Checking-in is no longer the social suicide forced upon us by our worrisome moms and dads wanting to track our every location to make sure we were “out of harm’s way”. Thanks to the proliferation of location-based marketing platforms, checking-in now comes with a host of perks and plusses aimed at deepening the consumer/business relationship. This year’s SXSW conference in Austin, TX, showcased a panel discussion on social media as the enabler of contemporary marketing approaches, and leveraging location-based platforms to gain better insight into consumer interest and purchasing behavior.
Image courtesy of Rosa Golijan / NBC News
South by Southwest (SXSW ®), once billed as a independent music and film festival now boasts 8 days of over 2,000 musical concerts, hundreds of independent films, and countless panels, demos, and discussions on today’s most dynamic emerging technologies. This past Friday, OMMA (Online Media, Marketing, and Advertising) Magazine hosted a SXSW panel discussion on leveraging Facebook’s new Graph Search as a marketing tool to provide more useful insight into consumer affinity.
While location-based marketing isn’t exactly new, Facebook, through Graph Search, seems to have found a way of entering the search database arena without directly competing with data behemoth, google.com. Still in the beta stage, Graph Search currently uses location-based data and facebook member “likes” and “check-ins” to mine and narrow search results within friend profiles. Golijan (2013) explains “For example, let’s say you want to play matchmaker for a friend who recently moved to New York City from Germany. You could search for all friends-of-friends who happen to reside in New York City, lived in Germany at some point, and are single. Ta da! You’ll have a list of the ideal matches for your pal.”
OMMA’s panel discussion touched on the marketing opportunities inherent in being able to search for consumer target markets based on check-in information. The panel made sure to discuss how prior to Graph Search, marketers using Facebook for market research and consumer outreach only had “likes” as measurable product feedback. As “liking” is initiated by the consumer, it removes any real ability for the marketer to steer the progress of the consumer relationship. With Graph Search, marketers will be able to seek out target markets and initiate the product relationship.Graph Search challenges the notion that marketing engagement can be measured by “likes” and “follows”, and will seek to offer information based on customer-initiated feedback and habits. When a consumer checks in at Banana Republic, or Starbucks, they are telling us what they like, being able to search this information with Graph Search allows marketers to do less asking and guessing and more targeting!
Loopt, launched in 2008 at an Apple conference, Fourquare and Gowalla (eventually acquired by Facebook) were both launched at SXSW in 2009, and even Yelp has hopped on the bus. There is certainly a place in digital media for location-based marketing. Hopefully Facebook’s Graph Search will offer marketers more meaningful insight into buying patterns and build campaigns that use social media to enable the purchasing experience.
Cydney Peyton 541A
References:
DeJarnett, P., Fasano, P. Kalehoff, M., & McMichael, C. (2013, March 8). Marketing Implications of Facebook’s Graph Search. Panel discussion given at South by Southwest, Austin, TX.
Golijan, R. (2013, January 15). Facebook’s new ‘Graph Search’ lets you search everything related to friends [web log post]. Retrieved from http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/gadgetbox/facebooks-new-graph-search-lets-you-search-everything-related-friends-1B7983587
8 Responses to SXSW Talks Location-based Marketing: “Checking-in” is Cool Again