Category: View Points

Will Groupon Really Boost Your Local Business?

June 2, 2011

Groupon has been hailed as the new miracle advertising tool. It has also been accused of being a ruthless corporate giant, preying on the ignorance of small businesses.

Since its inception in November 2008, Groupon (think social media meets coupons) has transformed the way local businesses promote their products and services.

How does it work?

First, you agree to become a featured business on their network. You then reduce your product or service price by 50% or more. Groupon promotes the deal and gets new customers through your doors.

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3 Rewards and 3 Risks of Making Customers Brand Ambassadors

May 19, 2011

Are you prepared to put your customers in charge of your brand… literally?

What would happen if you gave your customers the keys to your corporate social media channels? This article reviews the rewards and the risks marketers face as they decide how much brand control they're willing to give up.

Marketers are just coming to terms with how to deal with customers having free rein to either praise or bash their companies, but I think there may be a new trend on the horizon—the customer brand ambassador.

You have customers who love your

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How Social Media Helps Journalists Break News

May 3, 2011

Social media is transforming the way journalists break news. Consider Robert Hernandez. He was searching for video on YouTube of the Bahrain protests.

He used filters to find videos from Bahrain and then sorted to find the most recent uploads. The top result had just been uploaded and had yet to be viewed. He watched it.

The shaky video was taken by someone in a crowd holding a cell phone. It shows a protester who gets shot and killed.

Record. Upload. View.

Without a news crew standing nearby, this death may have gone unnoticed and

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Should You Advertise on Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter?

April 26, 2011

Are you wondering if it makes sense to advertise on your favorite social network? Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn all have different demographic profiles and use cases that may provide good advertising opportunities.

All three platforms are also developing new and innovative ways to target advertising messages, based on the overwhelming amount of data they possess about their users. Marketers should explore the paid opportunities social networks offer with as much thought and effort as they experiment with the "earned" and "owned" aspects

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The Future of Geolocation: What is Coming?

April 21, 2011

Since location-based check-in app Foursquare was launched at South by Southwest in 2009, the app has seen exponential growth, reaching over 7.5 million users this year.

Other apps have been popping up as well, as geolocation takes center stage in the mobile arena and users flock to apps that create games from typical situations and offer rewards for users.

Two years later, check-ins are old news and the still-young area of geolocation is evolving to keep users interested. Apart from gamification through leaderboards and badges (or

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Will Groupon Really Boost Your Local Business?

Social Media Marketing