Location-based services, such as Foursquare, Gowalla and SCVNGR, offer plenty of innovative ways for brands to interact with local consumers.
Getting started on location-based platforms, though, can sometimes seem a bit overwhelming for newcomers. In the Social Media 101 Series, we’ll review our top tips for getting started on various social platforms.
Kicking the series off, we spoke with Andy Ellwood, Gowalla’s director of business development, for the complete scoop on how to start marketing your brand on the location network.
7 Ways To Engage With Gowalla Users
Gowalla offers brands seven main ways to connect with its use rs. As a result, the platform is quite inclusive of just about any type of brand, big or small. Ellwood took us through an overview of the seven key ways that brands are using Gowalla to engage users:
1. Passports
Ellwood explains that every move the company makes ties back to the idea of “What if you could use your mobile phone as a passport?”
Just as Gowalla users create “Passports” to document their adventures, brands too can join in on the fun, checking in to venues related to their brand. Red Bull, for example, maintains a Passport and “checks into places and events where people should be drinking Red Bull,” says Ellwood.
To get started with a Passport, businesses should create an account on Gowalla (as a regular user). If the brand would like to be identified with the “follow” model — instead of with the “friendship” model that users use — then Gowalla’ s business development...
