Social Mobile blowing up!

Social Media Penetration - the once dominant marketing medium of television took 13 years to reach 50 million viewers, Facebook achieved 100 million users in in only 9 months!

Mobile Penetration - 22 million people access information via their cell phones in 2009, up from 10 million just a year ago and 9.3 million of those users access social media sites via their mobile web browser on a daily basis!

Fulcrum Design's social mobile strategy is an integrated marketing approach

designed to leverage the popularity and penetration of social media with the power and precision of mobile marketing. The fact that Facebook enables "mobile uploads" and Twitter has SMS messaging for "free" is a huge opportunities for marketers to formulate an integrated social mobile campaign for their clients. Think about, what took traditional media TV 13 years is avaliable for FREE right now! This is the first time in history that such a powerful multi media channel has been available to marketers that is absolutely free. Did I mention it free?

According to Forrester Research, "The number of people regularly accessing social networks on their mobile phones has doubled in the past six months, according to Forrester Research. Julie Ask, San Francisco-based vice president/principal analyst at Forrester Research recently release two reports on the power of social mobile. “If mobile experiences are convenient, consumers will use them." She goes on to say,“In mobile, convenient mobile experiences will have context, that is, leverage location or past usage, be simple and be such that consumers value immediacy of the information or service,” she said. Forrester Social Mobile Report.

As for social media and mobile, the immediacy and convenience of interacting with your Facebook network for instances is highly desirable. You are more likely to be doing something interesting, worth sharing outside of siting in front of your PC. For instance, I ran a road race this past Sunday. My wife and friends bet that I wouldn't run the race due to the awful weather condition, (rain, sleet and cold, not to mention it was at 8:00AM). I used my social mobile technology to prove to them I was running the race. This was for fun of course.

Leveraging the integration of this technology is a huge opportunity. Formulating a campaign that requires your business to stake out a social networking profile page on Facebook is free and highly desirable. Next step is to engaging Mobile VIP to develop a customer loyalty mobile marketing campaign around your business. This is important to the integration of a successful multi -media campaign.

We will then eveluate your existing marketing strategies, be it print, email, broadcast or radio, all of which are crucial to your reach and frequency in building your social mobile marketing program. At this point we formulate a call to action campaign that will drive your customers to your social network site or the option to "opt in" to a "chance to win" mobile campaign. People like choose to offer it to them. The goal of course is to capture as many potential customers as possible into your social mobile network. The build up of a successful social mobile campaign requires an appealing call to action campaign / promotion. In order to get you have to give, especially when you are asking customers for personal information such as their mobile number or personal social networking account. We are experts in call to action promotions and we will assist you in this area. Why is this important, well the competitive differential with a social mobile campaign over traditional media is the benefit of viral marketing. The ability for "fan" or customer to recommend or pass along your social networking site or short code is easy and convenience, not to mention sharing is a large part of the social mobile culture.

We find it takes 3 to 6 months to organically develop a powerful social mobile network from scratch that can deliver meaningful ROI. This can be accelerated with a multi media campaign or if you have an existing customer database at your disposal such as a email list or mailing list. The benefit of a mobile campaign can result in more immediate return on investment while you build your social network. Regardless the investment is well worth it can in the long run if you keep your social mobile network stimulated through thoughtful interactive campaigns and promotions it will continue to grow and bring value to your brand and your cash register. Call us to learn more (203)715-4780. Visit us at Mobile VIP or our social marketing firm Socius Interactive

Socius Mobile Revolution

Those of you new to the Socius Revolution and the power of social media marketing need to understand three very important thing, it's right here, it's right now and it's your future.  What is your social media strategy? 

January 2009 the number of mobile users that accessed news and information daily on their mobile phones in the US was 22.4 million, double the 10.8 million registered in January 2008. The second most widespread activity among consumers was social networking, as around 9.3 million mobile users tend to access such sites every day, including blogs, (ComSource, Inc).

Erik Qualman Socialnomics video say it best!Now what? Contact Brandon at (888) 669-9729 at www.sociusinteractive.com to dicuss your social mobile marketing strategy today. it's your brand, it's your future. 

Check out our Mobile Matradee restaurant pager solution at www.mobilematradee.com

Social Media

Mobile VIP's social mobile project, Socius Interactive, has been engaged in a three month pilot project with Max Restaurant Group in Connecticut to test the effectiveness of social media marketing. The goal is to drive traffic and increase revenue. The project has focused on one of their 7 restaurants, Trumbull Kitchen. We started the project in June 1st. The social media channels we are using include Facebook Trumbull Kitchen, MeetUp.com and Twitter.com/trumbullkitchen.

Max Restaurant Group on YouTube

Our events included a prixe fixed dinner event through Chef's on Pointe Meet Up group, followed by a singles event where we integrated the mobile channel with our text2screen technology and created TK's TextFlirt. This generated a lot of buzz and made the evening news, Channel 3.
We also hosted a Tequila Dinner and assisted with the kick off Tiki Bar night which is now every Thursday night.  
 
The Max Restaurant Group has a large customer data base that we have not accessed for this project, it has been entirely organic. Our efforts have included in restaurant promotions but mostly through social media and mobile channels. Our Facebook Fan Interaction scored 4 out of 5 stars, compared to comparable pages. This has resulted is doubling TK’s Facebook fans to 240, generated 194 new Twitter followers and most importantly, a 27% conversion rate of followers to butts in seats! That's huge. The next two months we will be generating live feeds to the Max Blog from the Max chefs, along with a host of other events. Stay tuned and follow the social mobile projects.  

Mobile Matradee Q&A

Mobile Matradee is the next generation restaurant wait list / reservation solution that is here to day. It is an affordable and flexible restaurant reservation and wait list management system that costs about the same as a single pager. It's a web hosted solution, which means no software, support fees or pager equipment. Mobile Matradee® product line includes Wait List Matradee®, Reservation Matradee® and Mobile VIP® marketing solution. www.mobilematradee.com

Question:What if a guest doesn't have a cell phone or doesn't have a text plan or doesn't want a text?

Answer: 88% of the population have a cell phone. Another words 9 out of 10 people have a cell.

No text plan? Mobile Matradee offer text and voice notification so customers that don't have a text plan can opt for a voice message. I can assure you your pager system can't do that!

Our restaurant clients have not found resistance at all from customers, matter of fact, customers think it's kinda "neat". When customer's learn that pagers are likely to carry bacteria and virus they quickly prefer to use their personal handheld device. Especially now with H1N1!

If they don't have a cell phone you simply input their name, a brief description and tell them you will flag them down when thier table is ready (what you are probably doing now)

Question: Won't my customers roam away and delay seating or worse roam off to somewhere else?

Answer: Our experience to date is that customers don't go away even through they now have the freedom, they are hungry and choose your establishment for a reason. Psychologically they still feel being in the line of sight of the host stand offers some advantage to getting seated quicker.  On busy nights with extended waits you can send a text promo to drive waiting customers to the bar for a drink or appetizer special to clear the entrance of a fire hazard while driving bar business, i.e. "Thank you for waiting, your table will be ready soon. Visit our bar we are offering a $2.00 Bar Bites and $2.00 drafts, show bartender this text message to redeem special". Customers find this fun.

Our "Call a Ahead" feature works well to prompt customers who aren't on premise to hurry up when they receive a message "your table is almost ready see host". Our web hosted wait management system actually records quote time and tracks wait time along with an "Arrive" button to track when "call a head" customers arrive. Same is true for our reservation program.

Question: Isn't it more work for the host/hostess?

Answer: No, on the contrary, our clients state its very user friendly and more efficient. Only the name, a brief memo (optional) and the cell number is typed into the system. The party size, quote time and seat number are drop down menus you either click or tap. When you notify a guest you simply click or tap the "Text" or "Voice" button. It's that simple. When the system is used from an iTouch it's even quicker, you just use your thumbs to type and tap. It's a single screen system, no pop ups, pages or transitions.

Question: How does the mobile marketing work and opt ins?

Answer: Mobile VIP is our propriety mobile marketing system that is an add on to Mobile Matradee. Mobile VIP is integrated with your customer database so on a slow night or you simply want to increase revenue you click the "Send" button, enter your promotion in the text field and click or tap "send". All your customers will get an instant text message promotion. Unlike email blasts they get it within seconds of when you sent it enable you to drive business within the same hour of sending our promotion. Text messages have a 95% read rate. Mobile promotions get a 10% to 20% response rate depending on the value of the promo. No pager or reservation system can drive business like Mobile Matradee.

Customers opt in when they provide you with their cell number. They opt out by replying to any text message with the word "Stop" and our system removes them from Mobile VIP instantly.
You can even send a mobile menu to your clients while they wait they can think about what they want to eat or instead of faxing out lunch menus. If the wait is exceeding long you can send a custom message offering a special at the bar or a text voucher for their next visit. Another important feature we offer is the ability to send mobile surveys and polls to your guest subscribers.  

Question: What equipment and software do I need?

No costly software to maintain or capital equipment required. No need for pager transmitters and pagers. You just need access to the web, either via a PC, laptop or your POS system, even a web enabled cell phone (great back up if your power or internet goes down).

We recommend an Apple iTouch. Most hostess/host are well versed in texting so we have modified Mobile Matradee to interface with an iTouch. An iTouch is affordable, fast and durable.  This eliminates the costs associated with retrofitting the host stand to accomdate a PC or even a laptop, no need to run CAD 5 cable or power to run it, an iTouch has a 6 to 36 hour battery life and is WiFi enabled. We recommend tethering the iTouch to the hostess while in use. This will prevent theft or loss. Real busy restaurants that require two hostess can use two iTouchs to seat guests more efficiently.  
Question: What's it cost?

Compare the capital equipment cost of a pager system at $1,000 to $4,000 vs and iTouch $189 retail and a low monthly subscription fee that includes support. 

Mobile Matradee is a subscription service that cost $95 per month to $119 per month, depending on what you want for options, standard features include web hosted data base, text and voice notification, host reservation system / wait list system and Mobile VIP, mobile marketing system. One or two mobile promotions per month will likely cover the cost of the subscriptions.

Is there special pricing for chains?

Yes there is. We have special pricing tiers for large chains. 

To learn more go to www.mobilematradee.com or call Brandon at (888) 669-9729

Mobile Phones Beat PCs for Young Women

This study is very revealing as to where mobile is heading as a dominant marketing channel. Women consume more than men and in households women tend to be the primary decision makers when it comes purchases. 

The mobile phone appears to be displacing the PC among US women in terms of usage - especially in the 12-24 age group, according to research from SRG, which found that young women spend twice as much time with their cell phones as women over age 40. 

The “Women and Digital Life” study, revealed that more than 80% of US women now use a wireless device and 17% use using a smartphone, such as an iPhone, BlackBerry or models from HTC, Samsung, LG or similar. Among those in the 12-24 and 25-39 age groups, smartphone ownership is now 23%. In contrast 11% of women ages 40+ own a smartphone.

When asked about the top benefits of owning a smartphone, the top answers among women are convenience, the ability to send texts and email, access to social media, SRG said.

Banking Going Mobile

According to the Mobile Marketing Association's Mobile Banking Sub-Committee the explosive growth in mobile banking and financial services is forecasted to exploded in 2010.

According to a January 2008 eMarketing article, "More flip phones and clam shells will become portable ATMs this year, according to research firm Celent. Celent said 10% of all online banking U.S. households will use mobile banking by the end of this year. the company said that 46 million households currently bank online. A projected 30% of U.S. households overall will bank using their mobile phones in 2010". 

2.o Mobile Banking (mma marketing association v1)

Financial Institutions such as Bank of America have rolled out mobile banking platforms as mobile solutions for their customers. That's a smart move considering over 22.2 million people rely on the mobile web for new and information, that's up by 10 million from 2006! The most important features a bank or credit union should implement today as part of their mobile strategy are as follows:

• Account alerts, security alerts and reminders
• Account balance, updates and history
• Customer service via mobile (click to call, text messaging)
• Branch or ATM location finder
• Bill pay (i.e. electric bill), deliver online payments by secure agent and mobile client application
• Fund transfer
• Transaction verification
• Mortgage alerts

Security is obviously a big concern, financial institutionsshould do their due diligence is developing a secured mobile platform. To learn more about trends in mobile banking download MMA's Mobile Banking Overview. Mobile VIP can assist you in developing your mobile banking solution, contact us today (203)715-4780, ask for Brandon

Introducing Mobile Matradee

Fulcrum Design, LLC announces the latest in mobile technology, Mobile Matradee applies mobile phone technology to benefit the restaurant industry. Fulcrum Design is working with Max Restaurant Group to develop and test this new restaurant reservation system at Max Burger.

Did you know 88% of the U.S. population uses a cell phone? Finally a low cost high impact restaurant notification / reservation system that uses the common cell phone to alert your guests when their table is ready. Mobile Matradee is the only system that can send a notification by text message or voice message. No more paper, No more costly, tacky pager equipment.

Your guests are free to roam rather than huddle at your front door.
Can your current notification system text them the specials while they wait? How about a text drink special to drive them to the bar? Now that Mobile Matradee collected a customer's most valuable information, their cell number, reward them with a mobile promotion the following week for 25% a dinner for two, for example "Ra Restaurant would like to reward you for your loyalty, present this text message to your wait staff to receive 20% of dinner, good through July 30th" http://mobilematradee.com/