Ok, I’ve got a new one for you.  Karen often is telling you that you should be developing your web presence and developing a relationship with your customers.  Well, I bet you have yet to hear of Foursquare.com, Gowalla, Britekite or Google’s Latitude.  These are all examples of the new geo-location social media network.  Using the GPS technology in your phone, these applications allow people to share with their friends where they are hanging out.

Some of these are more popular than others and the cream will definitely rise to the top.  But they are really becoming very popular games people are playing.  In a nutshell, you click on the app. on your phone and check in when you reach a new destination.  The application keeps track of how many times you have been here; it lets others know where you are and tells you if there someone you know is near to your location.

The games are all different in how they work, but you can leave a virtual gift at the location that one of your friends can pick up when they visit this same location.  In Gowalla, if you are the first to check in at a new location you will be known as the founder of this location.  With Foursquare, if you are the person that has been to this location more than anyone else, you will be crowned Mayor.

All of this may seem trivial or even a bit silly.  But what if you are a restaurant and were to offer a free beer to any Mayor.  Or send out a tweet on twitter that you will give a free entrée to the founder of your restaurant.  What if you throw a party at your bar this Tuesday, 5-7pm, for all Gowalla fans, have your customer show the server their phone and receive half-priced drafts.

Not only playing with your customers like this is fun and good for business, but because this is a social media platform, everyone that is at your bar is automatically telling all of their friends that they are hanging out with you.  THIS, is a lot of free advertising and it is the best type of advertising; word-of-mouth from friends.

Whether you get involved with Gowalla, Foursquare or any other GPS based application, this demonstrates the power of social media.  If one person says something good about your business on a social media platform they may be telling 100 – 300 others.  If 15 people show up to take advantage of your half price beer, how many are they telling?  Social media advertising has an exponential component that should not be ignored.

If your establishment is using these technologies, let us know.  If you are not, check them out.  And if you need help, send me an email.

I’m so hyped.  I just don’t know where to start.  There is direct response marketing, building brand equity, channel building, social media, relationship building, on demand advertising and so much more.  All of this is available, all of this inexpensive (or free) and all of this is at your finger tips. It is just a matter of developing a plan, an approach, and start doing it.

With the technologies available today there is no excuse for not being out there talking to your customers, answering their questions and developing your brand equity among your base.  Once your base is thinking about you, the word will spread and your base will grow.  Once your base grows, you can get direct response from your marketing.  Once your base grows, you can turn them on to your channel, heck, your entire network.

Ok, Ok, I apologize.  But, I really am hyped.  There are so many platforms available today to get your message out, to build customer loyalty, to develop and maintain your brand.  Organic Business Strategies is all about developing relationships.  And the tools to do this have never been cheaper or easier to use.

Let me tell you a story about just one of these concepts.  Oh, probably 40 years ago, there was a restaurant that was fairly expensive.  They knew that they were priced at the higher end of the spectrum and that many families were not able to afford eating there.  So they developed their own channel (this term is like a TV channel); a place where people, who were loyal customers, knew to go to hear from them.

Let me explain.  This restaurant bought the same advertising space (same page, same location on the page), every week, in the local Sunday paper.  Their ad was always the same:  50% off all entrees with coupon – good this week only.

So what happens?  People who could afford the restaurant may, or may not, use the ad.  People who are embarrassed to use coupons paid full price.  Customers that are not regulars paid full price.  People not aware of the restaurant, who ran across the advertisement, were motivated to use it (this week only).

But the regular customers used the coupons every time and knew where to find them (as long as they thought ahead).  This restaurant built a channel, a place where their fans knew to find them, and by doing so developed a relationship with their most valued customers.

This was 40 years ago and was built with just word of mouth and a newspaper.  Today, there are numerous platforms on which to build your channels.  Because there are so many platforms, these all have different users, therefore different customers and possibly with different demographics.  And, you have the ability to develop the different channels by offering different deals on each.

This is very powerful.  All you need to do is develop your strategy and get started.

Photo by My Melting Brain