Geo-location and real estate?

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Geo-location ("check-in") tools and apps enable us to learn what's nearby as we go about our daily lives.  More and more businesses are finding ways to tap into this by partnering with "check-in" sites like Foursquare to reach potential customers.

Read Smart Brief's review of New York City's Corcoran Group, a large real estate firm, use of geo-location tools like Foursquare and Gowalla, here.

 

See also:

• How Social Media Can Benefit Those in Real Estate
• Do your customers use geo-location tools to "check-in" when they visit your business?
• Top real estate apps for Android, BlackBerry, iPhone, iPad
• Social networking beyond Facebook and Twitter

Social Media: Do your customers geo-location tools to "check-in" when they visit your business?

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According to a study conducted by the Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project, 81% of cell phone owners use their phones to report where they are or to check someone else’s location.  The same number of survey respondents indicated that they use their cell phones to coordinate where they are to meet someone. 

If you own a store, restaurant, professional offices or any business where customers can visit your establishment, tapping into this trend may be a profitable way to market your business.   Using a geo-location or "check-in" services and mobile applications such as Foursquare, Gowalla, Brightkite, Loopt, Shopkick, Facebook Places and even Twitter may help new customers discover your business.  In addition, your loyal customers can leave invaluable positive feedback (yes, you do open yourself up for some negative feedback as well!) and you can further engage with them by offering discounts and other benefits.  Many of these services are "geo-social," combining social networking with their "check-in" service like the fast-growing Foursquare which give "mayorships" to the person checking in most often to their business and even offering freebies - with competition for "mayorships" and rewards to be had,  no wonder Foursquare is so popular.

Check out these articles to learn more about how you can use geo-location tools to market your business:

• Geolocation 101: How it works, the Apps, and Your Privacy
• Ways Small Businesses Can Offer Location Based Deals
• Cellphone in New Role: Loyalty Card
• How to Leverage Foursquare for Business
• How Powerful is Foursquare for Local Businesses?
• Use Facebook Places to Boost Business and Life Sales
• The Video Guide to Facebook Places for Business
• 3 Reasons Why Twitter's Geolocation Feature is Cool

Is Social Media right for your business?

Tweet 2.6 million users "checking in" on FourSquare

27.9 million+ bloggers in the US

Facebook has over 103+ million users (including 300,000+ business pages)

Nearly 106 million people "tweeting" on Twitter

143.2 million unique viewers on YouTube in June 2010 alone!

These numbers are staggering! More importantly, they represent the number of people that are a potential audience for your business if you use one of these sites. But is social media the right avenue to engage with your current clients and promote your brand to gain new clients?

While a social media strategy may not be right for every business, there are many that can positively measure the impact of a Facebook page or Twitter account on their bottom lines! Erik Qualman gives some great examples of businesses (large and small) that had great success using social media in his video Social Media ROI: Socialnomics. The New York Times also tells us some success stories of small businesses who saw a great return on investment from their Twitter marketing efforts.

If your company has a small (or non-existent) ad budget, social media may be the answer. Most social networking sites are free to use so for only the cost of your time, devoting a few minutes a day to "tweet" on Twitter, post an informative blog relevant to your product/service or share interesting links or photos on Facebook can result in increased exposure for your company and increased sales. So are you ready to embrace social media for your business?!

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Now Facebook lets you share your location with your friends

Tweet Facebook has launched it's Places feature which allows Facebook friends to share their location and view the location of their friends. This service is similar to location-based social networks ("check-in" sites) such as Twitter Places, Google Latitude, Yelp and the increasingly popular Foursquare. While some embrace this new way to connect with friends (especially businesses that can target customers based on proximity to one of their stores), others are concerned about broadcasting their whereabouts so widely. Click here, to find Facebook's instructions to control how/with whom your location is shared.