One of the first things I did in our conversation was confuse social location services (things like FourSquare and Facebook Check-Ins) with Geo-Targeting (the strategy of targeting marketing/advertising to people based on their location). The one thing I did get right was that it is all about location!
One of the questions that I asked of my consultants was information on the demographics of the users of each social media platform. If the demographics of the people using the platform don't fit Zoe's customers, it probably doesn't make sense to spend time and effort on it.
I'd love it if social location services worked for the store. I've had a FourSquare profile (one for the store, another for myself) for probably 9 months. I ran a couple of "specials" on it for 2 - 3 weeks at a time but got no check-ins (and consequently no redemption of the deal) from it. Personally, I have a lot of fun "checking in" on FourSquare and have gotten several deals (especially at restaurants and some stores) from doing so. But I do not seem to fit the typical demographic using FourSquare.
In July, I had a visit from a rep from a company called ScoutMob. They are a hybrid of a Daily Deal service and a social location service (their deals also appear on a participating company's FourSquare site).
Their business proposition was a good one. They run the deal as the featured deal one day on their site although it remains available for 6 months. I get to set the parameters of the deal and I only pay if someone redeems the deal via their SmartPhone. They send someone out to interview me and take pictures. Zoe's deal ran on September 11th.
On the first day of the deal, a user can "capture" it via a code that they can then provide in the store when they are ready to cash in the deal. Of course, anyone can look it up (or pick it up via FourSquare or ScoutMob) at any time in the next 6 months.
We had a nice number of people "capture" the deal on the day it ran but none of them have shopped in the store yet. We've also had a couple of people come into the store with the deal on their smart phone (one we could see as they were looking around, the other found it via FourSquare). But no takers yet. What I suspect is that Zoe's demographic and the users of this App don't necessarily match up. But it is always worth a try especially when the risk is low.
And not to worry...no matter what decision I make about Zoe's social media, I'll always be writing Zoe's blog!
Next up: Yes, I'm buying for Spring in September
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