SoLoMo(Social Local Mobile)

BY:

Akhilesh Joshi

akhileshjoshi123@gmail.com

Table of Contents

Sr No. TOPIC Page

1 ABSTRACT 1

2 SOLOMO EMERGENCE 1

3 SOLOMO DEFINED 5

4 NEED FOR SOLOMO 7

5 SOLOMO TRANSFORMATION 8

6 SOLOMO ARCHITECTURE 9

7 SOLOMO PERSPECTIVE 12

8 SOLOMO OPPORTUNITIES 14

9 CONCLUSION 16

10 REFERENCES 17

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Abstract

This whitepaper is intended to give a brief perspective on Social Local Mobile (SoLoMo) – a marketing strategy. It describes the SoLoMo’s usage for marketing across the various industries. It provides deep insight on what SoLoMo is all about and how it is implemented for getting better results than the traditional marketing strategies.

SoLoMo Emergence

We are in NON-PC era. YES, you read that correctly. The trend suggests the percentage of people who are using smart phones as compared to who didn’t personal computers is very high. So we call it as a NON-PC era. We are surrounded with the magic of technology that give us power to go things in fraction of seconds, just like a magician. Book a movie ticket, pay internet bills, know about insurance policy, buying a new gadget these are just achieved on finger tips. Who we are? Who we know? Where we are? Where we’ve been? was once difficult to find out but now it’s easy to figure this out. And yes we human beings are adoptive to change, we make ourselves synchronize with the change and go hand in hand with change.

“It is not strongest of the species that survive nor the intelligent but the one most responsive to change” – Charles Darwin

Along the growth of smart phones the social network also evolved significantly. Facebook, Twitter gave different vision for internet usage. People over world connected to each other. They are now able to share their views among each other. Professional networking was also possible.

Another important aspect that evolved is Location Based Services (LBS). These Services have played a crucial role when they integrated themselves with the digital There is now a convergence of multiple technologies such as Internet, Wireless Communication Geographic information system, Location Technologies , Mobile Devices.

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We often need to know where things are physically located (location services, wireless location services, mobile location based services) and relating location to other pertinent information gives meaning and value for e.g. we need directions from one place to another , we want to interact naturally with I/O devices available in our environment. This gave rise to the concept of Location Based Services.

LBSs are information services accessible with mobile device through the mobile network and utilizing the ability to make use of the location of the mobile device.LBS is a two way communication and interaction where user tells the information he needs, preferences and position and service provider delivers information tailored to the user needs

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SoLoMo Defined

SoLoMo stands out for Social, Local and Mobile. It is emerging technique that understands the present and future world scenario. The main concept behind this technique is “sever the customer as per his likes/dislikes in his/her own vicinity through use of social networking.”

Social

As study says, the percentage of people switching towards the Social Networking among the online population has increased considerably. Collaborations and connectivity’s among various sites (Facebook+ Twitter, Facebook + foursquare) made connection bonding so strong.

The main advantage of social is that all type of information is readily available for the companies (e.g. person qualification, interests, trends). With the help of such type of data marketing strategies could be designed to increase the customer base. Below figure shows the percentage of PC Screen Time in India and it is about 25%.

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Local

Since we are in the era of Smartphone along with the magic of Location-Based Engagement technologies such as Facebook, Twitter, Google, foursquare made it possible to use location as weapon for identifying the areas where we want our market to be expanded or established. The main idea was to establish the branch office in customer’s locality. This will make customers happier and they will be stickier. Interesting applications are designed such as foursquare to map the location of users along with the categorization such as frequent visitor or a rare visitor. Such applications include the people reviews about places and restaurants which forms interesting factor for people visiting a new place.

Foursquare App

Mobile

The main idea for mobile is to share information from wherever it is being requested or to serve the customer 24X7. The percentage of hand held devices is increased substantially. It provided a mean to reach out to customer more easily and deliver him the information ASAP.

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Need for SoLoMo

Smartphone adaption has initiated the use of SoLoMo. People find it easy to get all the information they want into pocket size devices. IOS, Android markets evolved with applications that made this process smoother.

Figure shows the drastic growth of mobile and tablets in 2013.

Social Networking sites evolved had made a huge impact. This formed important link for human connections. All emotions/likes/dislikes were shared on them. This made the companies to easily approach towards the customers and understands them.

As the technology progressed location sharing came handy. This helped to track the locations of the customers and target them.

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SoLoMo Transformation

Radios broadcasts were easy source for reaching out to the customers. However it provide a large scale of audience but it was not feasible to target the prospect customers at more granular level. Radios broadcasts were replaced by desktop where the user was able to target more easily and more at granular level. By desktops the IP addressed were now able to track down to determine the locality of the prospect customer.

Later emerged the concept of mobiles and tablets which gave a totally new view customer targeting. Now the prospect customers can be easily tracked with exact location through GPS coordinated making the brand an easy way to serve the prospects and increase their business smoothly.

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SoLoMo Architecture

Location Data-as-a-Service (L-DaaS) Platforms

This forms to be as Data Repository. They also include mapping solutions where analysts can correlate between the upper layers. The mappings from Google and Bing serve the most basic. Apart from these two we have Factual. A single location can be referenced in hundreds of databases, many of which are incomplete or inaccurate. Factual seeks to centralize this point-of-interest (POI) data into a unified resource that is free for all to access

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Location-Based Engagement Platforms

Through Social network platforms people share interests, activities, backgrounds, or real-life connections. A social network service consists of a representation of each user (often a profile), his/her social links, and a variety of additional services.

 Online community services are sometimes considered as a social network service, though in a broader sense, social network service usually means an individual-centered service whereas online community services are group-centered. Social networking sites allow users to share ideas, pictures, posts, activities, events, and interests with people in their network. E.g. Facebook, Twitter.

Location-Based Engagement Applications

Marketers have less flexibility in working with applications, but they are vital to maintaining a holistic and comprehensive LBE (Location Based Engagement) strategy. There are numerous number of applications that are placed upon platforms. These apps mainly include a check in features that are integrated with Facebook Twitter. E.g. Yelp, Instagram.

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Distribution and Awareness

It includes both paid and unpaid sources. It’s always geo-targeted and often includes other targeting criteria. In most cases, the objective is to inspire action or behavioural change that leads to a brand engagement and redemption at the point of sale. In other words, the consumer receives a relevant call to action, which leads to a social engagement and offer redemption

“Offering a free soda with purchase at a restaurant rewards users for checking in and sharing the brand with friends and encourages them to continue that behaviour”

POS (Point Of Sale)

This is actually the core of the SoLoMo where the actual brand is sold/ delivered to the customer and forms the source of income for the brand. Here data is collected and linked with offline sales such as a particular ad for discount season on Facebook resulting in increase in number of sale for that particular brand. This is the point where all discounts and offers are redeemed to customers. The POS data is of prime importance since this includes all type of customer behaviour data, revenue stats , profit/loss ratio helping brand to strengthen its relationship with the customers and promote new offering and stand hard in competition.

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SoLoMo Perspective

When it comes to marketing both the customer and business perspectives are important. It is important to understand the customer behaviour , trends , likes/dislikes and demands and also on the other hand it is important to maintain the brand value as per the customer need so as to achieve highest level of customer satisfaction. It provides opportunity to both (customer and brand) to achieve their goals. SoLoMo has two perspectives customer and business.

Customer perspective

Human beings are meant to be social. They interact with each other share thoughts , suggestions and idea's. Friends are the most important part of their lives. They hang out with each other. Same comes with buying any product or brand. It is natural tendency that one will ask his/her friend before opting to some new brand which he/she has never tried before. It can be termed into the category of the mouth publicity. Apart from that people now more believe on reviews and comments and are intelligent enough to compare the brands and choose the most feasible one. Be it is cost constraint or quality constraints.

I want to know where my friends are right now. And yes I will get to know this within fraction of seconds though various location sharing apps and platforms that provide smooth running for such apps.

And with mobile came the location flexibility. I no longer need a desktop to book my train ticket. All the things can be done with a single handheld device and technology has made it so simple to use.

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Business Perspective

From business point of view a brand can promote the message through social networks since these networks forms a strong link between the customers and is a cheap way to reaching out to the prospects. Various advertisements blend the customers to opt one's brand.

Tracking the customer satisfaction is also easily decoded. Various tools and software’s are available that track down the popularity of the brand among the people by analyzing comments/reviews. Hence providing a gateway for the brand to improve on area's which they are not up to the mark and be competitive with the similar brand available.

With location based facilities the brand can track the customer trends for certain places and can focus majorly on the target area so as to gain maximum throughput. Brand can now understand its competitor’s actions in target areas and work upon strategizing themselves to beat the competitors. With mobile comes the flexibility to get in touch of the prospect directly. But care should be taken that customer should not be annoyed.

SoLoMo Opportunities

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a) Local Search Action

- Study says the user conducting the local search have more possibility to take the action (e.g. visit to a store/ buy a product)

b) Customer Engagement

- We can engage the customers and opt them for buying more of our products by asking them specific interesting questions , understanding their behaviour/trends

c) Increased Transparency

- People in these days strongly believe in reviews and product prices before they switch themselves to new product. It is important to increase the transparency in our process so that customer will be happy.

Advantages

a) Distribute Likes

- SoLoMo deals with customer information, an information directed to the customer by taking into the consideration the likes and dislikes of customers is a huge advantage.

b) Service at your desk

- All the business that is to be carried out will be in customer’s vicinity

Disadvantages

a) Privacy Concerns

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- Since SoLoMo mainly deals with customer information there is possibility that this information can be misused which is a threat to the customer.

b) Habits of individuals

- Since SoLoMo mainly deals with the location information there is possibility of information getting trapped about : places I visit often , place where I’m going into etc.

c) Annoyed Future

- Since SoLoMo mainly deals with the mobile there is possibility that the person may get annoyed or irritated if the way of communication is not directed correctly.

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Conclusion

SoLoMo provides a platform presenting opportunities for organizations to experiment new technologies and learn what kind of tactics consumers respond to positively. Engagement of prospects/non customers, taking care of existing customers and retaining them , providing your customers services that the never got before , rewarding your customers with different offers.

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REFERENCES

www.wikepedia.com

ww.slideshare.com

momentfeed.com

statistics: comScore.com

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