Monday 28 March 2011

FourSquare - A Great Way to Get More Loyal Customers

If you own a retail outlet or a location such as an ice cream van or hot dog or burger stand then you can get more loyal customers using this simple to set up social media website - Foursquare.com

Foursquare is a location based social media platform on which users "check-in" to let others know where they are and what they're doing. It uses geo-location on a mobile device such as an Android phone, iPhone, smartphone, iPad, or laptop. So you have to be actually in the venue or very nearby to be able to check in.

Each time you check in you have the option to share the fact with your Foursquare friends and you can also post a message about it to Twitter and Facebook. So it's a great way for retail venues to market themselves, as it increases your exposure on these different social networks each time users check in at your venue.

Earn Rewards
Users can earn points for each check-in and there's a weekly league table of all your friends and also of all the people in the same City as you.



You can also get special deals offered by the different locations you check in at. For example, if you check in regularly, many establishments offer discounts and specials. On the screenshot below you'll see that The Doubletree by Hilton Cadbury House offers a free cookie to anyone who checks in. They also offer 20% discount to the Mayor.




Becoming Mayor
If you check in more often than anyone else over a 60 day period, you become the mayor of the venue. As you can see above I'm the Mayor of Cadbury House and so I get a 20% discount when I buy anything there. This is a great incentive for me, as it's my gym!
Stuart Edmonstone
and I are working out regularly as we progress towards our goal of getting a body like Brad Pitt's! See www.bradsbody.com for more details. Stuart and I often pop into the cafe after a workout so it's great to get the discount as mayor.
 
Domino's Pizza
In July 2010, Domino's Pizza attributed strong growth in online sales to its use of promotions on location-based mobile application Foursquare and social media after revealing a 29% surge in pre-tax profits to £17.5m.

In May 2010, Domino's launched a nationwide promotion in the UK on Foursquare that encouraged users to check-in at its outlets. Every Wednesday the mayor of Domino's Pizza gets a FREE small pizza. I know quite a few people in Bristol who love this deal and all compete to be the mayor each Wednesday!

Badges - The Foursquare Trophy Case
As users check in they are awarded badges. These badges are given to users to reward them and motivate them to explore more venues around their location.




Recently Foursquare added The Partner Badge program which allows brands to create their own badges on Foursquare which can then be awarded to their brand advocates. See Everything in its right place: unveiling the new Trophy Case for full details on this.

Start Promoting your Business
So set up your account today and start offering rewards to your loyal customers for coming into your venue. You can find out more at http://foursquare.com/business/venues and if you want to promote your brand to your customers and potential customers go to http://foursquare.com/business/brands. This has details about how you can set up a Foursquare Page to help you connect with your followers on Foursquare.

So get onto Foursquare today and get your business set up so your followers can start checking in with you!

Monday 7 March 2011

Beware of this Domain Name Renewal SCAM!

Please READ this carefully.

A friend received this letter in the post last week from an outfit called Domain Renewal Group. They were originally called the Domain Registry of America (DRoA).

The Domain Renewal Group have been using this under hand sales tactic for a few years now and it's something which needs to be stopped.

Please click the image below to see large version.

The letter is very clever in the way it's written. It makes the reader assume that their domain name is due for renewal with this company. Most domain names need to be renewed every 2 years and to the less versed on these things it is quite easy to forget who you registered your domain name with. So the assumption is this letter is an invoice which must be paid.


They send the letter out about 3 months prior to the renewal date of the domain before your normal reminder gets sent out by your current domain name registration company.

It is NOT an invoice
It's an attempt by DRoA to get you to pay them for a domain name that they don't even control! Many people and businesses fall for this trap. Make sure you are NOT one of them!

If you get one - DO NOT FILL IT IN!!

Consequences
can be disasterous
You need to know what happens when someone does pay this dodgy outfit. The consequences can be disasterous to your business.

When you pay them, they email you telling you to transfer your domain name to them. Most people will ignore this email, thinking it's just a confirmation of payment.
A few months later, you will get a reminder email from your current provider. You'll probably scratch your head at this time wondering why you're getting another reminder when you've already paid to renew!
Most people will ignore the email assuming it's an over sight.

PLEASE NOTE: If you get an email reminder then contact the person or company who sent the email and check to see if your domain name needs to be renewed.
If these reminder emails are ignored your domain name will expire and the first thing you'll know about it is when your email and website stops working.

Remember the look of this Letter

Please click the image above and familiarise yourself with the look of the letter.


If you receive one of these in the post, ignore it and call the person who looks after your domain name and website.

If you have any doubts please get in touch and I will be happy to advise you.

Wednesday 2 March 2011

So you want to start Blogging?

I speak to business owners every week who aren't blogging and get frustrated and worried about the fact. Everyone is talking about blogging as the next big thing. Gary Vaynerchuk talked about the personal brand Gold Rush back in 2008 and it still holds true today. It's not too late for you to find your niche and then you should talk about it and blog about it.

So if you want to start blogging - where do you begin?

The 2 main tools for setting up a blog are:
  1. Blogger - A blogging website set up by Google
  2. WordPress - a hosted software platform available with most mainstream hosting companies.
Blogger is probably your best option if you aren't too technical.

WordPress is much more powerful and with the help from your friendly web designer, it can be used to create very impressive looking blogs and even fully fledged websites.

Blogger is accessible on the Internet via a browser at www.blogger.com There you can set up your account and get going straight away.

You can follow a tour of Blogger via this link http://www.blogger.com/tour_start.g which is great for anyone who is new to blogging.

The other option is WordPress.
As I said, your hosting company will probably support WordPress. You can find out all about it at the WordPress website. http://wordpress.org/

The great thing about Blogger and WordPress is that they are both FREE to use.

If you need help getting either of these set up and working then please get in touch and I can point you in the right direction. I'm sure others who can help will be adding their comments here so keep a look out in the comments section below this article.

What's your Subject?
Once you've got your preferred blogging platform set up you need to write your first blog. I'm not going into the mechanics of each and how they work etc. Both are very intuitive and won't take you long to get to grips with writing, editing and publishing.

What you need to think about is what you are going to blog about? What's your area of expertise? What are you passionate about? What industry are you in?

Have a look at some of the other blogs you like or blogs written by others in your sector. This will give you some good ideas.

Get Writing
But it's important you find your "place"; your vibe for what you want to write about.
Then just go for it. Get writing. By following your passion and writing about stuff you find really interesting, it will be far easier for you to keep going. You'll also find that other like-minded people will also find what you write about interesting.

I keep a list of blog ideas on my Notepad app on my iPad and iPhone and I add to this list constantly. This blog was an idea I got from reading another blog. So make sure you start and keep a list of new ideas for blog articles and add to it as often as you can.

How often?
Once you know what you're going to write about and you've got a few ideas for articles then you need to decide how often you're going to write. I would suggest once or twice a month to begin with. If you're good at writing then you could go for once a week, but remember; once you get an audience - even if it's just an audience of 2 or 3 - they will get used to how often you write your blog and people like consistency. So don't write loads of articles and then stop for a month or two. This will lose you readers, and one of the reasons for you blogging is to increase your audience size.

Marketing
You also need to think about how you let your connections know about your blog. I'd suggest an email to your close friends and family is a good start. They'll help spread the word. You can also drop an email to your customers; if you're writing about your industry then your customers should find it interesting.

Then use the different Social Media networks like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Ecademy etc and before you know it you'll be blogging like a pro and your blog will be gaining in popularity.