BizCoachDeb's BizBuzz -

Posts Tagged ‘brightkite’

Recently I was involved with a terrific event put on by the Boulder Chamber of Commerce: Social Media 2010 – The Business Edition. It was a well-attended conference and colleagues such as Vococreative and Misty Montano really helped humanize a topic which can often be taken as the end-all-be-all to marketing. There is so much more to social networking and the use of social media tools which is unrelated to business and strongly woven into issues of personal use. Even during my own segment on the topic of “Geolocation: Foursquare for Retail Businesses”, I was only able to graze the other side of geolocation – that of the importance of personal safety. A couple of people in my sessions raised the question, “Aren’t you worried about people knowing where you are?” For me, it’s not as much a question of fear, but of common sense. Mine is not the first, nor will it be the last, but here is a short list of things to keep in mind when using your geolocation tool of choice:   The rest of the story...

Even though Twitter has recently enabled updates that can include your location, it’s pretty clear that applications like Gowalla, Brightkite and Foursquare are burning paths to your customers cell and smartphones. No longer are your customers tethered to their laptops, they are taking their purchasing power on the road – and letting their friends know more quickly than ever before.

And why should you care?

With mobile applications comes mobile decisions, remarks, feedback and more importantly, instant pack mentality.

Consider this: I’m going into Boulder on this sunshiney day to enjoy a margarita on the deck of one of my favorite watering holes. When I arrive,  my Blackberry updates me to tell me of a couple of my buddies who are already here.  My other friends that aren’t even there yet see an update saying that me, Mark and Chris are all at said watering hole, and guess what? We’ve just encouraged a couple friends who were at another place to come join us. Influence is one thing, but what used to take a few phone calls to orchestrate now just takes one “checkin”. The checkin can come to my phone and be sent to multiple social media touchpoints instantly. A social empire is emerging whether you’re using it or not.   The rest of the story...