BrainTrust Query: SoLoMo Is So Confusing For Merchants
Through a special arrangement, presented here for discussion is a summary of a current article from the Hanifin Loyalty blog.
Almost every day, there seems to be a new entrant on the radar of social loyalty. You've already tackled Facebook, Foursquare and Twitter but don't feel that they are doing much for your business. Your Facebook page serves as a corporate billboard, your "official" location on Foursquare doesn't produce much buzz, and the Twitter account is more a burden to maintain than a useful business tool. You've tried both Groupon and LivingSocial and are still amortizing those "free first visits" you promised to users while trying to connect the dots on a break-even analysis.
It's not easy, is it?
Now, you hear about Belly, LevelUp, and Social Passport.
- Belly wants to place a consumer-facing iPad at point-of-sale and tells you that Consumer 2.0 will flock to enjoy the promotions that you can design with complete control. They quote CEO Logan LaHive as saying "in active locations, they're [Belly merchants] surpassing all-time Foursquare check-ins in the first month."
- LevelUp tells you that you can get ahead of the curve in "mobile payment technology," which they define as solutions which actually let consumers use a phone to pay for a good or service in a physical location. They tell you this thing called NFC is about to become prevalent as a way to facilitate payment and that you will be prepared with a LevelUp terminal.
- Social Passport rewards customers according to the power of their social graph. They quote CEO David Merel as saying merchants "want more efficient ways of driving new customers into their stores, while taking advantage of social media influence." The solution comes with an NFC link and no commissions, fees or minimum discount requirements.
The abundance of choice can freeze even the most aggressive and marketing-minded business owner. In addition to cost and operational concerns, there are reputational risks associated with allowing your business to become a guinea pig for the latest fad. The bottom line is that none of us can definitively say who the winners will be. Some of the core benefits of these new systems could be incorporated as features of established social and location based platforms. And there are other options to consider which I haven't mentioned here.
As we've seen in the aftermath of the Facebook IPO, there are no sure bets. For merchants of all sizes and types, it's a good time to watch and to
wait.