SoLoMo for Social Media Strategists

A successful social media strategy must integrate three key components: “social,” “local,” and “mobile.” According to a recent special report in the Nation’s Restaurant News, $159 billion of U.S. retail sales in 2012 were influenced by SoLoMo. Over 116 million people own smartphones. In July 2012 alone, 90 million American had accessed retail information on their mobile devices. Additionally, 38% of mobile users opted in to receive location-based promotional text messages and that 18% used a location-based social media app such as Foursqure to check in at a venue. How can any business come up with an excuse of not participating in SoLoMo?

The following include some best practices and direct quotes from the report. For example, Texas Roadhouse initiated a “TextUs Loyalty Club” campaign. The redemption rate reached 17% during a six month trial period, much higher than those using other media sources.

Nearly two fifth of Pita Pit’s new likes came from smartphone users on Facebook’s app.

“We listened to our most passionate fans and found exciting ways to get the Cool Ranch (Doritos Locos Taco) in their hands before it was available nationwide… We doubled our YouTube views in one month and saw our engagement go through the roof… (We) start with listening to what is trending and what our consumers are saying.” --- Tressie Lieberman (@tresslieberman), Director of Digital and Social Marketing, Taco Bell, a Division of Yun! Brands Inc.

“We’re just starting to look at Vine and Instagram, and we’re asking our customers how they’d interact on that platform (Vine).” --- Caroline Masullo (@CMM2B), Director of Digital and Social Marketing, Pizza Hut, a Division of Yum! Brands Inc.

“Traffic and sales are the most critical (return on investment) measures. We also measure brand perception and likelihood to suggest the brand or menu item (to friends). We also pay close attention to how our community is growing.” --- Jill McFarland, Senior Manager of Digital and Social Media, Applebee’s, a Division of DineEquity Inc.

“Twitter is a more casual and conversational medium than Facebook and really lends itself to interacting with consumers in a fun way. A&W has such a great mascot that we want to utilize as much as possible, so why not put Rooty in charge of guest listening?” --- Rooty and Great Root Bear, Mascot and Spokesbear, A&W Restaurants Inc.

“When hired, Wion was charged with aligning McDonald’s U.S. social media strategies and tactics with U.S. and global disciplines…We have guidelines on how people talk about their jobs in their own social feeds. Our customer service team has been a part of our social media efforts from the beginning, and our insights teams work more with us, as well, taking what we monitor in social and using it to inform operations, culinary and HR.” Rick Wion, Director of Social Media, McDonald’s Corp.

As a professional in social media field, what lessons do you learn from these best examples and social media strategists? What other best examples may you share with us?

As a customer, which mobile app has the most engaging experience (with you)? What are the cool mobile apps that you are using? Do you mind recommending some of those cool apps to us?

Relevant Discussion: 

“SoLoMo”and Legislation

Is It a Good Business Strategy to Offer Phone-Free Discount?

References:

Nation’s Restaurant News. (April 15, 2013). Special Report: Harnessing the power of social media. p. 12-20.

The infographic was downloaded from Mashable.com. 

Cloud Computing: The Next Generation

Computing relies on sharing computing resources rather than having local servers or personal devices. In the term cloud computing, “cloud” relates to “the internet” so cloud computing is a type of internet-based computing.  Apple’s iCloud is the most popular cloud computing service. iCloud was launched on October 12,2011 and by January 2013, iCloud had more than 250 million users.  iCloud allows users to backup and restore, login from other devices such as computers, save their emails, contacts and calendar dates, find their iPhone, store music and pictures, etc. By having all of these features, Apple has beaten out the other cloud computing companies.  iCloud automatically downloads your files to all of your devices so they stay up-to-date.  iCloud works with iPhones, iPads, Macs, and Windows PCs.  The first 5 GB of storage is free! If you want, you can buy additional space for a yearly fee ($20 for 10 GB). 

According to Strategy Analytics, almost 2,300 devices are connected to cloud computing, with Apple’s iCloud services accounting for 27% of them.  Dropbox is 17%, Amazon Cloud Drive is 15%, and Google Drive is a 10% of those connected device.  Cloud computing is “heaviest” with younger people, ages between 20 and 24 years old, and Apple iCloud attracts more females than males.  This is due to Apples lead in music storage, which is the leading cloud use case.

Features:

One of the best features in iCloud is “iTunes in the Cloud”.   Once you purchase music on any device, it automatically syncs with the rest of your devices. The music will also be stored so you can download it again if necessary.  It is possible to download purchased Tv shows and movies to your device.

The backing up and restoring feature lets a user back up photos and videos in their camera roll, device settings, apps, messages, etc.  All of this is backed up and saved into the service, and if a user needs to restore their information back into their device, it is all there.

 “Documents in the Cloud” is a great way to keep all of your documents with Pages, Keynote, or Numbers updated on all of your other devices.

Find My Device

Find my Device is another great feature to iCloud.  Find my device helps a user find their iphone or ipad if it goes missing. You go to iCloud.com to see where your phone or iPad is located, and then you can play

a sound or send a message to your phone incase someone else has it (as shown in the picture).

Photo stream automatically saves your most recent photos taken with your iPhone or iPad and “pushes” them to all of your other devices.

Now that you know more about cloud computing and its features, here are a couple of questions I would like you to answer:

1.     Do you use cloud computing? If so, which service? If not, why?

2.     What do you think about cloud computing? Do you think that it will become more popular in the future?

References:

http://www.howstuffworks.com/cloud-computing/cloud-computing.htm

http://www.informationweek.com/cloud-computing/infrastructure/apple-dropbox-lead-cloud-storage-market/240151382

http://www.gcflearnfree.org/icloud/1

http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/C/cloud_computing.html