Do You Know What LBS is?

Do You Know What LBS is?

by | Dec 14, 2011 | ScLoHo's Web World

As a kid, I learned lbs (non-caps) was an abbreviation for pounds.

Which is silly since the only common letter in pounds and lbs is the s.

You have to know history to know that it goes back centuries before we were roaming the planet.

The Latin phrase “a pound weight “was “a libra weight” when translated to German and so on….

But now LBS stands for something different.

Location-Based-Service, referring to the social media platforms that are based on your “checking in” to a location.

In my world, Four Square is the most popular.

Google+, Facebook, Twitter and a few others have this as part of their options, but I choose not to participate in those.

Ricky Potts and I have talked a few times about how to make Four Square check ins more fun and Kevin Mullett has spoken quite a bit about the bigger picture of how business are a little slow on the learning curve of how to use LBS effectively as a marketing tool and to build relationships with customers.

Last week I discovered two opposing viewpoints on the subject sent to me in the same newsletter.

First the Con: “Only about 5% of U.S. online adults said they use location apps at least once a month”

And the Pro: “Just a small sliver of adults online in the U.S. are actually using location-based apps like Foursquare, but a new report says that group wields a good amount of influence.”

Wanna know the freaky side to these two reports?

If you click thru the links you’ll see that they both drew their conclusions from the EXACT SAME research report!

Say, if you want to truly learn how to use this and all the other technology that we have at our fingertips, come talk to the experts, (Sorry Kevin).

I’m referring to the ones who are doing it, not those who are clueless.

Contact me using the contact form and I’ll be sure to get back to you or you can find me on Twitter too.

Birthdays and Social Media

Birthdays and Social Media

by | Dec 13, 2011 | ScLoHo's Web World

Sunday was my birthday.

And as someone once said, “Never let a crisis go to waste” or something like that, I decided to do a social media experiment.

(No, my birthday was not a crisis.)

One of the ways I use Facebook is to wish folks a happy birthday.  It’s real easy as Facebook will alert you, so as long as you check daily.

I spend more time on Twitter and have stepped up my use of FourSquare, neither of which have automatic birthday reminders.

But on Friday a friend took me out to lunch for my birthday and when I checked in to the restaurant I mentioned I was there for a birthday lunch.  I didn’t mention whose birthday, but still 3 folks wished me a Happy Birthday.

Sunday however was a busy day on Facebook and Twitter.

When I checked into the Firefly Coffee shop and I used Four Square combined with a pic and linked it to my Twitter account, I mentioned that I was having a raspberry white mocha for my birthday.  The Birthday wishes started rolling in.  I replied back with a “Thanks for the Birthday Wishes” off and on all day on Twitter.

But the biggest response was from Facebook Friends.  I stopped counting after 100 birthday wishes but because Facebook makes it easy to do, I commented back to each and every one of them.

Why?  Why not just do a group “Thanks everyone” type of post?

Because Social Media is about building relationships in my book.

Even if it only takes 10 seconds for someone to send the message, I wanted to spend at least that amount of time, sometimes more to really personalize my response.

Are you using Social Media to build relationships?