3 Ways Your Local Business Can Take Advantage of Pokémon Go

If you’re a local business owner and haven’t kept up with the recent buzz surrounding Pokémon Go, there may be a good reason for you to tune in!

The augmented reality game has taken over the digital world in the past week with over 15 million downloads. It’s installed on more devices than LinkedIn, and people are spending more time per day playing the game than using Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter or Instagram!

Why does this matter for your local business? What makes this mobile-app unique is that it is geographically-based, sending users to real world locations in order to capture Pokémon. Why not make that “real world location” your brick-and-mortar store, and increase foot traffic?

Here are a few ways to take advantage of this phenomenon using social media, and attract a wave of gaming customers to your location:
 

Lure “parties”

If you business happens to be a “Pokéstop” or is near one (download the app to check), you can purchase something called a lure. A lure attracts more Pokémon, and therefore more gamers, to your location for a span of 30 minutes, and only costs 99 cents!

Buy multiple lures to make the effect last for a few hours, and then promote your “lure party” on social media! You can make this event even more attractive for local players by posting about coupons or specials you will be offering during the time your lures are active.

*To purchase a lure, tap the red Pokéball inside the app, press “Shop” and then tap the purple Lure icon.  After paying, tap the red Pokéball again, press “Items” and tap the purple lure to activate.
 

Hashtags

Post content related to the game (or take user-generated content from the screenshots in the tip above) and use hashtags #pokemongo and #pokemon, along with location-based hashtags for your area. This will allow nearby players to easily find you on social media, and let them know that they should come scout out your location.
 

Gamer discounts

Provide a discount to players who post screenshots of Pokémon they capture in your store and tag you on social media. This spreads the word to their followers – who are most likely in your area – that your store is a good place to catch Pokémon. To drive even more gamers to your location, make sure you’re constantly promoting this discount on your social pages.

Even if the world of Pokémon is foreign to you, you can easily leverage this fad as a local marketing opportunity. Get the players in your community through your door, and start converting them into paying customers!

 
Want some help? Apply for a complimentary session with me! Just go to www.kyapply.com

5 Easy Social Media Solutions for Your Brick and Mortar Business

 

Do you own a brick and mortar business?

I talk a lot about how to use Social Media for online marketing, but it can be very powerful for brick and mortar businesses as well!

Here are some quick, easy and instantly engage-worthy marketing ideas for your business that isn’t online, but still needs to show up there.

[Tweet “Quick, easy and instantly engage-worthy marketing ideas for your brick and mortar business.”]

Facebook Check-ins

As a brick and mortar business you are probably already on Facebook. Facebook business pages, while declining a bit in popularity due to Facebook algorithm changes, are still popular to get cheap advertising. But for something completely free and fantastic at engaging your clients – incentivize the Facebook checkin. Advertise that any person who walks into your store and checks in on Facebook gets a 10% off coupon, or a half price entree, or a free dessert. The list goes on. Be as creative as you want to be! Because every time someone checks in, it tells a few hundred people that your business rocks. And that is a LOT of social proof for one small step of social media marketing.

Instagram Geo-tagging

Make it a part of the job requirement that your staff take a few pictures of today’s specials, sales, or other noteworthy events and send them out over Instagram. Make sure they geo tag them (their location services have to be turned on when they take the picture) when they upload them to your Instagram thread.

Are you a deli? Take a picture of the best looking sandwich of the day, geo tag it and send it out.

Are you a sit down restaurant? Take a picture of the daily specials board, geo tag it and voila.

Twitter Hashtags

Hashtags have many purposes and one that is certainly helpful for brick and mortar businesses is the searchability these tags can create by town or location. Tweet out some of your best pictures of the day, you could include food specials, sales, or employee of the month, but make sure to hashtag it with your city or town.

Are you a pizzeria? Hashtag those pictures of your wonderful looking (I can almost smell it!) pizza pies with your town name so people know where to find you easily and quickly.

YouTube Video Shorts

These 30 second or less videos can be huge for certain brick and mortar businesses because of how engaging they are for customers. Not to mention that because YouTube is a Google company, after only a few videos your search rankings will climb.

Are you a realtor? Whip out your smartphone and take some short videos around town (not to mention short videos of houses for sale). Tell your prospective buyers how awesome your town is! Why would someone want to pick up and move? Show them. Then upload them easily onto your YouTube channel.

P.S. This content can also be repurposed on Instagram or Facebook as well.

Instagram Hashtags

Instagram is made up of hashtags for popularity and searchability. Start searching the hashtags for pictures of your local area, or anything that relates to your business product.

Do people share pictures of their favorite homemade pizzas? If so and you run a pizza joint – comment and share the love.

Are you a bait and tackle store? Search out hashtags of lakes and rivers near you and comment on all the pictures people post of fish they catch. People LOVE to take pictures of their fish.

Are you a camping store? Search out hashtags of people traveling, camping, using their gear etc. Comment away.

There are many more ideas where these came from – and I’d be glad to help you generate more! Just join my LinkedIn group, tell me what premise-based business you run and I’ll come up with social media marketing ideas for you to get your wheels turning and and your social media message spinning. I look forward to seeing you there.

Hashtags And Instagram

 

Oh pretty Instagram, so simple and easy, just post a photo and go…

Not so fast.

Visual Instagram is easy on the eyes, fun at the fingertips, but it doesn’t stop there.

 

This powerful platform can offer:

  • an impact on your SEO
  • mighty web reach
  • new followers for your business brand
  • fun (and easy) contests to run
  • widespread popular cultural appeal

[Tweet “Visual Instagram is easy on the eyes, fun at the fingertips, but it doesn’t stop there.”]

 

ALL through the use of Hashtags.

 

 

Instagram is very hashtag-centric, and I want to explain a couple quick ways to help you make your Instagram platform work better and use it smarter all through the use of these quirky little sentences call hashtags.

    1. Don’t be too generic: Remember you want your future followers to stumble upon you and you don’t want to get lost in the shuffle. Brainstorm a few ideas, do a quick search of each, and see what and mostly how many other feeds show up.
    2. Use keywords to help you: In my post on SEO last month I show you exactly how to find keywords that fit your biz. Turn these words into hashtags and use them regularly on your posts.
    3. Be specific with your brand: Some great examples of brands that do this well:
      Minicooper with #minimondays
      Athleta with #athletafitstyle
    4. Use more than 2 and less than 30: You are allowed up to 30 hashtags in your Instagram post. So use BOTH specific AND more generic keywords in each of your posts. The “best” number of hastags? 11 or more. But all that really means is don’t stress about it. Hashtags are just a good bet, period, for growing your followers on Instagram. (stats from TrackMaven)Tip! Your hashtag does NOT have to be in your original post, it’s just as effective in the comments section.callout
    5. Quick hashtag lists when short on time: Need a quick list of popular tags in almost every category? Check this out Pick your topic, copy and paste, and voila! Insta-likes on Instagram.
    6. Be careful: Don’t use a banned hashtag or it, and possibly your post, will Not show up in the feed. Click here for an updated list on what IS and IS NOT currently allowed by Instagram.
    7. Keep track of your stats with Iconosquare: Learn which photos you post are most liked, most engaged with, track your averages and more advanced metrics that will help you fine tune your message as you go. Click here to learn more and sign up for a free account.

Most importantly… Have Fun!

Challenge yourself to engage your soon-to-be rapid fans by interacting with Instagram’s themes (#followfriday) and memes (#TBT or #throwbackthursday) while “newsjacking.”
That is taking a hot news story and making it relevant to your brand in a fun way.

So your first step today?

Just log on and do some searching. Take 5 minutes and plug in a few relevant words. See what pops up. Start getting inspiration from others in your niche. What tags do they use? How many? How relevant? How often? Which are most commented on by their followers?

Tomorrow? Start posting your own.

As always I’m here to help: follow me on Instagram @karenyankovich where you can comment, get ideas, ask for help. Share with me your favorite hashtag for your business and I’ll promote it in one of my posts!

Twitter and Hashtags

 

I’ve been talking a lot lately about why I love Twitter and to really get you in the game I wanted to follow it up with a post about hashtags.

hashtag

What is a hashtag? A hashtag is a word or short phrase (with no spaces or punctuation) that follows the # sign.

Where can they be used? A hashtag can be used on most social media platforms: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest to name a few.

On each platform the purpose, goal, and use of a hashtag is very similar, but for the purpose of this post I am going to focus on Twitter and the use of hashtags there.

Why should you use hashtags? There are many reasons the effective use of hashtags can be very helpful to your business marketing plan, strategy, and information gathering so let’s dive in and I’ll show you the most productive ways to use hashtags while you tweet!

1. The hashtag is a searchable term.

Trying to find out what your target market is saying? Wanting to know who they follow and why?

Hoping to find out what questions your prospect clients are asking? Needing to know what terms your competition is using? Enter, the hashtag.You can search for these terms your audience might be using and voila – all the answers to those questions at your fingertips!

Tip 1

2. Create your own hashtag so others can find YOU.

Promoting a launch? Selling a service? Asking a question? Reaching out to your audience? Marketing your biz?

Tip 2

Create a unique hashtag that your followers, and those who might be searching for you, a way to find you easily. This may take a bit of brainstorming to find a tag that is not heavily used, but it is very possible. Just use that search function again as you try out ideas that relate specifically to who you are, what you do, and what you offer.

3. Follow a trend that is relevant to your business.

Make use of popular hashtags that are “trending” meaning they are used by a LOT of people. This way you can find AND share valuable content. Your tweet will show up in more people’s feeds who are talking about the same thing you are. Visibility!!

Tip 3

4. Participate in, or start a Twitter chat.

A Twitter chat is organized around a group of people using the same hashtag in each tweet in order to read and follow, or remark on and add to a conversation stream around a specific topic. Consider this like “open office hours.” You can engage your followers on a topic you set yourself (with the specific hashtag so everyone knows how to follow you and comment) or jump in on another Twitter chat that is related to your business adding valuable advice, commentary, or just to see what others might have to say! Follow my Twitter chats here! #AskKarenY

Tip 4

5. Most importantly – add value and have fun!

This goes hand in hand with establishing yourself as an expert and as someone to follow. One, you add great content by tagging it so people can find it, and Two, when you have fun you will have great commentary that people enjoy. Just like everything else in social media, people want to see who YOU are. So let your hair down a little, write a fun tweet, tag it with a funny comment and see what happens!

It should be noted that you don’t NEED to use a hashtag for your post to come up in a Twitter search. There’s really no need to use it mid-tweet, but it IS valuable to call attention to specific topics you may be tweeting about.

Inspiration

Ready to try it? I’d love to know how it goes! Click here to tweet your new campaign at me (use @karenyankovich) and I’d be glad to comment, retweet, and high-five you and your post!