SoLoMo: Nice to have or Need to have?

What is SoLoMo…?

Simply put; it is the intersection of the 3 Social, Local and Mobile. It is aimed at providing a seamless experience to your customer and by doing that, enhancing you’re social presence and simultaneous revenues. Today we see a lot of activity companies have on their Social Network, we see a lot of companies making sure they have a Mobile Website or app and they have a local presence. Unfortunately we come across very few examples that use the intersection of all these 3 to add value to a customer and in turn value to your business.

To understand with clarity, let’s look at an example of one company that has adopted the SoloMo strategy and see how it has helped them

GranataPet:

This an innovative company that wanted to generate awareness about its dog food with a slim budget. All they did was create dispensers and technology that would detect when someone had checked-in through Foursquare. Whenever they did, the dispenser would dish out food for the dog. That way, the dog showed the dog the appreciation for the food and their sales blew up.

So, they simply made sure the owners checked-in (local presence) with their phones (mobile) and that increased their social engagement (foursquare).

Here is another success story video as an example of SoLoMo:

Through social media, Walgreens empowered their customers to donate over $6 million in flu shots to those in need. For every store check-in via Foursquare or Places, a flu shot was donated to a charitable organization. Participants could then go to the campaign's Facebook tab and vote for which cause they wanted to receive the most flu shots. The response was overwhelming: quadrupling page likes, owning nearly 75% of the competition's conversation, and spiking sales. But most importantly, people were able to change lives within their everyday routine.

How can Hotels benefit?

Think of how many restaurants and hotels can actually create fantastic ideas like this. Tons of guests are spending large amounts of time of social networks, checking-in. Imagine, if a hotel were to give away free Wi-Fi, whenever the guest checked-in at their hotel through Facebook. This would increase the engagement on social networks, entice guests to come back because of added value they receive and they would get check-ins repeatedly on social sites.

Define SoLoMo Strategy:

Define you’re social strategy. Define your customer base and investigate how they use multiple channels to engage with your brand. Define the customer journey and see how you can reach out to them more effectively. Once you map your customer journey and ideate, you should have a plan in place.

Take that Risk:

Statistics show that people spend over 2 hours on an average on social media sites through their mobile devices. Which is only going up, so it isn't a risk investing your media budget in the SoLoMo strategy… Make your presence felt.

Mobile Social Users as a percentage of total population in India is only 7% today but the overall number is 920,000,000.

Facebook occupies over 50% of the time spent on social networks. This makes it possible to know where you should invest your media budget.

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