Location Location Location: A viewpoint on location based marketing

Where are you?
I am currently sitting HERE.

Do you even care where I am? Although I love that couch and I'm there quite often there is a good chance I'm not there when you read this. What are you going to do with that information?

• Write it in your journal?
• Blog about it?
• Ask me how it was sitting on that amazingly beautiful couch?
• Be jealous and wish that your rear end was experiencing the same comfort mine was? 
• Nothing?
• Wonder why I asked you all these questions?

I don't expect any of you to come visit but if you did I would be flattered. I'd even share some of my muddy buddies and Mountain Dew.

What do I get out of you visiting?

1. Friendship
2. A good conversation
3. Possibly a cuddle buddy for a scary movie
4. A pillow talk companion (My favorite pillow talk topics are usually business ideas or my latest crush... I only have 2 pillows so if you bring friends it's strictly BYOP)

What do you get out of visiting me?

1. 1-4 above
2. Free muddy buddies and Mountain Dew
3. The ultimate rear end comfort experience
4. etc...

So as you can tell it's a win-win situation! What's stopping you from coming over? I'll even check you in while you're here and MORE friends can find out about it and enjoy the same perks you will! This is the best idea I've ever heard of!

Location based marketing can be a VERY valuable tool. I will share with you an experience from a recent trip to Seattle. 

                                                                     Here's a picture for visual stimulation :)

I was with a few friends in a part of town I'd never been to. It was late and we just flew in so we were pretty hungry. We looked on Foursquare (A location based social media app on my phone) and saw a ton of great recommendations from a bar open 24/7 just a couple blocks away. Looking through the suggestions and tips that people had left I could tell it was a very popular place because there were hundreds of people that had posted. I used that to help me decide what to order and even followed a tip to go "pee in the hole in the wall in the men's restroom" I HAD to go check that out! Needless to say there was a hole and I may or may not have peed in it. 

What can I gather from that? With the help of literally hundreds of people I have never met I got great information when I needed it exactly where I needed it. The food was actually really good and it made for a great experience. If you were the "mayor" of that place you got a free draft beer every time you came in too. Not a bad way to market your bar and get people to check-in and talk about it. 

In situations like that I think LBS like Foursquare are incredibly useful. As a student I am not traveling very much nor do I eat at a lot of restaurants that I haven't heard anything about. Therefore any opinion I have is strictly bias by the aforementioned terms. However, I do see a really good use for these apps in bustling cities. 

Mashable has a great article about how to use these services to your advantage and I think they outline a lot of really relevant points for companies looking to market in different ways. 

SEE HERE----> 9 Killer tips for location based marketing

On the other hand I can't stand people who use these applications to check into every little place they go and plaster it all over their Facebook and twitter to brag about what they do or for whatever other reasons they come up with for doing it. This is the very reason these services leave a bad taste in people's mouths. I believe this guy sums it up quite well.

If you use these for a good purpose DO IT! Take full advantage of it!! Make money for your business or just find great places to go!

If you're just using it because you think you're cool and want to use every social application you can and show all your friends how cool you are (did I mention proving to your friends that you are cool?) Please stop. You're most definitely killing your social media cred and I don't think that is what you are trying to do... Just a little friendly advice :)

BST