Social Media Spin

A new report pub­lished by Jupiter Juniper Research fore­casts a rapid growth trend for mobile location-​​based ser­vices, dri­ving rev­enues to more than $12.7 bil­lion by 2014.

What does this mean for your business?

If you have an offline busi­ness, you stand to imme­di­ately ben­e­fit from location-​​based ser­vices. Here’s a few of the most pop­u­lar mobile location-​​based apps you’ll want to leverage:

• Busi­nesses using the mobile app foursquare engage in friendly com­pe­ti­tion to get locals back to their venue more often.
• Gowalla is a pop­u­lar mobile app that allows cus­tomers to share their com­ings and goings with their friends, and every time they check in some­where, their “pass­port” gets stamped, and they can win more prizes. Every city has fea­tured Fea­tured Spots and Rec­om­mended trips that your small busi­ness can become a part of.
• Every month, mil­lions of cus­tomers turn to the mobile location-​​based app Yelp to share their expe­ri­ences with local busi­ness. Small busi­nesses can get a wealth of mar­ket infor­ma­tion with the tools Yelp pro­vides. The cus­tomer review power of this ser­vice is 26 mil­lion users strong.
• Another sim­i­lar ser­vice is Loopt, which accord­ing to it’s web­site, “helps friends con­nect on the fly and nav­i­gate their social lives by ori­ent­ing them to peo­ple, places and events.” You’d be smart to get your busi­ness and events listed on Loopt.
• Google Buzz is one of the newest mobile location-​​based apps to keep your eyes on. The site says that Buzz for mobile lets you “See what’s going on nearby, post a mes­sage tagged with your loca­tion, and fol­low your friends on the go.” Since it’s from Google, you can bet that Google maps is baked right in. Busi­nesses pro­mot­ing upcom­ing events have a huge oppor­tu­nity for traf­fic with Buzz.

There are new mobile location-​​based ser­vices spring­ing up all the time, but the most impor­tant thing you need to know to lever­age these ser­vices is the power they have to fuel your busi­ness. Location-​​based apps increase traf­fic and sales to your busi­ness through the power of word-​​of-​​mouth. A cus­tomer is much more likely to come through your door if he knows her friends are there and love the place. A cus­tomer is more likely to impulse buy if the reviews about your busi­ness rock. An event venue is much more likely to be packed if peo­ple in a user’s geo­graphic loca­tion are check­ing in with their mobile app. Busi­nesses who ignore this inex­pen­sive way to con­nect with their cus­tomers will leave mil­lions of dol­lars of rev­enue on the table. Don’t be one of them.

Related arti­cles by Zemanta

• Google Buzz is Going after FourSquare and Gowalla! (Pics) (cloudave.com)
• Mobile Location-​​Based Ser­vices Could Rake In $12.7 Bil­lion By 2014: Report (techcrunch.com)
• HOW TO: Make Your Small Busi­ness Geolocation-​​Ready (mashable.com)
• Social media for small busi­nesses 4: Using Foursquare to iden­tify and engage cus­tomers (freshnetworks.com)
• Gowalla Android App Com­ing This Month! (phandroid.com)