All About That Privacy
Security and privacy seem to be the leading concerns these days when it comes to social media. I tend to look at this two ways: from a personal perspective (only using for non-work related reasons) and a marketing branding perspective.
When it comes to apps that allow users to see your location, I think from a marketing branding perspective it’s important to understand the positives. Beckland (2011) says you can target your customers at the most important moment in their buying cycle by knowing their location (para 3). It’s important to look at geo-targeting for what it can provide to a brand’s marketing strategy.
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| Source: NuSura |
Incorporating geolocation tagging into social media marketing efforts can be a fun way to interact with your target audience. From a local business perspective, encouraging customers to share their location when interacting with your brand can generate a large amount of awareness. Brands like Starbucks utilize location sharing by enabling mobile moments. Starbucks owns plenty of moments while customers are in the store or near a location and can send them notifications through their payment app.
Kerpen (2015) described a negative scenario to knowing a customer’s geolocation by mentioning a time when he was pinged outside of Macy’s in New York for an awesome offer that Marc Jacobs was promoting (Likeable Social Media, p 172). After promoting this offer to friends and approaching the desk to receive the offer, the employees had no idea of this happening. They couldn’t honor the special and instead, sent the unhappy customers away with only fragrance samples and a broken promise that someone would be in touch. This is a great example of how utilizing one’s geolocation, when not handled correctly, can lead to a very bad brand experience.
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| Source: TechieSprout |
When utilizing Twitter from a branding perspective, it’s clearly important to not create a private account. There is a risk of not allowing others to see your tweets when trying to build a following on Twitter. It’s just not possible! How can your customers begin to get to know your brand or interact with you? With that said, it’s also important to follow the advice given by Robert Siciliano, to make sure the information your brand puts out is reliable.
References:
Beckland, J. (2011, April 04). How to Use Geolocation in Your Marketing Initiatives. Retrieved from http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/how-to-use-geolocation-in-your-marketing-initiatives/
Siciliano, R. (2013, January 27). 15 Social Media Security Tips. Retrieved February 20, 2017, from blogs.mcafee.com.
Kerpen, D. (2015). Likeable Social Media. New York, NY: McGraw Hill Education.
Julia,
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading your thoughts on geolocation tactics. The Macy's example is a bummer because the ping clearly worked in attracting customers. Last semester in our Mobile Marketing class I read an example of the geolocation marketing working to both the customer and company advantage.
Adams et al (2015) described Red Roof Inn's marketing strategy to stranded airport passengers. They tracked cancelled flights and delays at nearby airports. Then the hotel was able to adapt their marketing tactics to use geolocation and target those passengers. Ads were place in social media or web spots that allowed access to their location. Ads read things like, "Stranded at the airport? Come stay with us!" and other related headlines.
Sometimes I'm weary of letting a social media app access my location. Yet this example sometimes makes me think twice. I mean, what if I miss a great offer? Something to think about.
Laura
Reference
Adams, L., Burkholder, E., & Hamilton, K. (2015). Your Guide to Winning the Shift to Mobile. Retrieved February 22 2017, from https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/research-studies/micromoments-guide-pdf-download.html
Hi Laura,
DeleteAwesome example on Red Roof Inn. The act of using geolocation to target potential customers never ceases to amaze me. It allows marketers to become creative in the digital space as well as the social. By Red Roof Inn capitalizing on a moment where a customer might be at their most stressed, it helps both themselves and the customer.
That's definitely a good example, and I hadn't heard of that one (with the Red Roof Inn). It's also very impressive of how quick they were to do that. It reminds me of something from this week. I just got back yesterday from a Conference in Phoenix called Digital Summit, where our company was one of the main sponsors. I attended a few sessions, but one of the sessions actually pertained to this.
DeleteIt was a session by someone from the marketing team with MLB's Arizona Diamondbacks. He was speaking on targeting different audiences, and how they use geo-targeting to reach different segments of fans. For example, he discussed how when the last Star Wars movie was releases, the Diamondbacks did a 'Star Wars Night' at the ballpark, where it was themed for the movie. Prior to this night, they geotargeted users at movies theaters, on the film's first two weekends, to promote their event.
Very creative and interesting!
Julia,
ReplyDeleteThanks for reminding me about the Marc Jacobs example from Scott (2015). I completely forgot about it when reading and writing this week until your brought it up. It's a great example of how things go wrong when the chain of command has no follow through. A marketing campaign, especially a geolocation one, can only be as good as the execution of the campaign. I too, like Laura, am scared sometimes of giving companies my location but sometimes if the company does it correctly and is mindful of the needs of their customers they can provide a great, additional service due to the advances in technology.
In CMO's article "Geolocation Marketing Must Aim At 3 Customer Values" Pun (2014) lists the three musts a company should include in a successful geo-marketing strategy: ease and convenience, time & money, wow & delight. Lives should be made easier, they should save your customer money, and they should have a "wow" factor or offer your customer something creative and unique.
I would agree that those are good takeaways for a geolocation marketing campaign.
Lena
Reference
Pun, Ray. (2014, April 9). Geolocation Marketing Must Aim At 3 Customer Values. CMO. Retrieved from http://www.cmo.com/opinion/articles/2014/4/4/your_geolocation_mar.html#gs.Y4DB2es
Hi Lena,
DeleteI agree with the three musts you listed. The example Laura gave in response to my blog can relate to making lives easier. What's easier than seeing an ad that says "Stranded at the airport?" right after your flight is canceled?"
I think it's especially important for companies to use geolocation to their advantage with the customer in mind because of the sensitivity around privacy. Might be just me, but it seems less annoying to get a ping or be served a social ad that, because it's based on specific information, is tailored to my location in order to help me. I'd definitely be more likely to click on that.
Thanks for your insight!
Agreed with that Julia. It's fine in doses, and if it actually provides relevancy and value to the consumer. If I'm walking into a retail store and receive a notification informing me about a big sale that's happening, then fine... however, we've all seen where irrelevancy will enter your notifications, and then that's when it becomes frustrating.
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