Page 354 - Social Media Marketing for Dummies

It’s a snap: Using the camera

Most mobile phones today come with a high-end camera. A consumer can use the
camera in her phone to opt into a mobile marketing campaign by taking a picture
of an ad in a magazine, a bar code, a physical product (such as a DVD or soda can),
or herself and then use it in the social media context to contribute content to the
community.

Because their phones are always with them, most consumers find that they reach
for their camera phones rather than try to remember to take a standalone camera.
And social network applications make it easier to upload photos directly from a
phone’s camera than downloading images from a traditional digital camera to a
computer and then uploading them to the community site. Most social platforms,
such as Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, allow you to take photographs on your
mobile phone and easily upload them to the service. For example, customers take
photographs of products with their phones, share them directly on Facebook, and
ask their friends for feedback on whether they should buy the products.

Location, location, location

Location information is a very powerful tool, and it’s one of the unique features of
a smartphone. When mobile subscribers are out and about, they usually know
where they are, but their phones always know (unless they turn off the GPS
tracker).

Location information can make your programs more contextually relevant to a
user’s location, and you get those details, depending on the phone, from the user,
the service network, global positioning and network triangulation technologies,
Wi-Fi networks, and a wide range of other technical alchemy.

All you need to remember is that you can use location to make your programs
more contextually relevant with the user and the community. For example, you
could run a special SMM campaign targeted toward people who are in a three-mile
radius of your flagship store, encouraging them to visit and get an additional dis-
count if they bring a friend into the store with them.

Location-based mobile campaigns can be controversial. If they’re not permission-
based or aren’t explained clearly, they can come across as an invasion of privacy.
If you’re planning an SMM campaign with location-aware elements, we recom-
mend targeting it toward audiences like Millennials who are already comfortable
with location-aware services and advertising.

338 PART 5 Old Marketing Is New Again with SMM