One element that B2B companies seem to fail on is their ability to break down the barriers and truly engage with customers and employees. However, there is a new breed of application on the block that could revolutionise the way people interact with your business.
You will have heard the term geo-location by now; it has a truly boring definition, based on science and technology. Ignoring all that, it is simply the identification of where you are in the world.
Nothing exciting there. The truly interesting development is social location. It is not about position x or y, it is now ‘Hi everyone I’m in Starbucks, Richmond and I’m drinking great coffee.’ People are sharing where they are and linking brands to those places, which brings a whole new way of creating social currency.
I love the term ‘social currency’; it’s a great way of describing the aspects of the social world that you can truly put a value on and utilise to engage with your customers. Social location services allow you to create social currency that your customers, visitors and staff can take and spread for you.
Social location apps
Foursquare is a location-based social network and game. It has the most users of other social location apps and definitely the greatest engagement. With its business function, you can ‘own’ your business and reward people with badges and accolades, such as Mayor, for mentioning (‘checking-in’) to your business and location.
Gowalla is essentially the same as Foursquare but it doesn’t have the same volume of user base. Currently there is no reward interaction system but it has started to develop some cool trips in alignment with brands. National Geographic has launched branded walking tours around cities utilising Gowalla maps and ‘check ins’.
Hot off the press, is Twitter Places. The micro blogging star has now added the ability to associate tweets with places. You can then link ongoing tweets with the same place. This has to be the start of businesses getting a ‘home’ on Twitter – imagine the possibilities!
Benefits to B2B organisations
Every time someone ‘checks in’ to your business, the fact that they are mentioning it is shared across his or her social media accounts, whether that is Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn.
Make sure that your business is on Foursquare and Gowalla as an absolute minimum, then encourage people to ‘check in’.
Employees: Foursquare has a really competitive edge; anyone can become the Mayor of a business, so get your employees wanting that tag. Give them something in return, the application allows you to add a reward for being the Mayor. Go have some fun and get your employees spreading the word. It’s a great way to build internal brand ambassadorship.
Customers: Create badges and branding in your reception to make people aware that you are on Foursquare and Gowalla. Start a conversation about it; everyone who ‘checks in’ to your business could get access to some really interesting content, access to a webinar on a relevant subject or get a free day of services. Of course you could let your imagination run wild and give them something really fun too. The most important thing is to find a way of getting them to ‘check in’ to your business and share it with their friends. It is tangible social currency. In simple terms, a customer visiting you and ‘checking in’ is an endorsement of your business. It can be construed as influence and your ability to activate them to do more will determine how much that influence stretches.
The future is social
The future of our B2B world is social and this evolution of people interacting through technology has driven us all to want to let everyone know what we are doing and where. The opportunity for all B2B companies is to take advantage of the social platforms and create the crossover to real-life activity of business.
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