Remember those cool geocaching treasure hunts where you could pop open an app or grab your GPS to find hidden treasure? Well, a very similar concept has entered the world of social media marketing.
What is Geofencing?
If you have a smartphone, then you’ve probably received a notification that says something along the lines of “X app would like to use your current location.” Once you approve this, your location can be tracked through GPS, Wifi, Bluetooth or cellular data. You can then enter and exit virtual boundaries, known as geofences, while using that app.
This is really exciting news for social media marketers! Why? Because we can now set up virtual parameters for users, which means we can send them extremely relevant content.
How Does Geofencing Work?
Let’s say you have a business that has a vendor booth at Grizzly Fest.
Using social media, you can set up a geofence around the location for the entire duration of the event. Then, when users enter your geofence they’ll be delivered content that could direct them to your booth or inspire them learn more about your business.
See, I told you it was pretty cool!
What Platforms Use Geofencing?
One of the first social networking apps to embrace geofencing was Snapchat. For those who aren’t familiar with this platform, it can use your location to provide certain filters and stickers for your pictures and videos taken on the app.
So, for that vendor booth you have set up at Grizzly Fest, you can create a filter attendees (who are on Snapchat) can use and share with all of their friends. Although this may not necessarily direct them to your booth, it would get your business’ name out there.
Imagine there are 1,000 attendees and only 50% of them use your Snapchat filter. These 500 people then post a picture using your filter to their story for all their friends to see. If each person has 20 friends, which is very conservative, that’s 10,000 people you’ve just reached!
Other social media platforms, such as Facebook, are also starting to adopt geofencing. However, their aim is geared more towards delivering ads rather than engagement.
How Can Your Business Benefit From Geofencing?
Although this is perhaps one of the coolest ways to reach your audience, geofencing can do more than just that. For one, it provides a very precise method of targeting, as it directs messaging to those who attend a certain event or shop in a particular store. In correspondence to this, your company will also receive better data.
The fact is geofencing has a bright future in social media marketing. According to Yahoo, 53% of shoppers have stopped into a specific store after receiving a location-based message (half of which didn’t even plan on stopping into that store).
What’s even more shocking is that a survey from Search Engine Watch found that only 22% of marketers are utilizing geofencing. Don’t be part of that statistic. Let our team help you set up a geofencing marketing plan today!
–Katie Silva, Outreach Coordinator
