Real Time online marketing is in vogue. Certainly Twitter is the leading proponent and the highest ranked of it's kind but many are following in its footsteps with variations on a theme. The biggest comer at this point is Foursquare.com. They have already surpassed others in this genre like Gowalla and BirghtKite. What they did is become successful through an easy interface, and a bit of game playing. One way they do it is points competition as well as making you the Mayor of a location if you check in the most. So for instance if I go to Starbucks for morning coffee and I check in I can announce ot my friends on Foursquare, Twitter, and Facebook I am there come join me. When I become Mayor by going there the most it automatically sends that out also.
I got into this in a big way, and just like with points here on Active Rain that can get agents to compete, I went headlong into the virtual combat of Foursquare. In no time I was a Mayor of 11 different locations. Top of the world Ma! as James Cagney said in White Heat. Then it started to get crazy. If I gassed my car I Foursquared, if I went to eat I Foursquare, and if I went home I Foursquared. And I thought at least I was samrt enough not to play Farmville or Mafia Wars on Facebook. Gradually I relaized that ognoring stupidity in one area does not amke up for being stupid in another. Let me give you my two very large objections to overdoing real time marketing that is geoocal.
Narcisssim. One definition is self-love that shuts out everyone else. Why do we think that everything we do is significant? When we do pull marketing it is all about the benefit others gained from the information we gacve them with ease of access. But in this era of I want to connect with all my ex-girlfriends on Facebook and be the mayor of all the locations, it just seems a bit self-centered to think that where we gas up is right up there with news of the Gulf oil spill. Trust me it isn't. So I am not saying don't use real time geolocation marketing at all, just be selective and promote places that are truly great that when people go there they think you are a believer in quality. McDonalds won't do that.
Spam. I have a couple of Realtors here competing to be Super-Mayors. First I get their checkins on my email inbox, but not anymore. I now threat the like spam so I do my Outlook right click and send them to blocked sender oblivion. Then when this constantly comes up on Facebook just like with an inbox, your stream is clogged with checkins. In either case, I don't think this builds a professional image when you have ten or more checkins per day. I still believe in permission based marketing and coutesy. If I let you opt in, don't spam me.
Conclusion. I look at social marketing as an ongoing experiment. Over two years ago I started on a blogging quest thay eventaully included Active Rain. The marketing now includes Twitter and facebook business pages as well as the "old school" web site updated with IDX and landing pages. Truly social marketing is now like combat where you need the ground troops, the Air Force, and the navy to coordinate an attack. Geolocal real time marketing is evolving and it has it's place in your strategy. Just make sure it is not all about you.
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