What Does Foursquare Do?

Once you check-in to a certain location there could be tips, deals, and other information regarding your whereabouts. The tips are great since people that leave tips generally have been to the place multiple times. It’s great to know that when I’m at Gate C8 in the airport there is free coffee from 6AM-10AM. There are also pictures posted from previous check-ins. So you might get to see what the food looks like at the restaurant you’re at or how many people attended a past event at the venue you’re at. For me personally, the best part of a check-in is if a deal comes with it. For instance, ever other time I check-in to YEAH! Burger I get 15% off my entire check. Not too shabby for a measly tap of a button. Another fun feature is if you check in to certain places sometimes you earn a badge, and if you check-in somewhere the most you could become the mayor. Right now my favorite badge I’ve earned is the “Fresh Brew” badge that I won after several check-ins at coffee houses. As for my mayorships? Not terribly impressive, but I am mayor of Everspark!  Check out some screenshots of Foursquare in action:

Pretty nifty right?

It’s even better when you think about it from a business perspective. Here’s a few examples of what businesses have done with Foursquare and how you can use it to leverage your own business’ marketing.

The City Badge

Right now, Foursquare is in the process of creating badges for cities in the US and abroad. Users can send in lists of places they believe are go-to destinations in their respective cities. This was a by-product of the White House’s initiative to boost US cities’ tourism. If your business made it onto one of these lists it may be considered one of THE places to go in your city. Atlanta’s badge was launched on December 22 along with Singapore’s. To earn the peach badge just check-in to 5 of the 75 locations on Foursqares Atlanta List. (I even submitted a list for my hometown!

These are the recently released city badges for Atlanta and Singapore. 

Mayors have klout!

If you have a business that people come to a lot, be sure to pay attention to who the mayor is. They’re the customer that frequents your establishment the most.  Chances are they bring you a good amount of business personally and with referrals to friends. The Boston Phoenix even does articles on the mayors of different businesses around Boston.  One quirky perk is a special parking spot for the mayor of the Marketfair Mall in Princeton, NJ:

This is by far the coolest perk of using Foursquare that I’ve come across so far!

Foursquare Explore

A new feature on Foursquare is the explore option. All consumers have to do is type in what they’re looking for or choose from the Foursquare categories (Specials, Food, Coffee, Nightlife…etc.). This is a great tool because if your business is in the vicinity of someone it will show up in their search (based on relevance, of course). The search results can depend on where a person’s been before, where they haven’t been before, and where their friends have been.  For restaurants in particular they’ve added full menus to the Foursquare website (coming soon to the app). Looks like I’m going to the Cheesecake factory for dinner tonight…

Foursquare explore is like it’s own local search engine.

Foursquare for Business

The most important feature for businesses on foursquare though is the Business or Brand Page that you can create. Here you can gain total control of your location (with manager approval). With this control come options to link your Twitter page and create deals for your customers. Think of this page as a supplement to your website, Facebook page, and Twitter. It’s a quadruple threat with Foursquare monitoring customers that come and go in real time. A case study (via Foursquare) showed that a steak house in Manhattan differentiated itself by offering a free dessert with every check in. The steak house saw 400 people check-in to redeem the deal and had an estimated $18,000 ROI.

Skeptical? Don’t Be

Skeptical about Foursquare’s reach and its effectiveness?  In 2010 alone the mobile check-in app grew 3400% (that like a 5ft person growing 1700ft taller in one year!).  Today they have over 15 million users in the US and abroad and have reached the 1.5 billion check-in threshold. Their business pages exceed 600,000. According to Foursquare, Radioshack launched a business page to spur business and provide deals to their most loyal customers. Radioshack noticed that fans of the page spent 350% more than the average Radioshack customer. Creating a business page allows a company to interact with their most loyal customers.

Want the full digital marketing experience for your business?  I know that if I love a company I follow them every chance I get. The more they interact with me the more I love and support them. Jump on the Foursquare bandwagon and build your business and brand loyalty!

For more fun Foursquare info go to the Foursquare blog page!

More Information

Looking for more information about Foursquare, social media marketing, or anything else currently affecting the interactive marketing world? Want to learn how these factors impact Search Engine Optimization? Check back with our blog for regular updates and free tips. With more specific questions, call EverSpark Interactive at 770-481-1766.

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Facebook and Google +… The Future of the Online World?

While many people – like users on our Facebook page – view this as the next web bubble, sure to pop soon (we all saw how LinkedIn did after filing – as in, not too well in the months following its IPO), others view this as the beginning of the trend toward social as the future of an open, collaborative and connected internet.  And Google + obviously  hopes to be a large part of this future as well, as, according to Paul Allen on Wednesday, Google +’s numbers are growing, and growing quickly: “Google+ membership has grown more than 10% since Jan. 19th when Larry Page announced 90 million users. I have them at 100.8 million users by the end of the day.” The same old question persists: is this reflective of how many people are using Google + actively? And a new question arises: is this simply because, as of recently, anyone who signs up for a Google service has to create a Google + profile? It’s hard to believe that’s not the case.

Zuckerberg’s Vision

Regardless, social is clearly a large part of all of our lives. Zuckerberg’s vision is one of continued innovation and openness, as he states in his open letter to possible shareholders upon filing. He writes:

“Today, our society has reached another tipping point. We live at a moment when the majority of people in the world have access to the internet or mobile phones — the raw tools necessary to start sharing what they’re thinking, feeling and doing with whomever they want. Facebook aspires to build the services that give people the power to share and help them once again transform many of our core institutions and industries. There is a huge need and a huge opportunity to get everyone in the world connected, to give everyone a voice and to help transform society for the future…. By helping people form these connections, we hope to rewire the way people spread and consume information. We think the world’s information infrastructure should resemble the social graph — a network built from the bottom up or peer-to-peer, rather than the monolithic, top-down structure that has existed to date. We also believe that giving people control over what they share is a fundamental principle of this rewiring.”

There’s already not much in the way of Facebook getting exactly what Zuckerberg wants, with a majority of people actively using the social platform to connect with others and build and maintain relationships. With a $5 billion IPO, there’s even less standing in the way of Facebook creating a very social future.

Speaking of Spending…

What does this mean for search marketing? Is social the only way of the future? No way. In fact, at the end of January, an eMarketer report revealed that projections have search ad spending trending upwards in the coming years. Specifically, the report says, “search spending will rise 27% to $19.51 billion. By 2016, search ad spending will approach $30 billion, following slower but consistent growth between now and then.”

This graph, courtesy of eMarketer, reflects a projected rise in search spending through 2016.

The report also predicts that Google will see the most revenue growth this year, but that Google’s growth rates will likely be surpassed by Microsoft in 2013 and 2014 (bold statement!). However, the report ads, “Still, by that point Google will have nearly 10 times Microsoft’s search ad revenue—$20.28 billion vs. just $2.21 billion” (and you thought Facebook’s $5 billion was a lot. Chump change!).

eMarketer adds that Google will not lose its first place position as the number one ad market dominator, as the search engine will see 77.9% of all US search ad revenues in 2012. eMarketer adds that, 2 years from now, that percentage will grow to nearly 80.  The report also places Google, Microsoft, Yahoo! and AOL at the top of the search ad marketing pile, noting that, “By 2014, search revenues at Google, Microsoft, Yahoo! and AOL will account for 92.1% of all US search ad revenues and 44.3% of all US online ad revenues, up from just under 90% of all search ad revenues and 43% of all US online ad revenues in 2011.”

Social AND Search (Especially Paid) Here To Stay

As you can tell, paid search isn’t going anywhere. People are investing in search marketing and will continue to do so because it’s a viable marketing area and, when they have patience and do it right, many businesses experience high ROI from their online efforts. Combine those efforts with an interactive social media presence, and you have a business that is successfully marketing for the future.

More Information

Looking to learn more about social media, Google, Search Engine Optimization or anything else within the expansive online marketing world? Check back with our blog for regular updates, free tips and more. If you have questions that are more specific to your business’s marketing efforts, give EverSpark a call at 770-481-1766.

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What’s All the Fuss About, Anyways?

So, what’s the fuss? If Facebook’s issues have taught us anything, it’s that you cannot  change your privacy settings without backlash. But, specifically, what’s the big deal about Google’s new policy? It has many people concerned about the privacy of their information – almost giving them the feeling that big brother is watching, which I think Google actually understands. However, the search giant brings it all back to “user experience,” as in, we’re only watching your every move while you’re signed in to better your experience as a user. In the FAQ about the policy, Google notes, “Second, the new policy reflects our efforts to create one beautifully simple, intuitive user experience across Google. It makes clear that, if you have a Google Account and are signed in, we may combine information you’ve provided from one service with information from other services. In short, we can treat you as a single user across all our products.”

The Policy

The policy itself evolved out of Google’s 60 + policies governing its different services. Now, everything has one policy, so it’s easier to understand and keep track of what you’re agreeing to as a user. Where people get worried is, as Google says in its email to users:  “Our new policy covers multiple products and features, reflecting our desire to create one beautifully simple and intuitive experience across Google.” So, every Google product you use will be tracking what you do. Though the search engine turned social media giant has said that you can 1. Sign out and not be tracked or 2. Turn off tracking (here’s exactly how Google says to do it, also in the FAQ: “You still have choice and control. You don’t need to sign in to use many of our services, including Search, Maps and YouTube. If you’re signed in, you can still edit or turn off your Search history, switch Gmail chat to “off the record,” control the way Google tailors ads to your interests, use Incognito mode on Chrome,”), the idea there is still a little frightening. Plus (no pun intended there), with Social Search just having been introduced (which left many a person in the tech world flummoxed), this privacy policy change comes at a difficult time for Google. Not only that, but multiple anti-trust allegations aren’t going away anytime soon, and to be truthful, Google seems to only be adding fuel to the fire.

The slightly voyeuristic new policy covers all Google properties allows Google to streamline your experience across all properties. As the email users received states, the search engine wants an email you received about something to impact your use of Youtube, Gmail, etc. Also, Google will remember the contact information of the people with whom you interact, and will remember this across all properties.

To sum up – the privacy change essentially indicates that Google will start tracking users’ behavior on all of its different platforms, not just during searches. This has made many people uncomfortable, since the search engine will essentially be obtaining a bird’s eye view of everything you as a user do on the web (through Google, at least – which is  probably most things, if you’re like me).

More Information

Looking to learn more about Google, Search Engine Optimization, or anything else in the interactive marketing world? Check back with our blog, which covers SEO, social media marketing, and more, on a regular basis for free tips, updates and news covered. Call EverSpark Interactive at 770-481-1766 if you have questions that are more specific to your business’s interactive marketing needs.

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This is an image of ESI’s own conference room, and the type of image you might see as a “Business Photo” (if it were taken by a “Trusted Photographer” with a real camera and not by me with an iPhone, and if it were a panoramic, 360 degrees rotatable image, of course!).

What Has Changed with Google Business Photos?

Remember back in May when we first introduced Google Business photos?  Back then, if you wanted to incorporate business photos into your Google Places listing, you had to first wait for a Google photographer to come to your business and take the pictures.  Though you could upload your own photos in addition to the ones taken by the Googlers, the main images had to be taken by them.  As Google put it way back in April, “Place Pages currently feature images from business owners and third-party sources, but we wanted to supplement those with additional photos taken by Google photographers to provide consumers with more ways to get a sense of what awaits them when they step through the door of a business.” Though many a business was scrambling to take part, the program was only available in limited cities (this is still true, as the “Trusted Photographers” program is only available in 14 cities in America, as well as in France, the UK, New Zealand and Australia).

How Does This Work?

Now, Google has a website that acts as a resource for those businesses that wish to partake in the Business Photos program. On this website, you can search for a “Google Trusted Photographer,” who you, as the business owner, can interact with, work out a price with, and pay for a photo shoot of your offices. As Google highlights, not only does this make the process easier and more streamlined for businesses looking to partake in Business Photos, but it also supports local photographers (I wonder how they become Google Trusted Photographers?). The photographer then uploads your photos to Google, and voila! You have panoramic, 360-degree views of your business on your Google Places listing (as well as on Google Maps and Google.com).

As we were before, we’re of the opinion that Google Business photos are important- though they are only available in limited locations now, we wouldn’t be surprised if eventually they were integrated somehow with Google + and the Google Places ranking algorithm.

More Information

Looking for more information about Google’s pilot program, Google places, or search engine optimization? Looking to learn about social media and other interactive marketing tools that are up and coming in 2012? Return to our blog regularly for updates, free tips and more. Give us a call at 770-481-1766 if you have questions that are more specific to your business.

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The research was conducted in two phases (first, January – February 2011 and second in September – October 2011) among the populations of the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Japan and Germany.  It was intended to make more clear the mobile device usage rate globally – including smartphones and tablets – and how that compares to PC usage.

The Results

Google released the research yesterday. It indicates that smartphone ownership is nearly ubiquitous and is only on the rise.  Though the smartphone adoption rate is high in most places, Google found that the UK had the highest increase in number of smartphone users – from 30 to 45% of the entire population. The research also revealed that the over 45 demographic is entering the smartphone market more and more, and that, in all 5 countries studied, the number of female smartphone users increased. Though the data reveals that “more consumers use a mobile phone (feature phone or smartphone) than a computer (desktop or laptop) across all five countries,” (in the US, 76% of people were using smartphones or feature phones, while 68% were using laptops/desktops) those who do use smartphones are also using their computers most of the time. The US sees 38% of people using smartphones, as does France, while the UK sees 45%, Japan sees 17% and Germany sees 23% of citizens using smartphones.

Daily Internet Usage

When it comes to daily usage of the internet on smartphones, 69% of American smartphone users, 54% of UK smartphone adopters, 88% of Japanese citizens using smartphones, 49% of German smartphone users and 36% of France’s users are surfing the web everyday while on the go. All of these countries experienced increases from Phase 1 of the research to Phase 2 except for Japan and France. Though users are using their smartphones for search, they are still using their PCs as well (remember, the following data reveals how many SMARTPHONE SEARCHERS are also using their PCs). In the US, 80% of smartphone users also use their desktops to surf the web. The numbers are similar (none dip below 73%) across the other four countries. So, it’s safe to say that both mobile and desktop search engine optimization will continue to be necessary through 2012 and beyond.

PS: Speaking of Google, there has been confirmation of another iteration of Panda (3.2 according to Search Engine Land) having been run within the last 2 weeks.

More Information

Looking to learn more about mobile optimization or Google? Curious about Panda Updates? Want free tips and news updates regarding Search Engine Optimization, social media or anything else going on in the interactive marketing industry? Check back with our blog for frequent updates in this area and more. If you have questions that are more specific to your business, give us a call at 770-481-1766.

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Google +: Ever-Changing, Ever-Evolving

Since the advent of Google +, many changes have occurred in the space. First, author pages and the rel=author tag came about, allowing you to prove your authority and your authorship for your blog posts (and possibly show up in the search results as such). Then, Google + for brand pages came out, and there was a frenzy as businesses recognized the need to get on the new social network, and get there fast. That frenzy is justified, as Google recently announced a whole new social search, using Google + information.

In light of this newfound importance, we have to remember the basics. Remember when Google + Brand Pages first came out, and there was talk of “Direct Connect”? Here’s a little reminder, in case you don’t: Direct Connect is useful for brands because users can simply type in [+brand name], and the Google + page will come up. Users can Circle brands right away via Direct Connect and connect with them immediately.

Google + Badge:  Rel=Publisher

Way back then, the Google + badge was available for those sites that wanted to be candidates for Direct Connect (it was a limited roll out). Many companies, however (especially smaller ones), opted not to use these badges for whatever reason. Maybe it was because it was too new, or because they felt they had no chance at getting the Direct Connect activated. Well, whatever the reason, those who do not have this badge would be wise to implement it now, as it utilizes a rel=publisher tag that connects your website and content to your Google + Brand page. It’s another method of establishing authority, like the rel=author and rel=me tags are for Google + personal pages.

As you can see, getting the code for the badge is easy, and you can customize the look of it.

More in Google +: Ask Your Network, Use Your Nickname

Ask Your Network

Search Engine Land’s Danny Sullivan reported on something Google seems to be either testing or slowly rolling out within personal results: the prompt to ask your Google + network about the query for which you are searching. I’m not seeing this on my search results, which is what leads me to believe that Google is simply testing out this feature or taking its sweet time to roll it out to everyone. If you click on the option to ask your friends on Google + a question, a box pops up that has a pre-written message starting with  “Hi there! I have a question about….”

This is an interesting addition to a very fresh phenomenon of Google + seeping into the search results pages with personal search, or “Search Plus Your World.” I’ll be interested to see how people respond to this, and how Twitter and Facebook react to the news that even more exclusivity is being granted to Google’s social network.

Use Your Nickname with Google’s Blessing

You can now use your nickname or pseudonym when signing up for Google + (which you have no choice but to do when signing up for any Google service), a long-time coming resolution to an oft-complained about issue. Many bloggers and personalities who worked under pseudonyms were having trouble connecting with and engaging followers and fans.

So, now on Google + you can add a nickname next to your actual name or you can change your actual identifier to your nickname; if your name is flagged as inappropriate, there is also now an appeals process (which requires documentation or other types of proof that you are who you say you are and that you actually go by this name). The downside? Apparently, your nickname may  carry over to your use of other Google services, like Gmail.

More Information

Looking to learn more about Google +, or about social media in general? Curious about interactive marketing, specifically Search Engine Optimization? Check back with our blog for regular updates about news and phenomena in the online space, as well as for free tips and information. If you have questions that are more specific to your business, give us a call at 770-481-1766.

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