A geosocial API began to expand in 2008 with the rise of portable WiFi and GPS capabilities [1]. Location-based services have since expanded tremendously on social media to allow user-submitted information to personalize messages and updates automatically. Patrons of your business can now check in at your location to share it with followers, add stamps and filters to photos taken at your events, and even add photos and videos of services you provide to your business' accounts. Geotagging and geocoding also allow you to more easily target users near your location that are most likely to visit your business.
The ultimate goal is to make user feeds more relevant. According to GlobalWebIndex, the most common motivation for using social media is to keep in touch with friends [2]. Friends and family are interesting and pertinent to the user's life, and businesses can rarely compete with that importance on a timeline. Services that prove your business resides near a group of users can help boost your significance.
Location based services aim to help your business become more visible the target market and create content that is appealing to users. Snapchat Geofilters, Facebook Places, and Instagram Location Stories are just a few of the latest geosocial networking features, all aiming to connect accounts and pages based on proximity. Snapchat and Instagram's newest story features allow people in a common location to contribute to the complete story that represents the event or area through photos and videos [3]. Attracting patrons of your business or event to use such features can increase your exposure and can be very inexpensive. Organizing contests or campaigns to reward those that contribute to your story can boost engagement, and custom Snapchat geofilters can entice users to share their location with followers.
“Location, location, location” not only works in the real-estate business, but also when spreading awareness of your business. Geosocial networking is a great tool that small businesses can easily use to capitalize on their location specificity. Now is the time to test the water and expand your small business' reach with geosocial networking.
Sources:
[1] The Evolution of the Social Media API, Mashable
[2] Top 10 Reasons for Using Social Media, GlobalWebIndex
[3] Instagram launches Story Search for hashtags and locations, TechCrunch
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