Location Services: The New Local Search? (SMX Advanced 2010)

Up First: Michael Martin, Owner, Mobile Martin

  • Gowalla
  • Foursquare
  • MyTown
  • Where
  • brightkite
  • geodelic
  • Google Latitude
  • Loopt
  • Whrrl
  • Layar: augmented reality information service (hold your phone up and get data)
  • Buzzd
  • Check.in
  • Nearly 50% of online search has a location intent, especially on mobile devices
  • Potentially a $20B market
  • SEO options: microformats (more and more of a factor for mobile rankings, part of google caffeine and making your sites faster is about mobile devices being a big part of search and internet surfing)
  • GetListed.org
  • 50% of location based ads resulted in action
  • AdMob, iAd, MillenialMedia: location based ads result in more actions than SMS
  • GeoToko: one-stop place to set up foursquare campaigns
  • Location service marketing is more about rewarding loyalty than advertising
  • Holiday Inn use location services to fill up rooms that are available late at night, using your phone as your hotel room key

Up Next: Vince Blackham, Founder & CEO, Primary Affect

  • $12B – expected worth of location-based services by 2014
  • 20%-40% of searches on Google are location based (SMX London)
  • Why do it?
  • Low risk, high potential
  • Location is taken out of the game. The person is already in your store, holding your product, sharing on Twitter, etc…
  • You’re creating a loyalty program. Giving people a reason to come back. Great for word-of-mouth marketing.
  • Unique uses of LBS APIs are available
  • SnackSquare
  • @vinceblackham

Up Next: Will Scott, President, Search Influence & Matt Siltala, Founder, Dream Systems Media

  • Presenting the first ever Foursquare marketing advertiser survey
  • Foursquare early adopters are primarily on the coasts and in Chicago
  • Majority of advertisers have been on FS for less than 6 months
  • More advertisers are tracking check-ins
  • Most advertisers have claimed their Google Local page
  • Majority have budgets less than $5k
  • Only 10% said they would pay for it
  • How did you first become aware of Foursquare: friend, employee or colleague, not by customer
  • How long had they been aware of Foursquare: vast majority- less than one year
  • How long have they been using FS to promote their business: less than 6 months
  • Many advertisers value FS customers more than other customers.
  • Half of advertisers don’t know if FS has helped their business. However, about 1/4 are sure that FS has helped their business.
  • Do you keep track of people when they check in via FS to your establishment? 3/4 yes, 1/4 no
  • Is tracking check-in manageable for your business? 3/4 say yes
  • They use other local online advertising as well: Google Places, Yahoo Local, Bing Local, MerchantCircle, ReachLocal, eLocalListing, Yodle, etc…
  • More people have heard of Yelp than CitySearch
  • If you had to pay for it, would you still use Foursquare? 9/10 say no
  • Pay Attention to: Link Citations, Images Searches, Tweeting, Facebook referrals & Likes, etc…

Up Next: Dylan Swift, Director of Local Business Marketing, Yelp

  • Yelp: more than 11 million reviews
  • 32 million unique monthly visitors
  • 1.8 million unique visitors last 30 days; 1.4 million of those are on iPhone
  • 27% of all searches on Yelp come from iPhone app
  • Every 5 seconds a call is made to a local biz from iPhone app
  • 1 million people clicked “Get Directions” from the iPhone app in May
  • Yelp.com: heavy volume during week
  • Mobile Yelp heavy volume on weekend
  • Find sales and specials nearby: on list or on map
  • Designing for mobile: how do we highlight the essentials, that is most important, key attributes, reviews, stars, tips and quicklink to business
  • How to adapt contribution from users: Should we let users write reviews from a mobile device? No. You can write a draft. Yelp is concerned with the reviews that are written in txting shorthand vernacular (OMG, LMAO, etc…)
  • Using special features on iPhone: Yelp Monocle : hold up your phone to see what’s around you
  • Video from Steve Jobs talking about how people don’t search for where to eat. They go to Yelp.

2 Replies to “Location Services: The New Local Search? (SMX Advanced 2010)”

  1. Thanks for covering our session, hope you got some real takeaways & nuggets of information.

    Any follow-up you can contact me above.

    Thank You Again,
    Michael Martin

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