Mobile Apps Driving New Customers to Local Businesses

With the continuing trend toward the proliferation of ‘smart’ mobile phones, web and app developers are continuing to create new platforms to leverage their capabilities.  Beginning several years ago with the Blackberry and Treo smartphones it became important for a small business to at least have a listing on the few available online yellowpage resources available.

With more recent innovations from Apple iOS, Google Android, and the Palm WebOS devices continue to become more intuitive and connected to the social networks that have grown in popularity.

In addition to the greater availability of information the “social” innovations makes the sharing of information through phones more fun.  Pew Research also recently reported sharp increases in mobile internet usage.  Their ongoing study of The Internet & the American Life showed that 59% of adults now access the internet through mobile phone or internet connections such as WiFi (see embedded chart).

Taking my own phone for example (pictured above).  I have at any time 10 different apps  to choose from (not including the web browser) that can either serve as a means of researching where I am, where I want to go, and sharing that information across the web.  I can even instantaneously share about the type of experience I am having, and even include a photograph.  This information can be easily shared across photo sharing websites, social networks, or on a review site like Yelp.

Recent announcements from Facebook, Google, and Yelp only further highlight the need for businesses to take control of their online presence.   In fact the announcement last week from Facebook grants immediate location sharing ability to it’s over 500 million users.   It used to be a choice whether a business had a website and an online presence. This is no longer the case.  If your business has a storefront, and especially if you are a venue of any sort, you already have a listing on Yelp and Google, likely one on Foursquare, and will soon have one on Facebook.

These applications represent a tremendous opportunity for you to begin to listen to your customers and foster some meaningful interaction.   It is encouraged first that businesses begin to search for where there may already be chatter about their business online.  Then, formulate a strategy to listen, interact, and encourage others to participate.  I wrote previously in Focus on Social Media and Your Business Could Miss the Mark outlining some tactics to deepen online relationship and drive foot traffic to your business.  While it is important to not ‘hard sell’, lest your voice be filtered out, it is important to measure increases in loyalty and /or revenue.  The very publication you are reading has a mobile app available for the iPhone.

Another recommendation would be to buy one of these devices and become a user yourself.  Your personal use of the device and platform may lead to a greater understanding of your customers habits.

Regardless, businesses can no longer hide their heads in the sand, kick it old school, and pretend that a web strategy or social media is an option.  Either way you will send a message; engaged and listening or checked-out and oblivious.

What are some examples of engaged businesses you have been impressed with?  We would love to hear your stories. Especially of those that may be leveraging mobile platforms specifically.  An offer on FourSquare or Yelp.  What are your thoughts?

Scott Eggert is a marketing professional and writer who tracks trends and development in small business marketing in the Sacramento Area.  Focusing on solutions that are targeted and social, additional articles may be found at his website MarketSmall.net.  Scott lives in Fair Oaks and also works with the Sacramento Chapter of the Social Media Club.  Follow him at @MarketSmall on Twitter.

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Posted by Scott Eggert on Aug 24 2010. Filed under Business, Photos, Viewpoints. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.