Improving Your Business With Social Check-ins

Written by 5ivecanons Staff

When a company decides to leverage social check-ins, they expand their reach and begin earning organic media through user engagement.

In a 2011 study by, Business News Daily, only 9% of small business owners were capitalizing on social media check-ins. These numbers are shockingly low considering the outstanding potential of check-ins.

Social Reach.

Every time a customer checks-in to your business, your brand is shared across the social web. Recent reports from the Pew Research Center show that the average Facebook user has 229 friends, with milenials (18-34) having an average of 318 friends.

Free Advertising

The social reach that your check-ins generate are 100% free advertising, otherwise known as earned media. When users like your page or check-in to your event, your brand is spread to their network of friends. Social media takes the old marketing strategy of the power of three, and multiplies it by the users 229 friends.

90% of customers trust their friends’ referrals and recommendations.

 

Referrals

Social media has changed the way referral marketing works. Instead of just hearing about your business on the street or phone from a friend, your customers are actively promoting your brand and advertising your location with check-ins.

When a customer checks-in and tags friends or uploads a picture, they’re marketing content and reaching even more people for your business. Earned media is one of the fastest, easiest and cheapest ways to promote your business – and it’s all done by your customers.

Customer Loyalty

By utilizing Foursquare’s badge program, (see image below), you can begin to capitalize on customer loyalty. When your users are consistently checking-in at your location for badges or an incentive, your benefiting from constant advertising and recommendations.

There are a lot of geo-social programs that offer incentives, such as badges. To many of the typical geo-social users, it is not just a reward, it represents bragging rights. It’s constant competition, and your business is part of the reward.

It Doesn’t End With The Check-in

Check-ins can lead to more than just customer loyalty, referrals and free advertising. When a customer checks-in, they’re probably going to like your company’s facebook page – giving you a direct connection to their newsfeed with your posts.

Social posts give your business the opportunity to reach a large audience announcing new products, services or events. You can monitor foursquare demographics and facebook insights to see what time users are checking-in most, what types of businesses are getting the most traffic, and what the most popular brand pages are.

Interested in social check-ins, social media marketing or leveraging earned media for your business? Give us a call at 904-353-2900 or fill out the form on the hire us page and let us bring you some ideas. 5ivecanons is an award-winning, Jacksonville social media agency that has increased facebook audiences by 5000%, engagement by 280% and helped increase revenue through check-in promotions by over 10% in one day. Our focus is on your business and our produce it is fusing brands with culture.