Two Examples of Tangible Value from Social Media
Social media has sufficient critical mass now that there is some nice tangible value to be had. Here are two examples:
Foursquare
I went to JC Penney on Saturday. I ended up with several hundred dollars of stuff and was on my way to the cash register. I decided to check-in on Foursquare. It took 30 seconds and a coupon immediately popped up for 20% off. It was super easy to use at the cash register. No applying for memberships. No exemptions. Just a straight-up discount to everything. Immediate cash benefit.
Another story comes from some time ago when I went to a state park. One of the Foursquare tips for the park led us to an awesome rope swing off the beaten path.
Last night I was in the position of needing to get some late night postmarks for tax-related mailings. There is one post office in Atlanta that is open until midnight. At 10:30pm, I was still in the office waiting on the papers, and I was worried about the line length. Google came up empty with real-time intelligence about the post office. I tried a Twitter keyword search, and it came up empty too.
Luckily, Heath Hyneman posted a photo to Twitter that hit my stream. The photo kicked off a direct dialog with him relaying information directly from the ground at the post office. With the knowledge of the line length, I was able to relax and plan appropriately. With the knowledge of the traffic situation near the post office, I was able to avoid all traffic. Very helpful, thanks Heath!
Interestingly, I’ve never personally spoken with Heath. I’ve seen him present before at ATDC, and I’m familiar with his work at Hypepotamus. Yet he was able to provide some important value to me in a crunch time.
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I think the tangible value of social networks is increasing. LinkedIn is great for sales (hat tip to Salesloft) and for recruiting efforts. Facebook is important for B2C companies. I don’t see much business value in Facebook for AccelerEyes. I’ve not seen tangible value with Google+ yet.
What tangible value have you extracted from social media?