It doesn’t simply identify those that are mentioning your business by name. It finds people in your local area and looks at interests and routines to determine who might be a captive audience. It takes this data from more than a dozen different social media sites. Once it has identified the individuals your business should be reaching out to, it helps you put together a special offer to hook them.

While so far their offerings seem enticing, it’s the offer part that enters into a grey area – it could be beneficial, or it may not be at all, depending on the intent of the prospective customers. The thing with many social media sites is that individuals don’t necessarily need to beat a specific location to post that they are. There is also no ingrained honesty detector to monitor the truth in their general statements. What this means is that people could theoretically catch on to what Local Response does and start making specific posts to appear as though they’re the most appealing customers to get a deal.

The strategy that should work with a tool like this is as follows:

1. Find the people that could become paying customers
2. Entice the people that could become paying customers
3. Keep them hooked as full price paying customers after that initial offer gets them through the door

What could very well end up happening instead is:

1. Find the people that could become paying customers
2. Entice the people that could become paying customers
3. Teach these people that COULD become full price paying customers that they NEVER have to pay full price again if they play their cards right online. These people may also tell their friends what they’ve learned

So the bottom line here is use the tool to identify your target market, but be careful to step away from Local Response to look at an individual’s social media stream. This way, you can ensure you are not looking at someone putting up a front for a bargain.

Here are a few points that the talk will cover that you should be prepared to take note of:

1. Social media is still social - it may say it in the name, but that doesn’t mean we always remember what social media is all about. Some businesses focus too much on using it for self-promotion, and that whole personal connection aspect goes out the window.
2. Social media has leveled the playing field - Frito-Lay and Snikkidy find themselves on equal playing field thanks to social media, because it’s no longer just about brand power, it’s also about exposure and connection – things all brands receive and offer when they use Facebook, Twitter and other forms of social media.
3. Social media is about relevancy – it’s not hard for retail businesses to use social media the ‘wrong ways’. If you’re not sharing information relevant to your target market, quite simply, no one is going to care about what you have to say.
4. Social media matters – to quote David with an excerpt from tomorrow’s talk,  “the person/business using social media gets more attention from one tweet than she does from her neighbors, The PTA, heck maybe even her husband, son or daughter! And that is why she does it…It makes her feel important, it makes her feel significant, it makes her feel relevant.”

If you’re not able to listen to David Rich’s talk tomorrow and this preview has piqued your interest, not to worry; we’ll catch you up tomorrow!

Like many others in recent days, Owyang takes a look at the trends of 2009 that drive the decisions of the future. He identifies four key trends that senior marketing execs should give some thought to.

“The Recession Spurred Consumers to Adopt Social Technologies.” It’s not just the enabling technology that caused the movement. Hard financial times also drive people to connect to one another. High unemployment levels also contribute by giving people more time to connect. Motive, means and opportunity equals the perfect storm.

“Some Brands Followed Suit with Social Marketing.” The story says that print budgets have been cut by 37% and television by 21%. Brands are hurting too, so it makes sense that they also look for lower cost means and innovation. More money is being directed at Social Marketing due to its low cost and high return.

“Social Networks Share Data, Spreading Social Influence.” Social networks are connecting with other systems. This means the consumer experience can spread like wildfire because opinions and experiences won’t be limited by software or service provider.

“Consumers Move Faster By Sharing Real-Time Data.” A bad customer experience can now travel to the masses at the speed of thought. Real time updates allow instant feedback so brands have to learn to move faster. Even good service recovery practices may now be too late to turn the tide.