Social media giant Twitter has begun offering geo-targeting advertising campaigns, used for mobile advertising based on user location.  Businesses are given the ability alert people to in-store events, promotions, and newly available brands through ads on Twitter tailored to the latitude and longitude of each user.

In practical terms, this means that someone walking down the street toward your store front could be pinged on their Twitter feed that you are offering a special, and to mention Twitter to claim it. This way, a storeowner can drive more foot traffic into their location with a very specific message and promotion already in play.

The idea started with zip code targeting, a method that Facebook has been using for years, to help companies pick local audiences for promoting products and services.  In time, the geo-targeting feature hopes to pinpoint users down to a latitude and longitude, giving companies more power to draw in specific audiences in close range to their business location(s).

How will this technology better serve you?

Companies: Simple.  Highly specific location-based mobile ad targeting is a great way to drive in-store traffic numbers.  The ability to reach out to somebody around the corner from your storefront and tell him/her of a discount or new line of product is powerful; imagine interested customers whith an offer in hand they want to utilize.

Potential customers:  Imagine as a customer you are walking in your favorite shopping area. You love Godiva Chocolate, but do not usually spring for it. You check your Twitter feed and suddenly are presented with a nice discount or a free piece of chocolate from the Godiva shop four stores down. It’s like taking the in the moment, never know what you’re going to get advertising from someone like Groupon and applying it to you locally. It’s great!

How much of an audience would the ads be reaching?

Just a few statistics for you:

• 4 billion mobile phones in use worldwide, 1.08 billion of which are smart phones
• Current trends show that by 2014, mobile internet usage will be higher than that of desktop internet
• With 165 million active users on Twitter, over 50% of them use Twitter Mobile (Microsoft Tag)
• 46% of online users count on social media when making a purchase decision
• 71% of shoppers believe they’ll get a better deal online than in stores. (Nielsen)

With the boom in e-commerce, mobile usage, and growth in people’s reliance on mobile technologies and social media, this new offering from Twitter is perfectly timed.

For both customers and businesses it is a win-win as relationships in digital marketing constantly strive to create more personal connections.  Reaching out to someone who is in your neighborhood and browsing their phone is the next step.

If you have any ideas on what you’d do with this, or have any questions for us, please leave us a message below, or give us a call and we’d be more than happy to discuss!

You can visit us at MOSCreative.com.

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