The Future of Search

Best Practice Check in’s & Social Offers

NOT to be confused with ‘Best Practice Chickens’

Sorry.

Best Practice Check in’s & Offers

• Definition• Benefits• The Main Players• The Market & Popularity• Industry Tactics & verticals (who’s best placed to take advantage)• Best Practice check in / offers strategies• Advanced tactics/Case Study• Future Trends• Summary• Question Time

Offers & Check in’s

Social Offers are win-win scenarios for consumers & your business. They’re generally well planned – redemption in-store & online. Sharing is key.

Check in’s are ‘location based’ actions people typically perform on their smartphone. They can either have a reward associated with the action or not. Generally more impulsive. Sharing is just as important.

Offers & Check in’s - benefits

Consumer Benefits

Consumers get great deals as a reward for taking advantage of your offer(s)/Check in.

Business Benefits?

Offers/Check in’s have the potential to go viral. If 100 Facebook fans share it with their 150+ or more friends that’s 15,000 or more people who could gain visibility to your offer.

Check in’s – The main Players

• Google+ Pages/Buzz/Latitude• Foursquare• Facebook• Yelp

Check in’s – Google+ LatitudeFounded Feb 5th 200910 million usersDead & dying…Think ‘ghost town & tumble weeds...’

Google+ merged with Google Places late last year & has an estimated 150 million active users but no Check in/offer facility (yet).

Odd.

Check in’s – FoursquareFounded March 200920 million users2.5 Billion Check in’s to date5 million Check in’s per day

Instagram uses Foursquare Check in technology (not sure for how much longer).

Foursquare has released a new version of its app, which it hopes to monetize through Foursquare ‘Promoted Updates’ for merchants.

Check in’s - FacebookFounded: 2004Users: 900 MilMobile Users: 543 MilCheck in estimates: N/A

Started Check in’s August 2010.

Now probably the main ‘check in’ player in Australia.

Check in’s - YelpFounded 2005Recently joined forces with AppleGrowing - Keep an eye out… It has a lot of offers

Check in’s - Popularity (Facebook)London 14.4 Million Check in’sParis 11.9 MillionNew York 10.9 MillionRio de Janeiro 7.0 MillionLos Angeles 5.7 MillionMumbai 4 MillionSydney 3.5 MillionCairo 2.6 MillionMelbourne 2.4 MillionHobart 154k

Check in’s - The tactics

Facebook & Yelp use ‘WIIFM?’They encourage check in’s using:

• Deals & Offers

Foursquare uses ‘Gamification’They encourage check in’s using:

• Mayorships• Status badges etc.

Check in’s – What verticals?B2C (popular)

• Airports• Stadiums• Tourist Attractions• Shopping Complex's• Hotels• Restaurants

B2B (Typically very unpopular)• Facebook HQ: 238,428 Check in’s• Apple HQ: 58,000 Check in’s

Best Practice Offers & Check in’s

Define objectives

What do you actually want from the activity? More fans? Online orders? Awareness? Growth of eDM list? In store traffic?

Measure your social offers & check in activity against your business goals.

Remind peoplePut a poster in the window, reminders on your menu, ask people! Do anything to get the ‘check in’ or claim your offer (it’ll be shared with 130+ of their friends).

Clear Offer Description

Example titles: •20% off any purchase over $10 •Buy one, get one free. •Check in with 3 friends and get 30% off any entrée

Example claiming language: •Present claimed deal to waiter •Show your phone screen to the cashier

Reward Early Birds

If you own a bar/restaurant, try to get people in early with:

•1st drink free for first 20 people who check in/redeem•Free soup between 6.00pm & 7.00pm

Nothing attracts a crowd like a crowd.

Ensure you can cope

Once you’ve created a check in offer or social offer:

•Tell your staff!•Ensure you can meet demand•Use time/product limits to ensure availability

Make it social

Encourage people to bring their friends.

•2 for 1 offers•More friends = higher discount•Check in with 3 friends and get 30% off any entrée

Likes/email

Check in’s & offer redemptions are the easy bit, but try getting the ‘Like’ or an email address.

•‘Likes’ enable you to show new fans new offers more easily•‘Likes’ are also shared on friends’ walls•Email = CRM = More targeted messaging/ROI measurement.•Try using member-only ‘exclusives’ or ‘loyalty rewards’ (etc) to obtain ‘like’/email.

Promotion

Promote social offers using Facebook Sponsored Stories.

‘Sponsored Stories’ promotes your offer to the friends of people who have already redeemed.

Events

Musicians/Festivals/Sports (etc) often create events on Facebook.

People can now check in as ‘attendees’. Reward them with a chance to win a free CD, merchandise etc.This gets your event widely ‘shared’.

Advanced Tactics

Check in’s & FB Ads – Case Study

Check in’s & FB Ads – Case Study

• Tony Bianco are a National Women’s shoe retailer• We were running Google AdWords with huge ROI.• In 2010 we talked to them about Facebook Ads

• But before we leapt in, we came up with a Check in strategy to support the Facebook Ads Campaign.

Check in’s & FB Ads – Case Study

• We claimed every single Tony Bianco Retail Place Page (& renamed to ‘official’).

Check in’s & FB Ads – Case Study

• We claimed every single duplicate Tony Bianco Retail Place Page & ‘un-published’.

Facebook Ads

• Posters were placed in all stores:

Check in’s & FB Ads – Case Study

• The girls started to check in and really positive conversations started around their brand between friends:

• “What are you buying?”• “Pick me up a pair of heels while you’re there!”• “I love Tony Bianco shoes!”

Check in’s & FB Ads – Case Study

• 1 month after the posters went up we advertised to the female friends of the 180,000 Tony Bianco Fans

• By now, there had been over 10,000 Check in’s. If they didn’t know before, their friends knew who Tony Bianco was by being exposed to Check in’s on their wall.

• Word of mouth, friend’s endorsing = free brand exposure.

Check in’s & FB Ads – Case Study

Check in’s & FB Ads – Case Study

Future Trends• Google+ Place Pages for Business has to be coming soon!

Surely?

• Facial recognition for Check ins: http://vimeo.com/47133014 – creepy?

• NFC…

In Summary…• Whether you’re a national bricks & mortar retail brand or a

small café, social offers and check in’s can help you grow your business, for both online & offline channels.

• The Check in/social offers space is constantly evolving. It’s seriously hard to keep up.

• Define your goals, measure against them.• Experiment and learn, this technology is only a couple of years

old, no one has it down pat.

Questions?To contact me (Chris Thomas) personally

• E: Christ@reseo.com

• P: 03 9415 2383• M: 0414 986 957

• Reseo • w: www.reseo.com• T: @reseo• B: www.reseo.com/blog