“A child with a smart phone has instant access to more information than the US president did only 15 years ago”
This somewhat outstanding fact was clearly proved by myself as I sourced this information on my smart phone instantly, whilst thousands of others online could easily access the same content as me. For an organisation this means ‘always on’ media, offers more opportunities for communication when other methods are not available (Van Dijk, 2005). If a single person can access this much information just through the device of a mobile phone in a matter of seconds, then for businesses this means…business?
With the social media boom still well and truly underway, a perfect marriage has been created between social networking sites and mobile marketing. In 2009 alone there was half a billion mobile web users globally, whilst this number is rapidly growing at an exponential pace. Its already been predicted that by 2015 the mobile will replace the PC as the most used method of access to the internet (mobithinking.com). These staggering statistics will work wonders for those PR agencies operating in the online realm. Utilizing already existing social networking sites, such as FourSquare and Twitter, in order to market their clients through mobile phone devices is a strategy which is proving timely relevant.
FourSquare is a geo-based social networking site which allows users to ‘Check In’ to current locations in which they are based, this could be anything from a restaurant to an airport terminal. In the PR world this means instant promotion for the client if people are entering their businesses and letting the world know in real time...even if this is slightly verging on the intrusive, stalker-ish side. Harnessing this location based GPS system can allow a buzz to be created around certain locations. Yet with this brings its downfalls, if individuals don't like the place they've Checked In to, then the reputation will be tarnished, ultimately posing one of the highest threats to the business (just for the whole world to see). From the picture below it shows some of the ‘hottest’ places to be in the FourSquare community, some more popular than others.
In reality it's going to take a real contender to compete with the levels of Facebook in popularity, who have now even created their own check in app...sorry FourSquare.
As you can see from this image the places trending the highest, even with 381,576, 305 Check-In's globally, is the USA, with Japan just behind. The US has embraced the FourSquare networking site as, personally, I feel it carries a status symbol with it, and we all know the US is wealth driven and celebrity culture mad - Living for the American Dream and all that. Telling everyone you know your location when its somewhere desirable can only aid as an asset to that business.
In the UK, public relations practitioners have really yet to introduce this 'social city guide' to many businesses, with restaurants and bars being the main players. The main reason for this is they have been able to offer interesting promotions for the users of FourSquare, Weatherspoons have been pioneering this on a large scale. They offer loyalty discounts to customers who Check-In regularly, making the app more appealing...yet I'm still sceptical it's ever really going to take of elsewhere in the UK.
In reality it's going to take a real contender to compete with the levels of Facebook in popularity, who have now even created their own check in app...sorry FourSquare.
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