The new frontier for social media networks is at our fingertips.  Literally.  More and more cell phone users are switching to smart phones, giving rise to location-based mobile social networking.  While location-based applications have long been available on the shelves of the iTunes App Store, they’ve largely collected dust, lacking the bells and whistles to keep people from “checking-in” on a regular basis.

Loopt leaves much to be desired

Such was the case with Loopt, the seasoned veteran in the battle for smart phone networking app supremacy.  Introduced in 2005, Loopt relies primarily (if not solely) on the attraction of keeping tabs on your friends’ coordinates at any given time.  Later generations of the application, along with similar competitors, have imported information from Yelp or CitySearch in order to present users with a list of dining or drinking options nearby as well.

Foursquare leads the competition

Other applications have introduced new weapons in response to the primitive GPS-based technology of Loopt.  Most prominently, Foursquare challenges its network to collect points at check-ins and earn badges and mayorships, complete with scoreboards and term limits.  Now available in over 100 metropolitan areas, Foursquare is the leader of the pack in location-based mobile networking, as the application synthesizes information from Yelp and enables friends to meet-up or share tips in absentia.  Furthermore, as the size of the network has grown, so too have the number of offers and coupons up for grabs.  Even some forward-thinking bars offer a free drink to the rightful Foursquare mayor of their location.  The rapid check-in and point scoring system does have its shortcomings as well: as successful as Foursquare is in New York City, don’t hold your breath waiting for its arrival in Branson, Missouri.

New challengers offer innovation to the location-based app

Behind Foursquare stand a few guerilla insurgents aiming to displace the reigning king of location-based networks.  Buzzd is aimed at twenty-somethings, as it seeks to provide its network with the bars and clubs that are trending or popular in real-time.  Gowalla brings a populist approach to the application, allowing for users to design tours through Central Park’s main attractions or Texas BBQ pits, thus encouraging more network members to compete for notoriety and respect, rather than points.

A battle between location-based networks lies ahead, but so too do new competitors and innovations to existing networks.  As this competitor only makes applications better, location-based social networks will continue to innovate and incorporate new strategy—representing the future, portable portal to consumers.

Outbound marketing is just not as effective anymore.  Outbound marketing for companies could be the use of traditional mass media, making cold calls, or going to trade shows.  These activities are active methods “selling” products and services through finding and approaching potential customers.  Tired of cold calling?  Try investing more on inbound marketing and let the business come to you!

Inbound marketing involves attracting new customers and letting them find you because you present your brand as a credible and trustworthy source.  Consumers or companies seeking products and services that you  might be offering are looking online and doing research through Google searches, reading blogs, and even reviewing content on social media sites.  Instead of putting your brand out there to people or companies used to quickly tuning out mass media, why not just be “found” by your target customer when they are looking?

Inbound marketing through search engine optimization simply means that your site is going to be well optimized for keywords most important to growing your business.  Without SEO, your company’s website will never be found in the natural search results and therefore lose market share to competitors who are in fact being “found” by your potential customers. 

Inbound marketing with blogs and social media involves developing great content.  This will in turn drastically improve your SEO efforts.  Social media is of course about more than content but is driven by sharing valuable information with your audience.  The information on your blog and social media platforms should be compelling and offer your audience a chance to quickly learn something of value.

Most companies these days are still spending about 90% of their time and energy on outbound marketing and only 10% on inbound methods.  Once a company truly embraces the theory and strategy behind inbound marketing they generally improve the inflow of new business leads.  They quality of these inquiries is usually better too. 

In conclusion, if your company wants business to come to you rather than having to chase down “leads”, then pursue these strategies:

• Position your company and people within your company as industry experts
• Develop great content for your website and blogs (i.e. articles, white papers, blogs, videos, etc.)
• Distribute your content to social media sites like Facebook, other blogs, Twitter, YouTube, etc.
• Forget the “sales pitch” and let new business come to you