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Social Media

Target, Talk, and Tune In: How Social Video and Audience Tools Are Changing the Game

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Instagram’s Longer Ads Redefine Short-Form Storytelling

Instagram expands its video ad capabilities globally this month, enabling up to 60-second videos. For marketers, this opens the door to more detailed, emotionally-driven content—while still remaining native to the platform’s visual-first ecosystem.

With more room to tell a story, brands can now build trust by sharing product journeys, behind-the-scenes footage, or authentic user moments—all without disrupting the user experience.

Facebook’s Organic Targeting Gets Smarter

Facebook rolls out its Audience Optimization tools for organic content. These features allow publishers and brands to tag interests, restrict visibility by demographics, and better align their messages with the right segments.

Instead of blasting posts to everyone, content now has a smarter path—delivered to those most likely to engage. This reinforces the value of strategic messaging and relevance over reach.

Twitter Encourages Conversation with New Ad Formats

Twitter introduces Conversational Ads and Fan Polls, giving users a chance to engage more meaningfully with branded content. These ads allow people to choose from branded messages or vote in interactive polls—turning users into active participants rather than passive viewers.

It’s a move toward community-led marketing, where the audience becomes co-creator and ambassador.

Live-Streaming Builds Trust and Immediacy

As live-streaming platforms like Periscope, Meerkat, and YouNow continue to gain traction, creators and brands are rethinking how they connect. Going live isn’t just an event—it’s an invitation to be real, to build transparency, and to engage in the moment.

This is no longer a trend for early adopters—it’s a shift in how we show up. The future is unfiltered, unscripted, and urgent.

Strategic Insight: Know Your People, Then Perform

• What’s your story? You’re not just sharing content—you’re opening a dialogue.
• What do you solve? You create content that’s relevant to specific segments, not just the masses.
• How do you do it? You use video to build trust, targeting tools to fine-tune your reach, and interactive formats to foster engagement.
• Why do they care? Because your content doesn’t just speak—it listens.

Fictional Ideas

A fitness coach starts a weekly live Q&A on Periscope, answering wellness questions in real time. She posts behind-the-scenes prep videos on Instagram using the 60-second format, showing how she sets up her routine.

On Facebook, she tags interest categories related to health and mindfulness to ensure her blog content reaches the right people. Meanwhile, on Twitter, she uses Conversational Ads to poll her audience about the next workout topic they want to learn.

Each channel becomes a personalized touchpoint—driving attention without paid noise.

References

Instagram for Business. (2016). 60-Second Video Ads Now Available Globally. https://business.instagram.com/blog/60-second-video-ads
Facebook Newsroom. (2016). Audience Optimization for Publishers. https://www.facebook.com/business/news/audience-optimization
Twitter Blog. (2016). Introducing Conversational Ads. https://blog.twitter.com/2016/introducing-conversational-ads
TechCrunch. (2016). Live Streaming Services Battle for Supremacy. https://techcrunch.com/2016/01/14/periscope-vs-meerkat/
Marketing Land. (2016). Twitter Adds New Poll Features. https://martech.org/twitter-adds-poll-options/

Making the Social Connection an Emotional Connection

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Jeffrey Hayzlett's 4 EsMarketers know that the best way to reach their audience is to drive an emotional connection between the brand and the end user. With the advent of social media and mobile marketing, we have an exceptional advantage to driving that connection.
Customers are no longer sharing their experiences of your brand between the hours of nine to five, Monday to Friday via the 800 number they were traditionally pushed through. Their experiences have become part of your brand’s story, online, for the world to see, 24 hours a day. So how are you telling your story?
Consider the 4 E’s:  Engage, Educate, Excite, Evangelize. Here are five tips all marketers should consider when crafting the story for their brand.
Engage:
Identify your target audience.  Decide what the key words are for your industry.  Embrace the opportunity to engage with your community in two-way conversation daily.  Trust and loyalty are built over time, as with any good relationship.  Remember, if you suck offline, you suck online!
Educate:
Your customers don’t know what they don’t know.  By engaging in communities where your customers are, you are raising awareness about what it is your business does, and adding value to the relationship.  Joining the conversation could be as simple as answering questions they may have, ie. friendsourcing.  This allows an opportunity to learn from each other; you educate them and they educate you.  Then you’re on your way to positioning yourself as an influencer and industry leader.
Excite:
Be authentic, be positive, be transparent.  I align my business with leaders: are forward-thinking, action-oriented risk-takers, who maintain a positive outlook.  There will always be those who are not (ie. twankers).  By engaging positively, you’re able to insert your unique value proposition into the relationship, and instill excitement around your product/service.
Evangelize:
Identify the influencers within each community:  hashtags are an effective method of organizing tweets around a particular topic.  They are created around an event or an existing community.  Use them!  Once you have an engaged, educated, excited community, the evangelizing will happen naturally.
Make this a priority!
Don’t be left behind, the conversations are going on with or without you.  And remember, incorporating a social media policy is vital when your team is representing your business.
Guest Post by:
JWH_AuthorPic2012Jeffrey Hayzlett, Bestselling Author, Global Business Celebrity & Sometime Cowboy
JEFFREY HAYZLETT is a global business celebrity and former Fortune 100 c-suite executive. From small business to international corporations, he has put his creativity and extraordinary entrepreneurial skills into play, launching ventures blending his leadership perspectives, insights into professional development, mass marketing prowess and affinity for social media. He is a well-traveled public speaker, the author of the bestselling business books, The Mirror Test and Running the Gauntlet, and one of the most compelling figures in global business.
Jeffrey is an esteemed business and marketing expert, appearing frequently on programs like Fox Business News, MSNBC’s Your Business, Bloomberg West, and NBC’s Celebrity Apprentice with Donald Trump. Drawing upon an eclectic background in business, buoyed by a stellar track record of keynote speaking, and deeply rooted in cowboy lore, Jeffrey energizes his role driving and delivering change. He is a turnaround architect of the highest order, a maverick marketer who delivers scalable campaigns, embraces traditional modes of customer engagement, and possesses a remarkable cachet of mentorship, corporate governance and brand building.

Social Marketing With Photos

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They say a picture is worth a thousand words—a concept advertisers and marketers have practiced for years. As marketers switched to social media, though, photos were temporarily sidelined in favor of short snippets of text.
But the photo is coming back. Tweens and teens have flooded Instagram with photos of new outfits and artistic nail polish. As these all-too-impressionable young consumers browse through thousands of photos on various social media sites, marketers are learning that if you want to reach younger generations, a picture is worth morethan a thousand words.
Whether your marketing campaign is targeted to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or a combination of all of the above, there are a few tips to keep in mind.
Keep It Interesting
Consumers log into social media sites for a variety of reasons, many of which revolve around being entertained. Pinterest and Instagram have become so successful because they provide a way for users to share concepts in one simple image, engaging them and inciting them to post comments.
But it’s important to come across as though you’re sharing interesting ideas rather than simply pushing a product. A sofa company, for instance, would do better to post photos of a uniquely-decorated room featuring their sofas rather than simply posting a photo of a sofa. A service-oriented business like a pest control company could post humorous photos of their workers, either on the job or hanging around the office. These photos humanize the business, making customers feel as though they are part of the family.
Run Contests
Several restaurant chains have invited customers to upload a picture of themselves dining in the restaurant to a social media site. For major chains, sometimes the promise of fifteen minutes of fame on a prominent social media site may be enough incentive to participate. However, smaller businesses may have to offer a large monetary prize. Customers will have fun and businesses will see their social media pages filled with interesting photos.
Pay Attention
The great thing about social media is that you’ll usually know instantly whether a photo is a hit with followers or not. Pay attention to your likes, shares, and retweets and note what time of day they happen. If some photos are more popular than others, stick with those types of photos in the future. You’ll begin to get a feel for your demographic in order to be able to better appeal to them after only a short time.
Remember, photos are only a part of social media marketing. Hashtags are still important, as are regular text updates. Don’t discount yourself as a personality in your social media campaigns. Some of the most successful social media campaigns involve the face of the company updating followers on their adventures as they travel, hang out with clients, and enjoy their own products.
 
john lessnauGuest Blogger:
During 2003, John Lessnau popularized Text Link Advertising when he founded LinkAdage.com John is working at doing the same thing 10 years later with social media links at his new website SocialLinkMart.com. Social Link Mart is an open Social Media Link Marketplace for SEOs, website owners, and social media enthusiasts to buy Facebook likes or buy and sell Facebook Shares, Google Plus Shares, and Twitter Tweets. Social link sellers are ranked by social media authority which keeps the bots and spammers out and real people in.

A Look at Google+ [INTERNSHIP]

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At first Google+ was launched as an individual only field test. Google soon after received an outstanding demand for new accounts and then opened it up to people over the age of eighteen. A few months later Google plus was opened for the younger age group. It’s obvious to see that Google plus received a better outcome then they expected. What make’s Google+ so different is because it’s not a social network. However, online communities can emerge from Google+ making it a wonderful side effect that no one’s complaining about.
Google+ is more than an ordinary destination site. Google+ goal is to make sharing on the web like sharing in real life. In order to make this possible, they provided their users with efficient tools that are easy to use. Some of their features include circles, hangouts, messenger, and search in Google+. Their unique timeline is called a “stream” which displays three columns with content from the people in their circles and an input box.
Circles are a way of Google+ organizing their users’ pages into groups for sharing. Circles can be labeled as friends, family, co-workers, acquaintances, etc. This just makes it really easy for you to share certain content with certain people. You can filter your stream to show content from your specific circles. Hangouts are a place where video chats can take place with up to 10 people. This can come in handy when a business wants to have a group chat within a short notice and make it sufficiently.
The messenger feature is cool because it allows communication within Google+ circles. The messages are instant which is always convenient, especially when businesses are talking to clients via messenger. Search in Google+ allows users to search any content within Google+. This feature makes it easy for a user to find exactly what they are looking for. The search results will contain relevant posts and people, and popular content from the web. Depending on the keywords you chose to describe your business will help people get a better understanding of what you do.
Google+ makes it possible to make sociable accounts. In Google Analytics it offers social reports that show how Google+ influences your business, recommendations on your site, and what visitor from social networking sites come to see your site. Google+ also has another feature called Ripples which allows you to visualize who is sharing your content.
There are over 250 million Google+ users, which was recently unofficially proposed to now be closer to 400 million. On this social website, it’s impossible not to establish new connections. Networking can’t be done any easier with Google+. The site is continuing to grow and add on new features to help benefit individuals and businesses.
Sources:

The content in this article is part of Digital Ethos’s Digital Media Education in the Higher Education Internship Program, the content was created by @KaylaMarzo, a Student at Suffolk County Community college, intern at Digital Ethos.

A Look at Pinterest [INTERNSHIP]

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Pinterest calls themselves a “virtual pin board”. This website is known for connecting people from all over the world through common tastes and interests. There are many uses for Pinterest including finding new recipes and do it yourself projects. The content that you post is called “pins” and your pins get organized in boards. Pinterest is interesting because it lets you browse other people’s boards and “repin” the content you like onto your own boards. This website offers content like pictures, videos, recipes, tutorials, and much more.

The Pinterest logo in banner form
The Pinterest Logo © Pinterest, in banner form from the site www.lawyerist.com

In order to effectively use Pinterest, you need to make sure your content speaks louder than words. Since Pinterest is solely based on pictures, you need to make sure your pictures are high quality; let your pictures do all the talking. You also want to credit all your content from where it came from so it won’t tarnish your rep. Your boards on your homepage is what keeps your content organized. Using your boards correctly will benefit you when you’re trying look back at your posts. You can have as little or as many boards as you’d like. Pinterest lets you rename them and change the cover picture of your boards. For example, if you found a picture of gourmet food that looks good to you; post this under your board that relates to “Food”.
There are so many things you can do with Pinterest. You can plan your wedding on it, find new recipes, see what the latest style is, and so much more.  Pinterest lets you use keywords to find specific or general things you are looking for. You don’t even have to repin content, you can simply like or comment it. Your likes show up on your homepage under a different category than boards. Just like Twitter, you can follow other people and they can follow you. The people you follows content will show up on your “following” home page. This is different than your actual homepage because your homepage is filled with just your content.
When you repin something, Pinterest gives you the option to follow that person’s board that you repined from. This is a quick easy way to follow more people and make your following homepage more diverse. It’s said that when people go on Pinterest, they go on to just browse around. Pinterest is a great website for just browsing around because they have so many different categories to choose from. Aside from the popular page, categories range from health and fitness, science and nature, cars and motorcycles, travel, sports, and many more. It’s not a mystery that Pinterest can be used by anyone.
Pinterest can be used by small businesses, large corporations and anywhere in between. The first step to market your business on the site is to add the Pinterest button on your website. This will increase the awareness of your customers showing them that you have a Pinterest page. Just like in any other case, key words are the key! If you are an up and coming gym and you want to attract more customers, you would want to post pictures of your gym and services, pictures of your equipment, and even videos of small work outs to show them what you have to offer. The cool thing about Pinterest is the hyper linking. If you post a picture of your equipment on the site, a customer can click the picture and be brought to your website.
You want to target your audience on Pinterest by using key words that appeal to what they’re looking for. Once you’ve got their attention you want to keep it by pinning as much relevant content as you can. A recently new feature on Pinterest allows you to create a “secret board”. This can be helpful in so many ways. For businesses, if you are in the mix of making a new board and don’t want to post it right away, a secret board is right for you. This gives extra time in preparing the board and making sure it is just right for your audience when it’s ready to be posted.
Pinterest is a great source of referral traffic for websites and blogs. It drives in more traffic than Google+, Youtube, and LinkedIn combined! At the moment, Pinterest has 11 million users and is getting more every day. This site is a great because the content brings traffic directly to your website with one click. If you use this site correctly, there’s no other way to build up your brand name on the web.
Sources:
http://pinterest.com/
http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/26-tips-for-using-pinterest-for-business/
http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/pinterest-marketing-what-marketers-need-to-know-to-succeed/
http://www.examiner.com/article/how-to-create-a-secret-board-on-pinterest-for-the-holidays
 
The content in this article is part of Digital Ethos’s Digital Media Education in the Higher Education Internship Program, the content was created by @KaylaMarzo, a Student at Suffolk County Community college, intern at Digital Ethos.

A Look at Reddit [INTERNSHIP]

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Reddit.com is a different kind of social network. It is a social news website that allows their users to submit content in the form of either a link or text and share it with the Reddit community. The site has their own kind of search optimization that allows users to rise to the top of the page. Users vote on the content “up” or “down”. Up meaning their content rises to the top of the page giving them more visibility, and down meaning you get pushed to the bottom of the page.
Reddit runs a bulletin board type of system. This makes it easy to scroll through content. On the home page, there are many different categories you can browse through. Categories include politics, world news, gaming, technology, music, science, and much more. Fortunately Reddit allows you to edit and add categories you want visible on your home page. This gives the users personalization.
The users can scroll through different kinds of content. The content can be informational, funny, newsworthy, etc. Users post things you can find in a history textbook or even a fashion magazine. There are many different ways you can learn from Reddit. The site keeps up with everything going on in the world by posting breaking news. For example the shootings in Aurora, Colorado were posted almost instantly after it happened. They kept the information updated even days after.  Find out what kind of dinosaurs existed millions of years ago, or find out what’s going on in space. Reddit follows free speech, so they don’t discriminate on any kinds of content.
Even though Reddit is considered a news website, it can still help businesses. The best way to market on their site is to find content that pertains to your audience and target market. You want to be able to understand and listen to the content carefully so you will be able to contribute something of value. If you want to find specific content, Reddit allows you to search by keywords. Sharing content is also simple on Reddit. You can share the information to your followers on twitter, Facebook friends, your Google+ page, or you can even pin it on Pinterest by pressing their individual button on the top of the page.
In recent months Reddit’s popularity has grown tremendously. The social news site obtains over three million page views a month and has over 43 million monthly active users. It’s easy to see why Reddit’s slogan is “The front page of the internet”. Individuals, small businesses, and large corporations can all benefit from having an account on Reddit.
Sources:

The content in this article is part of Digital Ethos’s Digital Media Education in the Higher Education Internship Program, the content was created by @KaylaMarzo, a Student at Suffolk County Community college, intern at Digital Ethos.

A look at StumbleUpon [INTERNSHIP]

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StumbleUpon is an interesting social media website that provides you with all different kinds of content. You can personalize your own Stumbleupon page to your own interests. This will give your own home page that is personalized to content and stories that you might be interested in. StumbleUpon recommends to you stories and content that interests you. Not only do they offer graphics, but they offer recipes, inspirational stories, videos, the latest fashion, and more. When you are browsing articles and other content, you are given the choice to like or dislike the content. By doing this, this allows your content to be even more narrowed down to the things you like. It’s like exploring the internet that’s specifically made for you.
To browse, simply press the “stumble” button in the top left corner of the screen. Every click is like a new adventure to come across. One click you can see the majestic beaches of Italy, and the next click could be teaching you how to make a rainbow cheesecake. Stumbleupon offers many fascinating features.  Besides liking content that interests you, there is content that can educate you. The settings in Stumble Upon are so definitive that you can change your interests at any time. If one day you’re interested in baking and the next you’re not, you can delete it and add your newest fad.
StumbleUpon gives you the option of sharing the content with your Facebook friends, Twitter followers, and your LinkedIn connections. This will benefit any individual, small business or large corporation. Sharing engaging information with colleagues will lead into a conversation and allow you to exchange your ideas. Make sure the content that you are sharing is relevant. This will benefit you in the long run because it will be much simpler to communicate on a common ground. For example, if you are a toy manufacturer and you want to reach out to toy stores; you will want to share content on why the toys you generate are the best.
StumbleUpon is a great social site for those that are trying to break into the digital space, especially when you consider that social media success is often measured in terms of influence or those that can talk about more than themselves. StumbleUpon can help those new to digital content find stories and share things that complete their personal or professional interests. StumbleUpon helps provide great content that’s relevant to your individual persona and lets you share it.
With 25 million users, StumbleUpon seems to be on the right track towards popularity. They are working hard and fast to become a household name. It is a fun way to see the internet specialized just for you. It’s also a good way to open up conversations and share common interests with your peers.
Sources

The content in this article is part of Digital Ethos’s Digital Media Education in the Higher Education Internship Program, the content was created by @KaylaMarzo, a Student at Suffolk County Community college, intern at Digital Ethos.

Twitter [INTERNSHIP]

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It is clear to see how Twitter can be part of our daily lives. Some people feel the need to keep their followers updated on their lives, and some people use it to educate people. The good thing about twitter is that there is a personal use, and a business use. Twitter allows people to engage on all different kinds of levels, from fun random facts to hard breaking news.  This social site makes it easy to connect and stay connected with everyone around the world.
At times, Twitter can be like one big chat room. Twitter chats can be initiated by a common hash tag. Chats are not private, so everyone can say what people are talking about. This can be a good thing because it can be used as a business tool. A great advantage to non private chat rooms can be onlookers checking out what you’re talking about. For example if you are talking about a specific or topic, you might be able to segway into your new retail business by explaining  what you offer how it solves that need and perhaps some cool deals. Onlookers will see this and be informed about your business and you may gain a new group of followers. Use the twitter chat to your advantage. However, treat Twitter like a social event not a sales floor, talk about the things around your product or service before you even mention something that’s for sale.
In order to chat with people on a certain topic, hash tags (#) are the way to go. For personal use, when someone wants to talk about the recent political debate on twitter all that person has to do is hash tag a keyword. For example, you might want to use “#politicaldebate” or even “#presidentialdebate”. This will allow users to engage with people besides their followers.
For a business use, one might want to get their company’s name out there. A good idea for the business is to tweet something about their business that will appeal to people and hash tag their company’s name. To even go a step further, you can hash tag keywords that describe your company and their products or services. For example, if a new car dealership opens locally, a good idea is to hash tag the town they are located in and hash tag keywords like the type of cars and offers.  If a business owner believes they have a great idea, twitter is one of the ways to put it out there and test it. Just like anything else, make sure your topics are about issues, stories of solutions, tweets that just talk at the public tend to do poorly compared to ones that are there to start or participate in a conversation.
Twitter has great marketing potential. Your twitter page is a spinning image of you. You want to come off as professional as you can. Your twitter background and avatar are canvases that allow you to be personal and reflect yourself on the page.  For personal use you want to use this space to describe yourself. It is a proven fact that people make judgments within a second. The same goes for a company trying to brand themselves on twitter. Making their page unique and constantly updating will stick out in people’s minds. The twitter bio allows users to describe who they are and what they do. For personal and business use, overlooking the twitter bio would be a huge disadvantage. This is the time where you should be personable and make someone want to be your follower.
An easy way to gain and keep followers is to produce content. Not just any content however, but content that is interesting, educational, and appealing to a wide variety of people. You want to reach a wide range audience, so make sure that your content isn’t directed to just one group of people. Producing constant content will keep your twitter “alive” and gain followers daily. When there is content, there is feedback. With a single hash tag you can grab a worldwide audience. Feedback is important for any business because it tells you to either continue what you’re doing, or improve on a certain aspect. Good feedback can be an advantage for your twitter because other people can see that people like your content. However, there is always bad feedback. It all depends on how you handle the bad feedback that will allow you to come out once again stronger on top.
Twitter has become part of our daily lives. It would be a company’s huge disadvantage if they didn’t use twitter to brand themselves. Twitter is a great marketing social media site. It is easy to use and interact with people from all over the world. Once you figure out a keyword to represent yourself or your company, you’re sure to succeed on Twitter.
Sources:

The content in this article is part of Digital Ethos’s Digital Media Education in the Higher Education Internship Program, the content was created by @KaylaMarzo, a Student at Suffolk County Community college, intern at Digital Ethos.

How Can Pinterest Help your Retail Store

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When brands like JCPenny, The Gap, Honda, McDonalds, and Banana Republic make it to Pinterest, you know that Pinterest means business. And it does, although Pinterest was not intended to be a business venture, but like other social networking sites, it has found a niche. It is rapidly growing and provides a visual delight to its visitors, and now features a platform for businesses and retail stores to display their products.

Pinterest for Retail


Well it’s no secret, Pinterest is pretty. It is a visual delight and provides that ultimate virtual experience of window shopping. Your retail store too can become a part of the ever growing retail community.
According to the 2012 Social and Mobile Commerce Study released by Shop.org, Pinterest users follow an average of 9.3 retail companies whereas Facebook users only follow 6.9. This is reason enough why more and more retail brands are making sure that they keep up with the new trends in e-commerce. And you can do the same, here’s how:

1. Product Marketing

You can put pictures of your products which link back to your websites. Pinterest has a high click through rate, so pinning those pictures will lead to visitors, who may find your product appealing enough to visit your website to make a purchase. Even if a visitor does not intend to buy the product but finds it visually appealing, chances are he or she would re pin it, which will market your product free of cost.

2. Know what’s Trending

By following your followers or even your competition you will know what’s trending. Especially in case your product is related to fashion e.g. clothing or accessories, see what’s making the news and pin pictures which relate to it. For instance if a certain celebrity is trending or a certain color or silhouette then pin or re pin pictures of your products that reflect those trends. By following your followers you will also be able to get a better idea about their tastes and preferences. It will provide that much needed feedback and insight into your customers or potential customers tastes.

3. Picture Perfect Sales

Any sale via the web requires serious selling techniques, with Pinterest it’s the visual tactic. And it has been known to work. So even if you do not sell products but services, then pin pictures that relate to it. For instance if you are an event management company then pinning  pictures of your completed projects or pictures that display themes or ideas will attract potential customers.

4. Links

Don’t forget to link your website with Pinterest with a “Find us on Pinterest” link on your website. Also link your website with other social networking sites, especially Facebook and Twitter, this will let your pins then appear on the newsfeed of those sites. This will mean more traffic and will attract customers from other social networking sites too.
Pinterest is only 2 years old and it already has millions of users and a profitable retail presence. So it’s about time that you jump on the bandwagon and make the most of it.
Pantelis Vladimirou is the Co-Foudner of Webarts, which is using Pinterest and other Social Media as part of its Cyprus Digital Marketing strategy for its clients.

10 Ways to Use Foursquare for Business

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Foursquare is a location-based smartphone application which offers check-in service to customers, marketers and businesses alike. You can use this mobile application to check-in to venues and share with your friends where you are, and obtain info about those places.  Based on your updates, the application might assign you merit badges. It’s an interesting social concept for consumers and at the same time, a strong business tool that can be potentially used for creating brand awareness and profits. Hence if you want to leverage your business, this platform platform is worth looking at for several reasons. To do this, you’ll have to understand how it works. There are 10 ways to use Foursquare for business. To help you get an idea about promoting your own business through this platform, there are a few tips discussed below.
How to use foursquare for business
To begin with, check your business on Foursquare. If your business is not there, add it and then, claim it on the listing. Connect your Twitter account with the listing. This process is quite simple. Once this is done, you can proceed further to use Foursquare for business promotion. In this endeavor, following things can be done:

  1. Create interesting deals to draw in customers. Deals can easily be created if you have claimed your business on this platform. You can give special discounts to those users who checks in to your business, for instance – announce to give 10% off on one’s next merchandise shopping. However, just ensure that your deals are special and creative so that new customers get attracted and keep coming back to you.
  2. Design reward-based programs on Foursquare for loyal customers to retain them. If deals help you draw new customers, rewarding those who are regular visitors to your business is useful in winning their loyalty. It can create a bond between your customers and the business and entice them to come back to you. Your reward-based programs should be smart and intelligently devised, for instance – a program asking one to check in 5 times in 15 days and win a surprise gift.
  3. Use Foursquare to collect demographic details of your customers. Through this platform, you can know the average check-in rate of a customer, his/ her age and gender, check-in timings and where he or she is sharing the check-in details – on Facebook or Twitter.
  4. Another interesting way to use Foursquare for business promotion is to get feedback from your customers about your business. Customers can leave their comments or tips about a particular venue they visit. You can use their feedback to bring improvisation in your business.
  5. Foursquare is a powerful medium to advertize your business for free. When you claim your business and optimize the listing by adding authentic contact details and website, you increase the chances of promoting your business across various social networking sites which are used by millions.
  6. If your business doesn’t have a physical presence, you can use Foursquare to set up a page instead of claiming a venue. Foursquare page is not much different from a Twitter page. Those who follow your business on Foursquare can obtain information about you from there.
  7. You can enter a partnership with other brands which are physically present to derive optimum benefit. For instance if you are a book publisher, join hands with a local bookstore to increase the reach of your business.
  8. Design Foursquare event at your venue to boost massive check-ins and brand consciousness.
  9. You can encourage your staff to join Foursquare and check-in at your venue there whenever they report to work. This will also help spread awareness about your business among their friends and followers.
  10. You can also share useful tips on Foursquare to engage with your customers and thereby, attract their attention to your business.

These are few ways to use Foursquare for business. You can use these and other innovative techniques as well to make success out of your business.
Edoardo Piccolotto, is an Internet Marketing and Strategic Consultant that provides specific strategy advices to business that want to use internet to generate new business opportunities. Follow him on twitter @epiccolotto.