Should You Use Location Based Services?

Location based services have a lot of buzz around them. Should these services be a part of your Social Media Marketing strategy as a small business? If so which one should you use? Today I am going to talk about the first whether or not you should include a Location based service as part of your Social Media Strategy. In upcoming blog posts I will discuss the different Location based services.

Before I get into answer the question, I want to make sure everyone knows what Location based services are. Location based services are websites usually with mobile apps that allow you to check-in. A check-in is basically letting people know that you are at a specific location. The mobile apps use the phones GPS to determine what locations are near where the person is at.

So should your business include Location based services, yes if you have a physical location that clients and/or customers will be coming to for the following 3 reasons:

1. When customers check into your location you can see how often they come to your establishment in numbers and be better prepared to service customers.
2. You will be able to track whether customers are saying good or bad things about your business.
3. You will be able to see if customers are recommend a particular item, and promote this item better by referring to it as a customer favorite.

What are the basics you should do for Location based services?

1. Claim your Location.
2. Post Logo showing that you participate in Location based service.
3. Monitor people checking into Location based services.
4. Offer a special at random times to customers who have checked in.

Do you have to participate in all the different services? No, you do not need to participate in all the services, however, you should claim your location with all the services. This way people will be able to find you in which ever service they choose to use. You can also check them to see if you should switch to a different service as your primary service in the event that you find your customers using a different service more.

The following is the list of different services competing in the Location Based check-in industry.

1. Foursquare
2. Gowalla
3. Facebook (Places)
4. Google (Places)
5. SCVNGR
6. WHRRL