7 Location-Based Marketing Tactics for Social Enterprise

We're elated to inform you about our new meetup. On 18 January, our Marketing & PR for Social Enterprise (@ethicalprnyc) will have an event on 'Foursquare, Facebook Places & Green Marketing'featuring Wendy E. Brawer of Green Map (@greenmap) (with two decades of experience in green mapping) and Carbon Outreach co-Founder Tim Watson (@sociallytim). There, we'll consider how your social enterprise should consider including location-based marketing in your social media strategy in 2011.

Prior to our conversation, we thought it'd be useful to do some research. Below is a summary of recommendations for social enterprise to use location-based marketing services.

First, what is location-based marketing? Wikipedia has lots on what they call location-based media which, "allows for the enhancement of any given environment offering explanation, analysis and detailed commentary on what the user is looking at through a combination of video, audio and images and text." For social enterprise, this means enabling users (of location-based services) to get rewards, specials and other feedback that increase their engagement with your brand.

Since Foursquare has become one of the most popular location-based media tools, we'll focus on it. In December 2010, Foursquare says it has 5 million users worldwide. In March 2010, CNN called Foursquare a market leader among location-based technologies. What's the key to Foursquare's success? AOL's Daily Finance says it is because, "Foursquare has been able to encourage the development of a richer ecosystem around its primary check-in service."

Now, Foursquare started as a fundraising tool at South by South West in 2009. Beth Kanter (@kanter) wrote about Pete Cashmore's prediction, "Foursquare would be the next Twitter for 2010," recommending that non-profits should seriously consider how Foursquare could change fundraising practices. If you're not reading Beth, I highly recommend.


What better time than now? Following are great uses of location-based technology for your social enterprise (depending on whether your organization accepts donations) these tactics could work well within your social media strategy in 2011:



1. CO-ORDINATE CAMPAIGNS. More recently, Just Means' contributing writer Maria Stepanek (@causeglobal), wrote about an Earthjustice campaign that on the San Francisco BART public transit system, asked BART riders to "check in" with them on Foursquare. For every check-in, one of Earthustice's major donors is pledging $10 to help the nonprofit's attorneys fight environmental pollution.

Success: Earthjustice raised $10K+ within weeks.



2. ADD TIPS. Another campaign noted by @Causeglobal on Just Means: Big Love Little Hearts who's Chief Organizer Estrella Rosenberg @charityestrella) who used Foursquare successfully through adding 'tips' to some 600 locations. "1 in 100 children are born w/ a heart defect. Pulse-Ox screening saves lives - you can too! Check in with the hashtag #100x100." Organizers embedded a link in that "tip" on Foursquare that drove people to the nonprofit's Web site.


Success: Seven hours into the campaign, a donor said she would contribute $1 for every person who checked in. Within 12 hours of launching the campaign, the hashtag had been used 11,703 times, and the donor was so impressed, she ended up giving the nonprofit $25,000.


Another way to use 'Tips' might be like that of the History Channel that placed 'Tips' in historically significant locations around the US to promote their 'America: The Story of US' Show. Alongside providing incentive for users (through prize drawing), the History Channel made the show the most watched in the channel's history. Thanks @bostonmike for the info on his great 'Top 10 Ways Enterprise Marketers Can Leverage Foursquare' slidedeck.



3. MARKETING YOUR PRESENCE. Be like Whole Foods, Trader Joes or thousands of stores that put Foursquare clings onto their windows. When claiming your space, you'll have statistics on most recent visitors, gender breakdown of customers, when customers check-in, along with special offers (below).


4. MAKE DEALS. Have a physical office space? What's successful: have it coincide with a special, offering influencers reason to check-in.


Various kinds of special offers include those below (thanks to Foursquare Business Page and Smart Marketing for recommendations):

First Timer Deal: Item offered at free/ discounted for first check-in (show phone at check-out).

Group discount: In this offer, offer a group of people significant discounts. Hey, if your consumers have big families, this works! Group discounts are a great way to build even more exposure for your business as more stories are generated through multiple check-ins.

Loyalty Deal: Think of this offer as a business punch card. These deals may be claimed by customers after a certain number of check-ins.

Charity Deal: Check in and we will donate $$ to a charity of your choice.

Mayor Deal: Offer for the person who checks in the most.


5. PROFESSIONAL SOCIAL NETWORKING. Your company doesn't have to have a store to check-in to places. In fact, as @ChristineG notes in her blog, "online business owners can use Foursquare to make connections—the same way they do via other social networking sites." This means you don't have to have a physical address to interact with other users--instead, you can indicate where you are, including at professional events like conferences, seminars or meetings.

6. ADD TO-DOs. This great idea was recommended by Heather Mansfield of @nonprofitorgs. Heather noted this was another way to market the causes and non-profits within your city. The only down side is you're forced to add 'To-Dos' with brick-and-mortar locations.


7. FOLLOW YOUR USERS. Many users are likely to also be active on Twitter (see demographics here), by following influencers on Twitter, you'll be able to increase customer interaction.

12 Social Media Trends for Social Enterprise in 2011

2010 saw many ups and downs in the environmental space, including the shocking BP oil spill. For 2011, many environmentalists have high hopes, as 2010 gave more reason than ever to improve the way ethical business thinks about the triple bottom line. In this article, I'll cover ways your social enterprise can and should use social media/ social marketing in 2011.

Before delving into what's in store for 2011, let's check out what happened in 2010 around social media for business and social enterprise.

Some Google favorites around social media trends for 2010 include two Mashable lists (Mashable list and other Mashable list), both of which include social buying sites like Grupon and mobile advertising. According to Bloomberg, social media trends focused around niche marketing (the kind that Max Gladwell probably enjoyed seeing with his successful TED spaghetti sauce case study on the importance of niche marketing). On the other side, Jeremiah Owyang (@owyang) focuses mainly on how businesses can keep up in the social media space noting, "real time is *not* fast enough".

As for ethical-focused social media, Community Organizer 2.0 Debra Askanase (@askdebra) had some great thoughts on social media for sustainability-focused business and non-profits for 2010's trends. For non-profits, the Non-profit Technology Network recommendeds to-do's for 2011 that include enabling mobile [ie. giving campaigns and mobile-enabled homepages] and increasing engagement through interaction with social communities.

Onto 2011 trends, there are many greats including Social Media Explorer, who includes QR codes (scannable barcodes for mobiles). Reuters tells us 2011 will bring bigger and better cause-a-thons, "will gain in popularity as savvy entrepreneurs will capitalize on the relationship-building advantages." Looking forward, Entrepreneur.com recommends watching out for video content streaming straight from blogs.

After having observed and executed numerous social media outreach strategies in 2010, it seems the following could be employed and improved:

1. Augmented reality for meetings--starting off with telepresence meeting spaces. Being in a social media space, meetings and webinars are an important element of learning capabilities brought about through online communications. @Tomraftery talked on successfully using telepresence with SAP in December 2010. Skype will continue with its market share despite it's one-day outage. I'm still an avid consumer, not because they gave me $1.00 credit, but rather, the CEO's apology e-mail.

2. Location-based technologies more important. Forget about handing fliers to cars, apartment, houses, cars or bicycles. Your green business should be easily accessible via Foursquare, Facebook Places and Gowalla. Learn from Whole Foods Market, who has had lots of success.

2011 may bring more niche green location-based technology like the Locavore

App, Green Map app or Travel Efficient app via MapQuest (thanks to the Daily Green).




3. Social media planning. No longer is set up a Facebook and Twitter account and just do it going to be good enough. Brain Solis said it, "failing to plan is planning to fail". Don't worry, Mashable has the social media plan in 5 steps. Social media plans look much like marketing plans and should contain a 'Background' of your company, Objectives, Key messages, Problem (ie. target audience you're trying to connect with) and Solutions (ie. which social media tools you'll use and how).

4. Social buying. Grupon has revolutionized the way we buy things; together. Carrotmob, on the other hand, has enabled group purchasing to improve business' responsibility. Now, companies like GreenDeals.org have the opportunity to capitalize on the green consumer market.

5. Question & Answer. Your newest way to find out what your audience is asking about? Quora is taking the market by storm but these sites likely won't have a green equivalent. But already, the uptake on this has been massive. This is, again, other way to learn more about your target audience through interaction.

6. Mobile advertising (especially with-in Adroid and iPhone apps) and mobile giving. While Haiti continues to struggle with its infrastructure 2010 showed the Red Cross continues to have major success in the text-to-donate and online giving donation platforms aiding Haiti's recovery.

7. Use metrics! Know how successful your social media outreach campaigns have been through Google Analytics or HootSuite's statistics.

8. I agree with DreamGrow that campaigns will get more dynamic, integrating off- and online actions. This means integrating your online campaigns with offline outreach. It's simple; once you're in full swing of your campaign, you make your people offline see your online community. Marketing your online community will get bigger and more information and transparency will contiune to be key!

9. Social media incentives. How are you rewarding your consumers? I agree with this Host Wisely list saying it might look like a discount or membership card.

10. Know your audience by name. Speaking of wisely, your customers are going to be more self-interested. Knowing your target audience is more important than ever. @Lornali spoke on this in 2009 covering green-only social networks. In 2011, new networks will spring up--targetted toward the sustainability community. Katie Fehrenbacher, on behalf of GigaOm brought up another list of 10 green social networks. In 2011, green marketer's should be more interested than ever to see where their consumers are. If more green networks spring up, proliferate your strategy!

11. Sharing. The Real stuff I mean. Websites that enable you to reduce your consumption through social media sharing will get bigger and better, like Rentalic or Toolzdo.











12. Count our carbon emissions. Accenture noted this might happen through more mobile applications--likely targeted toward individual emissions reductions. More social media campaigns will start to measure the carbon emissions alongside ROI, like Envido has done in the UK.