More Social Networking News

Social Networking is growing so fast in this industry, we wanted to share the following chart to further help you see how essential it is to make social networking a part of your plan.

Look for words such as intimate, develop, connect, engage, channels, influence, loyalty, viral, mass, and authority.

About RSR Research:

Retail Systems Research (“RSR”) is the only research company run by retailers for the retail industry. RSR provides insight into business and technology challenges facing the extended retail industry, and thought leadership and advice on navigating these challenges for specific companies and the industry at large. RSR’s services include benchmark reports covering the state of retailer technology adoption for topics ranging from merchandising and supply chain, store operations and workforce management, to customer-facing and multi-channel technologies. Custom research reports provide more in-depth views into topics of industry interest, and advisory services help retailers and technology vendors make the most of the insights RSR provides. To learn more about RSR, visit www.rsrresearch.com.

Groupon Stats for anyone looking to try!

Is Groupon a good deal for your brand?
Groupon is good for deal lovers.
But is it good for business?

A new study found that almost 7 in 10 businesses made money on their Groupon promotions. But only 6 in 10 said they would do it again.

A recent study by Rice University found a mixed bag of results for businesses considering partnering with Groupon.

Your success depends on the industry you’re in and if you can avoid cannibalizing on current sales.

• Among service businesses, salons and spas reported the highest number of successful promotions.

• Restaurants reported the highest percentage of unprofitable promotions.

• Businesses in which the promotion did not cannibalize sales to existing customers reported more successes.

• 1 in 3 businesses reported the promotion was not profitable. And 4 in 10 said they wouldn’t do it again.

• 66% of businesses surveyed were profitable, 34% were not.

• More than 40% said they would not run this kind of promotion again.

Satisfied employees were the most important factor in determining the success of the promotion. The percentage of discount offered, number of Groupons sold, or percentage of Groupon users who purchased beyond the deal did not predict the deal’s profitability.

If you’re new to Groupon promotions follow these 3 guiding principles in developing your deal:

1. Do the math before you offer your deal. Figure out your costs, including the additional labor. The rule of thumb is to discount your lowest-cost, highest-margin products and services first.
2. Make sure you prepare your staff, and yourself, for the influx of new and different customers.
3. Remember that Groupon shoppers are discount and value hunters. So be sure to display other products and services that appeal to them, so they’ll come back.
4. Develop a conversion strategy (like a bounce back offer) along with your Groupon offer, to encourage your Groupon customers to return.
   

Feedback from our Parking Clients is Invaluable!

Did you know that 90% of the food items sold today at McDonald's were names/ideas stemming from franchisees? The most respected franchise system in the world became the most successful franchise company around the globe simply because the company insisted on input from their entrepreneur network.

I would like to thank John Youkhana (Chicago Midway - Airways Parking and Midway EZPark) for sharing his thoughts about ways to drive more online shoppers into his parking business...and yours. We like the way you think John.

I have provided an illustration below to support John's comments. In this image, there are three companies - American Airlines, Thrifty Car Rental and Marriott - delivering the same simple message....BOOK DIRECTLY WITH US AND RECEIVE THE BEST RATE.

After years of watching Southwest Airlines roll-the-dice and position their brand in one of the most competitive industries, other travel companies have decided to follow their success.

Later this month, SMC will create an email campaign for our parking clients with a similar message. We will design a colorful badge for the campaign and then make it available to you for your website. In the meantime, we would like your feedback on educating the traveler.

Why reserve directly with us? Or why reserve with us? Or why you should reserve with us? Or list the Top 5 Reasons to Reserve Direct at www.AirwayParking.com.

1. Accurate pricing. Many 3rd party websites may advertise pricing a certain way to confuse the customer. And the customer is surprised at check out. On our website, simply put in the accurate check in and check out times and there won't be any surprises at check out.

2. No Messy Deposits. All 3rd party websites charge you a deposit which makes it hard for you to cancel your reservation should you need to at last minute. They also keep the deposit which costs the parking lot money.

3. Reservation Service Fees. All 3rd party websites tend to "try and stiff" the customer especially since to them once you reserve your done. Typically these 3rd party websites will up-charge the reservation 2 - 5 dollars which is simply lost money to you. Don't fall for this trick.

4. Cancellation - All 3rd party websites give you the run around when you try to cancel a reservation and if the cancellation is less than 24 hours before your trip, Forget About it!. However, canceling a reservation on our website free, fast, simple and real-time.

5. Our website is your one stop shop for all your Airport parking needs. Airways Parking at Midway Airport provides you with valuable information on the parking lot, our best rates, and easy-to-use reservation system.

Another thought! Maybe as a follow up we can ask our customers for a quote or even a short video speaking about our reservation process. The ultimate goal is to find customers who have used the other reservation service and have them share the differences that solidify these points.

The bottom line is this - testimonials and reviews are essential necessities in the online world. And if together we can deliver a message to help travelers find the best parking price at your airport, this is a good thing.

Speech: Steve Jobs at Stanford University

I am not an Apple fan. Whether their PC, iPhone, iPad, iTunes or the new Tablet, Apple could not get me to buy their products. However, like Michael Dell (Dell Computers), Andrew Grove (Intel) and Bill Gates (Microsoft), Steve Jobs is a humble man with a visionary gift.

Steve Jobs is the co-founder of Apple and Pixar. This 25-minute video will make most entrepreneurs sit up and think about their personal and business life.

Enjoy!

www.smartcompany.com.au/entrepreneur-watch/jobs-on-jobs.html

Creative Marketing in Tough Times - "Recession will roll-over into 2012"

Businesses are tightening their budgets and many of them are cutting their marketing budget. It is important to understand that cutting marketing budgets can often cause more harm to the growth of your business than you realize. Studies have shown that companies that continue to market during tough economic times often see growth during those times, where businesses that cut their marketing budget will often see a decrease in sales. It's time to re-evaluate and analyze what is working and what's not and explore new options of marketing that cost less, but can still deliver the results you are looking for. How can you market during a recession? There are low-cost and even no-cost ways to market your product and keep your business on track during these difficult financial times. The key is to look at your marketing budget as a long term investment, and not an expense.

Brand positioning is an essential strategy in the online space because of its extensive reach and cost effectiveness, and should be taken advantage of without contemplation. In recessionary times, brand placement is intelligent marketing for independent businesses to take market share from the competition.

Viral marketing is an effective marketing technique that induces websites and email users to pass on a marketing message to other sites and users, creating growth in the message's visibility and effect. For example, if one produces a viral ad and forward it to 10 people, who in turn send to another 10 people, in no time hundreds (if not thousands) of people would have viewed the ad. Viral marketing gives the consumer something that they can use for free with the intent of gaining that customer to market other products and create brand awareness.

A major key is to know your consumer. Know them inside and out. Know what they think and know where they are. Know how these economic times are hitting them. Create your message around that and reach out to them. Revise your product line if necessary and develop lower cost solutions if possible. Be flexible, but at the same time be aware and always assessing.

Consider this - if you in fact cut your marketing budget, how will your consumers find you? You have severed your business lifeline and future hope of potential growth. Consumers are looking for value, period. When the economy is booming, and people or businesses have money, the "value" is not as important. Thus, timing is everything and this is an opportunity to rally around the brand in your community. The critical factor is how to do that and successfully weather the stormy times so the brand remains on the right path for the future.

How serious should you take Facebook?

This trimmed-down article was worth sharing with all of our readers.

Facebook is big and getting bigger. One day Google may be just another member of the social network. With the arrival of Facebook Places, Facebook is showing (not for the first time) that it has the power to steamroll friends and competitors alike.

People can gripe all they want about privacy concerns, but with half a billion members, Facebook is the only game in town, so leaving comes at pretty huge costs. And people developing new apps and services that might be within Facebook's reach? They should be afraid. Does this all sound familiar? It's not too tough a riddle: Just replace "Facebook" with "Google" and it all holds true.

The question is, how soon until Facebook takes on Google directly?

Places is the latest example of Facebook adding a feature that knocks a would-be competitor out of center stage. It's not a new program that requires a new account and a new set of friends — it's just Facebook, working in real time in real physical space.

Facebook has eaten into others' businesses in the past. Twitter is growing, but not at the rate that Facebook is, in part because the Facebook News Feed is essentially Twitter.

Facebook is already encroaching on Google in some niches. Facebook is the third-largest source of online video , according to comScore, and I verified that this doesn't include any of the YouTube videos that you can see in the Facebook News Feed (videos served by Google and apparently stripped of ads). YouTube is very firmly planted in the No. 1 spot and will be hard to topple. Nevertheless, Facebook is sneaking up on YouTube while using YouTube to its advantage.

News and search are also under fire. In a fascinating twist, Google's machine logic is being supplanted by Facebook's crowd logic. Why build an autonomous artificial intelligence when you can devote the same programming resources to building systems to translate the whims of the masses into usable results? Why stop at music, video or food recommendations, the stuff you see already posted on the walls of your friends? Why not turn the sum total of 500 million people's wall postings into humanly intelligent news blotters and search results?

Despite its size, Google's lost ground on social networking will hurt when it comes to harnessing the masses. A few months ago, after Google launched the poorly received Buzz social news feed, Fortune's Jessi Hempel wrote that "Google still holds users' attention with Gmail, the best free e-mail system available." However, she concluded that Google needs to "find a better way to harness the social aspects of the Web and organize it into an improved search product, before it's too late."

Like Google, Facebook isn't overly concerned about our privacy concerns. Keeping people's information private is not the point, and it never will be. The promise of connecting you to people, or you to information, comes at the cost of sharing some of your own information. That's food for the billion-dollar ad monsters who pay well to feast. Go too private, and Facebook's coolest features — like Places — will leave you behind. Hint: This is why they don't reform when people ask nicely.

Google is fighting a lot of different wars now. Facebook may be the new Google on the Internet, but as mobile platforms go, Google may be the new Apple, or at least the latest hegemon to beat Apple at its own game. And with dominant positions in both search and video, Google has plenty of weapons to fight a war of the online worlds, too.

That being said, Google still needs to watch its back. E-mail is already less of a draw for kids and twenty-somethings. No social effort by Google has taken root. And Facebook has a log-in-required lock on the majority of its audience that Google doesn't really have. Deciding to create a Facebook account is easy, but once you have built that account into your own hall of frenemies, you're not apt to tear it down again. The more connections you've made on Facebook, the harder it is to pull yourself away. And by a tragic turn of circumstance for Google, the very fact that you have a Facebook account makes it about a million times easier to ditch an old e-mail account.

Watch out, Google. You may have become king of the mountain faster than anyone before you, but that only means you've set a record for Facebook to break.

SMC participates in Industry Webinar hosted by Parking Today

On July 12, 2011, SMC Software is scheduled for a webinar hosted by PARKING TODAY, the leading publication serving the diverse needs of today's parking industry. On this date, I will be sharing the truth about Reservations and Multi-Channel Optimization with the parking industry. This leading-edge technology will transform the parking industry.

Why are we announcing this here on our Blog to our clients?

1. Because YOU are OUR valued client. And you are important to the managing partners of SMC. We want to watch you succeed in your respective markets. Period!

2. Because we know many of you do not realize what powerful tool is in your possession. Simply put, your company has access to the most logical reservations technology ever developed for parking industry. As stated, we have a patent pending to protect this logic we refer to as Multi-Channel Optimization. That said, we encourage you to learn more today.

3. Because it remains our hope that each of our clients take this innovation and apply it before this technology falls into your competitors hands.

4. Because this announcement on July 12th will wake up some parking people for sure. Some will take immediate action while others play the wait and see game.

As clients, you are our friends. So, as our friend, please take our advice with this one. Begin to network all around your community; corporations, travel agencies and associations. We will help you set up your partner channels.