Are You The Manager of Your Social Media Future?

So I ran across this today when I logged into my Foursquare account. Go ahead and look... I am talking about the highlighted area that asks if you are the manager of the business. What is that you ask? Well I had to check it out for myself.

After clicking on the hyperlink it takes you to a page that explains what the business manager gets in return for claiming the venue:

In order to give you the power to create specials for your venue, we need to confirm that you're the person in charge of managing that venue.


In addition to being able to create specials for you location, Foursquare gives you access to its research:


By claiming your venue, you'll also get exclusive access to the stats we collect for your venue — how many people check in on what days and times, and lots of other goodies.


What I like about this "new" option (I haven't seen it before today) is that it is finally an option to track visits to your location. Foursquare will actually keep track of the visits for your specials. You are only allowed one active special at a time but can activate a new special at anytime.


Why is this significant you ask? Well this removes a barrier many small businesses have been facing to entering the Foursquare game. Before this it was a little more difficult to keep track of the specials and required more work on the part of the business owner. I applaud Foursquare's decision to make it easier to control the specials and look forward to what this is going to do for small business and the mainstream adoption of Foursquare's service. 


Gowalla has had a little buzz as of late (no social media pun intended) that would also be great as a blog post... maybe another post is in order?


What is your take on the new "fad" of geolocation apps? Will the fad fade or is this the next big thing? Do we even need geolocation? Let me know!

Social Media 102 - Reblogged

So I figured I would post this here because it pertains to small business as well as the nonprofit sector. This is from another blog I write for which can be found here. Enjoy!

So it has been a while since we last posted a blog update. Just know that we have not forgotten about the nonprofit sector but are truly trying to get this little company up and running to be able to help out with your social media needs.

Now you may be saying, "why does a nonprofit really need to use social media?" This is a valid question. Social media is something that many people do not understand or are actually a little afraid of implementing in the marketing mix because it is something you cannot control. Well hopefully this post will dispel a few of those fears for you.

Well first off, why do you need to use social media? My answer would be because it is a cheap and effective way to reach out to those who would actually help. Think about it, many people already use the RSS features of many news sites to keep up with what is going on in the world. Even if you just use Twitter like the RSS feeds, you are getting those who donate their time and goods to your cause. You can Tweet different needs your organization may have or even different events you may be having. Only those who know you and have had some contact with you will follow you. Same thing with Facebook. Set up a Flickr account to show the activities and service opportunities. There are many ways you can use social media to your advantage.

Next up, control. While yes it is technically true that you cannot control what is said about your brand on the various social media outlets, (and this is great for transparency) you still have a little control. First off you need to make sure what you are doing is ethical and the way your treat your volunteers is in line with how they should be treated. Of course you will still have some naysayers as that is just business but it is how you handle those negative remarks (and you MUST handle them) that will show your true worth as an organizational leader.

If you need any help, feel free to contact us at atsocialmarketing@gmail.com. More to come later.