Marketing Pilgrim

Foursquare has just announced an upgrade that puts the power of perks into the merchant’s hands. With Foursquare 3.0, merchants will be able to run a variety of specials at the same time, each designed to capitalize on a different kind of customer. Best of all, Foursquare has already done the ground work, so it’s pretty much follow the steps, click the buttons and go.

With the new system, you’ll have a choice of five new customer options and two loyalty programs for existing customers. Under the new heading you have Flash Specials. These are rewards that go out for a very short period of time to the first people who check-in at a specified location. Combine this option with a Facebook fan page blast and you’ve got a very powerful tool for bringing in business on a slow day.

Day one of PubCon Austin was filled with high caliber sessions and awesome opportunities to meet interesting people passionate about online marketing. Acting a bit like the lone pilgrim, I embarked through a never ending downpour of useful advice, insightful commentary and the occasional comical outburst to bring the best of PubCon to you, the Marketing Pilgrim readers.

My day started out by watching the keynote presented by best selling author and social media expert Jeffrey Eisenberg which I covered in detail in a previous post.

Then, like a swarm of ants, the attendees flowed out of the main conference room into a series of smaller rooms to begin their day. I started with a stiff cup of coffee to help ward off the effects of free beer from the PubCon Kickoff Party the night before, but after a little caffeine and a brief chat with @andybeal I was ready to embark on my journey of knowledge.

This year London SES was held at the Queen Elizabeth conference centre in Westminster. The London show attracted attendees from all over the UK, Europe and Asia making SES a hub for both European and international SEOs. The 2011 event showcased some excellent speakers who covered a range of topics from link building to conversions.

Here are our 35 top tips from the London show.

1. Content Marketing:

“You need to understand what your customers want. What do they want to consume? What do they want to learn from or share?”
Lee Odden – www.toprankblog.com

“Rich content can open doors for influencing customers and clients, it can draw in business, attract talent and save costs on recruitment. It can also make money from marketing partners”
Lee Odden

Last year when Facebook introduced its Places service the Internet marketing media engaged in some serious debate as to whether Foursquare could survive this new competition. As with most of these ‘issues’ there were reports ranging from ‘imminent demise’ to ‘foursquare will win and all stops in between. Well, if you use new users as any barometer it looks like Foursquare is weathering the storm.

The chart below comes from the Business Insider’s Silicon Alley Insider

Not bad all things considered. Maybe the Facebook Places media coverage simply served to make more people in general aware of these location based options and, as a result, Foursquare got an indirect “Facebook bump”. Of course, in the shadow of Facebook’s 600 or so million accounts, 7 million looks pretty tiny but Foursquare is what Foursquare is, a check-in service that is looking to evolve past the check-in.

The European governing bodies continue to put severe pressure on web sites to protect the privacy of web users. In a move that will seem harsh to many, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) is putting together laws that will require sites to let users opt in so that the site can use cookies to track them.

The BBC reports

From 25 May, European laws dictate that “explicit consent” must be gathered from web users who are being tracked via text files called “cookies”.

The section of the directive dealing with cookies was drawn up in an attempt to protect privacy and, in particular, limit how much use could be made of behavioural advertising.

How are businesses responding? This tweet from Tweetmeme’s CEO Nick Halstead says it all.

PubCon Austin kicked off today with a keynote by best selling author and social media specialist Jeffrey Eisenberg. Eisenberg’s keynote entitled Social Media and Conversion: The Yellow Brick Road, covered the goals and approaches one should take with social media marketing.

Eisenberg’s main theme was using social media marketing efforts to start a meaningful conversation with your audience. His thoughts were focused on the fact that a meaningful interaction with your audience will result in conversions and a positive relationship with the customer.

Eisenberg noted that 70% of people check social media websites several times per week, which he felt indicated that this whole social media thing is a “big deal” and worth your attention. While that’s not overly surprising to hear, a good stat is a good stat.