Written by Randy Murphy, Promoboxx

Social media is all the rage, but is it paying off for local retailers? It can, especially when helped along by brand manufacturers.

In social media, there are actually two things going on at once:

1. Consumers are talking about the things that they buy and want to buy.

2. They’re doing this while they’re moving about in their lives.

They are using their devices to record and report where they are. This combination of mobile and social is dramatically changing the shopping experience. With help from brands, the local retailer can reap significant and measurable rewards.

Brands Can Help Retailers

Brands want their retailers to “be more social” while providing them little to no help with content. It’s easy to suggest to a retailer to put up a Facebook page and join Twitter, but then what? And how can brands help? 

Brands are making significant advertising and promotional investments that go right to the consumer. Smart brands are also listening to consumers. They monitor consumer responses to advertising by tracking mentions of their products on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, and other social media venues. It’s happening right there in the open.

And since social consumers are also largely mobile, they’re not just telling you that they are interested in your product, they’re telling you where they are, right at that moment. You only have to make the next easy step and inform them where they can buy close to where they are right now. It’s instant gratification on a whole new scale.

This is a great opportunity for brands and retailers to work together. If brand management can collect the local retailers’ Twitter and Facebook information and encourage them to pay at least minimal attention to their own feeds, then real magic can happen.

Retailers aren’t just hungry for content for their Facebook timelines and Twitter streams—they’re starving for it. Savvy brands can get more bang from their national advertising expenditure by feeding retailers specialized content for multiple uses, especially targeted social media content.

Basic Steps To Supporting Retailers

How can brands support local retailers’ social media campaigns? Here are some basic steps:

1. Create a social media guide for retailers that includes copy and product images that they can use to create the base content on their web sites and Facebook pages. Consider including images of people using the featured product and images that they can draw upon for future use.

2. Collect retailer data like their web, Facebook, Twitter, and other social media identities and locations. Use this information to let consumers who come directly to you to find their local retailers and follow them in the social media avenue of their choice.

3. Send the retailers regular social media “feeds” filled with short, focused content that they can use as their own. Remember: Monthly is good, weekly is great; and always reward retailers that follow through.

4. Feature the social media successes of other retailers and pass on tips that work.

You can find the original post from Promoboxx on their blog. 

Last week a team member from our investment arm, Brand Ventures, was able to pay a visit to Promoboxx, a brand-to-retailer marketing platform that lists national brands like Chevy among their clients only a year after graduating from TechStars Boston. We think our offices are pretty stellar (hammock chairs anyone?) but the Promoboxx office (shared with another companies such as BzzAgent and Intelligent.ly) is definitely fit for a hot startup that we know we will be seeing big things from in the future. 

Does your office have an artist-in-residence? 

Learn more about Promoboxx and what they do here. 

Cookout season is fast approaching, and the rapid adoption of smartphones and tablets is making it easy-as-pie for even the most amateur chefs to whip up meals of expert chef caliber. Sam’s Club, a Rockfish client, has taken their ‘Simply Delicious Meals’ to the mobile web with a native app experience, built with html5 to allow for easy updates to the entire site. For the cook (and smartphone user) in the family, this means access to fresh content and recipes without having to install an update on their device. One of the most useful – and fun – parts of the ‘Simply Delicious Meals’ mobile web experience is the ‘7 ways to use’ search function, which gives users the ability to choose from over 30 ingredients and learn 7 different ways to use them. Tasty samples are a staple of Sam’s Club, so be sure to check the ‘Monthly Spotlight’ tab for daily updates on which products will be featured.

Over the weekend P.F. Changs launched their first iPhone app. It’s a little bit of what you would expect, with location information and a full menu, but also has a few surprises. For instance, do you ever find yourself wondering what dish goes best with your Chinese Zodiac?  This app has you covered. And of course, the Warriors Reward program is fully integrated so earning and redeeming rewards is easier than ever. 

Here’s what else you can expect to find in the P.F. Changs iPhone app:

• Order to go from the full P.F. Chang’s menu, or re-order your previous favorites

• Find your nearest P.F. Chang’s

• Make reservations

• Browse the full lunch and dinner menus

• Earn and redeem Warrior Rewards

• Join Warrior Rewards or link your existing Warrior Reward plastic card to the mobile app

• Sign-in to an existing account or Register a new account with P.F. Chang’s for ordering

• Discover your Dish of Destiny based on your Chinese Zodiac

• Get Words of Wisdom from the fortune cookie builder

• Learn about new events and promotions

• Share all of you favorites to Facebook or Twitter

 

Download the app for yourself here . And don’t forget to sign up for Warrior Rewards to score a free order of lettuce wraps! 

Written by Lindsay Bettcher, Digital Analyst

Nearly half of smartphone users have scanned a QR code at least once, indicating an increase awareness and adoption. However, even with the growing adoption rate, marketers have yet to prove the value of a QR code to their consumers, with the number one reason to scan simply as “curious to see what it would do”. 

QR codes for more in-depth nurtritional value? 

While linking to a page on a website appears to be the most common type of QR code for marketers, there are many different things that a QR code can do for a consumer. A QR code can make life a little bit easier for the smartphone user by connecting to Google Maps, checking in on foursquare or even automatically uploading an event to their Calendar. The opportunities are endless for what a QR code can do with enough development; however, these are some of the readily available types that can be used without further development.
Note: these have been tested for Android and iPhone.

Creates an event that can be synced with your Calendar tool. This links to a test event.

Checks you in to any given Foursquare location. In this QR Code, it links to the Foursquare location for the Rockfish Cincinnati office.

Syncs with Google Maps to a given location. This example links to the Rockfish office in Rogers.

Shows the last tweet of a given user, in this case it shows the last tweet of @rockfish. 

Automatically tweets a given message. If scanned, this one will tweet on your account "Have a great day!".