tool performance comparisons
• Targeting influencers online

The full version of the report will then be released via our blog following on from an exclusive launch at our breakfast seminar on Thursday 2nd December.

You can register for the event by clicking on the button below:

Guest blog post by Luke Brynley-Jones who is hosting Monitoring Social Media 2010 in London on 22nd November.

I’ve written about social media influence a few times in the past year – including a somewhat plaintive post asking whether flawed influence measurement is better than no influence measurement.

I’ve also hosted a Bootcamp where I questioned the “influence” calculations of certain leading free monitoring tools. Then earlier this month, I participated in a discussion in which the overwhelming mood was that influence could and should be measured – if only because it’s so  important to marketers that we simply have to try to calculate it.

While I’m not keen on bogus science or flawed assumptions- having read Peter Shankman’s “Road-to-Damascus” post that describes the moment that he realised how valuable it would be to know how influential your customers were the moment they walked in the door – I have to say, I’m getting there. However, the question of how influencer rating is calculated – whether it’s based on Twitter re-tweets, inbound links, number of comments on a blog or shoe-size – is simply going to run and run. But all that really matters is that it works for your business.

If your customers are online and into social media, an influence analysis service like Klout, which uses freely available data, might work fine. In his post, Peter describes how businesses can use Klout to get a short, snappy rating against which they can decide how much “engagement” time a customer really deserves – or whether they should simply be sent packing. 

Most of us haven’t yet knowingly suffered as a result of a company knowing our “influence” rating (in other words, our commercial value) – but imagine when every shop, garage, restaurant and bar knows exactly how influential (or not) you really are. I predict that’s a 2-3 years away yet…but can you imagine the situation:

“Do you know who I am?!”
“Well, Sir. Actually, yes – we do”.

Luke has kindly offered our readers 10% discount on the ticket price for Monitoring Social Media 2010, taking place in London on 22^nd November – please use the discount code “fresh”. Charlie (Osmond) will  be speaking about How to Identify Influencers, including details from our up and coming report on using tools to identify social media influencers.

While  niche communities, customer driven markets and transparency are all areas in need of exploration, when it comes to social media for financial services the main concerns highlighted during our financial services round table event were  risk and regulation and resourcing.

The current situation

From our round table discussion it became apparent that some financial services brands don’t see a place for social media within their organisation, therefore they don’t see the need to resource it.

One of the discussion points raised at the event was that internal staff, from the top level down, often see social media as something they use to interact with people outside of work in their private life – it has no place in the office. This makes it difficult to get both resource and budget to implement an effective social media strategy as often senior level staff do not see the value for their business.

However, on the flip side, several budget holders in the room argued that it is possible to get both money and resource for social media – you just have to prove it has value. Take Aviva’s “you are the big picture” campaign, or one of our clients, LV= and their online community.  These companies both allocated funding and resource to social media.

Delegates at our round table event felt that the best approach to getting sign-off for social media is to pick out a single key business aim– perhaps the lowest hanging fruit- and test how well social media can achieve this goal. Prove one basic goal and then move on from there.

If social media is really here to stay then going slow now won’t make a difference in the long run, and it will prove to seniors and budget holders that time and resource is needed to achieve real success from social media.

To a lot of key decision makers social media is still the unknown. By breaking it down into bite size pieces you can prove its value.

The future direction

An interesting thing to note about our roundtable discussion is that the conversation focused largely around social media tools – namely Twitter and Facebook.

Perhaps it’s time for financial services brands need to think outside of these tools and to look at resourcing a more long-term sustainable social media strategy that engages the business at all levels. Organisations need to learn not to rely on the current, most popular or commonly used social media tools; they may not be around in five years time.

In order for social media to succeed it must be driven from the top down, not from a single resource within the business. Rather than using social media just as part of marketing, or customer service, or product innovation, it needs to be integrated throughout the whole business. In the future, staff and employees in all departments will need to be trained on how to use social media to ensure that rules and regulations are not broken and that social media becomes a seamless, intrinsic part of business.

Aside from niche communities,  customer driven markets and transparency, risk and regulation was one of the key discussion points at our social media in financial services round table event.

The current situation

Initially financial services brands and institutions were reluctant to use the various social media tools and technologies available on the market, largely because of the stringent rules and regulations that govern the industry.

Financial services brands have strict codes of conduct when it comes to data sharing. It’s often the case that external sites like Facebook and Twitter simply cannot be used or accessed within the firewall of a business for fear of information inadvertently being leaked out.

With the Financial Services Authority (FSA)  asking firms to apply strict advertising rules to more informal communications like Twitter, forums and blog posts in order to stay compliant, it’s no wonder financial services brands are less keen to adopt new technologies – it’s just another area they can fall down on.

However, with large banks and institutions like  American Express, ING Direct,  Bank of America and HSBC all using social media in one way or another, it seems that financial services brands are starting to  realise they can use social media as long as the activity is well planned and uses a pre-defined, fully developed social media strategy to ensure that risk is managed effectively and that regulations are adhered to.

What does the future hold?

With more and more financial services organisations adopting social media it will become an inherent part of the industry’s online infrastructure. As long as businesses have a pre-defined, robust social media strategy, with clear processes in place, then both FSA regulations and other guidelines will remain intact.

Proactive identification of compliance and the possible business risks from online conversations will also help financial services brands use social media in a way that aligns with industry standards.

Similarly, each business should develop a social media policy for employees. The policy should form a  standard part of all employment charters and contracts and should determine social media activity  both internally and when representing the company externally. Again, this will ensure that rules and regulations are not broken. This policy should be updated on a regular basis to keep in-line with changes to the social media landscape.

Our next post will look at resourcing social media in financial services businesses.