An Aha Moment about Social Networking

A few weeks ago, I completed my first ultra-marathon. After running more than 31 miles in less than 6 hours and burning nearly 4,000 calories, I felt I deserved a beer!

So there I was, sitting in a local Applebee's enjoying the frosty, tall, amber sweetness of a Killian's and watching baseball, when I decided to "check in" on Foursquare. That's when it happened ... my first tangible benefit of using Foursquare ... my first online coupon. All I had to do was show my phone screen to my bartender and, like magic, I received free chips and salsa ... just for checking in on Foursquare.

I've recently had a bit of an "aha moment" concerning social media. In my mind, I've always classified "traditional" marketing, grassroots/guerrilla marketing and social networking in 3 separate marketing "buckets." But if you think about guerrilla marketing - interacting with the market in the places where they hang out - that's EXACTLY what social networking is. Applebee's interacted with me over a beer in their own establishment. Most people I know hang out more on Facebook than they do at the gym or at the grocery store or whatever "real" places they hang out.

Today, social networking is a MUST when you're looking at potential marketing tactics. October's ABA Bank Marketing magazine, talks about North Shore Bank (assets: $1.8 billion), in Wisconsin, who uses Foursquare to run "mayorship" promotions - offering free gifts to Foursquare "mayors" at each of their locations. They also use Foursquare to announce participation in local events and have posted "tips" about no-fee ATM locations. In the future, they plan on adding more promotions and offers - it may not be free chips and salsa, but I'm sure that North Shore customers will receive something cool for checking in on Foursquare.

As marketers, there are few professionals more creative than us! And social networking tools like Facebook, Foursquare, LinkedIn, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube, etc., etc., etc. offer unlimited ways for us to interact with our markets. If you're doing something great and fun, we'd love to hear about it. Tell us all about it by leaving a comment to this blog.

Take care,
Eric