A native of Colorado, Mrs. Yolanda M. Johnson-Bryant, currently resides in the Piedmont Triad area of North Carolina, with her husband. Mrs. Bryant is a published author, freelance writer, novelist, editor, ghostwriter and a literary and entrepreneurial advocate. She is the founder and owner of YolandaMJohnson, Literary Wonders! and Bryant Consulting. She is a columnist for Examiner.com, RAW Sistaz Literary Services and other literary venues. Mrs. Johnson-Bryant is a member of The Nussbaum Entrepreneurial Center, Women of Leadership and Learning (WELL Women) and Toastmasters. She also conducts workshops and classes on writing and entrepreneurship and is also a member of several reading and writing groups.

What is social location marketing? (Also known as LBSN—location-based social network)

Simply put, social location marketing is a small but powerful mobile social media tool that can convert check-ins into cash. Although statistics show that only 4 percent of surveyed Americans admitted to using location based social networks, numbers are on the rise.

Social marketing location campaigns can include rewards and discounts to prospective and loyal customers. Marketers can target their campaigns to a specific area, age group, or industry.

What can social location marketing do for a writer or an author?

If you’re familiar with social media, then you’re probably aware of resources such as Foursquare and Facebook places, but, there are other sites, like SCVNGR (Scavenger), Google Hotpot (Google Places), Yelp, MyTown, Whrrl, Brightkite, and Loopt.

Back in June, Foursquare announced that it had reached ten million users. The LBSN has been around for only a little over two years. That is pretty impressive when you think about how long social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter have been around.

Recently, Simon Salt, author of Social Location Marketing: Outshining Your Competitors on FourSquare, Gowalla, Yelp & Other Location Sharing Sites, spoke at South by Southwest, an annual music, film, technology, and interactive conference. He explains that when people are checking in at your venue, they are advertising your brand. He focused on using the right technology and the right technique.

Foursquare is a location-based mobile platform that allows users to “check in” from wherever they are, using their cell or smart phones. This is where local businesses and venues come in.

For example, best-selling author Victoria Christopher Murray recently released her latest novel, The Deal, The Dance and the Devil. A customer, let’s call her Yolanda, has decided to go to one of the author’s book signings. Checking the author’s Website, Yolanda finds that the author will be signing at The Tattered Cover Book Store in Denver, Colorado. This is what Yolanda’s LBSN trail on Foursquare or Facebook Places would look like for this trip.

1. Yolanda will check in at PTI airport. She will state whether the lines are moving smoothly or if they are too long. She can also state whether flights are on time or are cancelled. This will allow her followers on any of these social location platforms know that they should probably call before they come out to the airport. Yolanda could also inform her followers that Cam Newton, the newest Carolina Panther, is currently in the airport giving out autographs.

2. While boarding the plane, Yolanda can let her followers know whether or not her Delta flight was clean or dirty and whether or not the staff was friendly or unprofessional. This will help aid her followers’ decisions about flying on Delta Airlines in the future.

3. Yolanda has a three-hour layover in St. Louis, Missouri, and decides that since her son lives there, she will take him out to lunch at Blueberry Hill. Yolanda can let her followers, who may have thought about visiting St. Louis or currently live in St. Louis, know that Blueberry Hill’s Toasted Ravioli is the bomb!

4. Yolanda finally lands in Denver and posts on Foursquare that she is at the 16th Street mall downtown. Since she grew up here, she can reconnect with all of her old childhood friends, and in the process, she finds out that a store is offering free chips and salsa with the purchase of a product. Yolanda and her

friends benefit because she and her friends get to catch up over free salsa and chips, and the store benefits because they’ve sold Yolanda and her friends each a product. In addition to that, it is highly likely that Yolanda and her friends will order more food because they love to eat.

5. Yolanda checks her watch and realizes that she had better mosey on over to The Tattered Cover Bookstore because she wants to make sure she gets her autographed copy of Victoria’s book. She also knows that Victoria likes to read from her books so she wants an exclusive seat up front. Once Yolanda reaches the bookstore, she checks in to let all her friends know where she is and that best-selling author Victoria Christopher Murray is there and they should get down to the bookstore as soon as possible. Let’s say Yolanda has fifty friends following her and they all come to the signing. Let’s say all fifty of those friends have at least twenty-five friends who follow them. Suddenly Tattered Cover is bombarded with Victoria Christopher Murray enthusiasts and Tattered Cover has one of their best selling days of the year. Victoria’s books cost $15. Yolanda checks into one of the Social Location Marketing platforms, and was able to get 150 of her friends and their friends to the store to buy a book from the featured author. You don’t have to be a math major to figure out the benefits. On top of that, there is a good chance some of these friends will purchase other books in the store, increasing Tattered Cover’s sales.

I could go on and on, but I think you get the picture. Social location marketing benefits everyone involved. The effects can last long after a single check-in. Social location marketing campaigns benefit both consumers and businesses. Another beautiful aspect of this kind of marketing is that while Yolanda is sitting down enjoying the signing or having chips and salsa, she can browse her phone for other specials that are near her, and depending on how good that msalsa is, she just might leave a good review on the company’s Website, another tool for garnering more customers.

As you can see, social location marketing is another creative way to create buzz about your business. Technology has allowed millions to utilize this resource at the palm of their hands. It used to be that a consumer had to log on to their desktop or laptop computers, now with the increased use of smart phones, social location marketing can be conducted just about anywhere.

As stated earlier, there are several resources in addition to Foursquare that consumers and businesses can utilize to save money and increase sales. To learn more about social location marketing, purchase Social Location Marketing by Simon Salt at any Barnes & Noble or at any online retailer.

RESOURCES:

Social Location Marketing by Simon Salt
Simon Salt 
South by South West (SXSW) 
Foursquare 
Facebook Places 
Scavenger (SCVNGR) 
Google Places 
Yelp 
My Town 
Whrrl 
Brightkite 
Loopt 
Victoria Christopher Murray 
Tattered Cover Bookstore 
The Deal, the Dance and the Devil 
PTI Airport 
Blueberry Hill 
Delta Airlines 
Barnes and Noble