Make belief – The official blog of Renaissance Creative

There are a few really great social media visualization tools around, that really bring the experience of social media to life.

Instead of banging on about them all, I will talk about two of my favorites.

Now that businesses are taking notice of social media and using it to engage with customers, there exists a need to look forward and understand what the next level looks like. The above image is taken from the 1991 book “Crossing the Chasm” by Geoffrey A. Moore.

In a fascinating blog post, Axel Schultze, CEO of Xeesm, founder of the Social Media Academy writes in CustomerThink that social business is about to cross “The Chasm” as illustrated above:

When talking about social media with a skeptic, I like to remind them that social media has been around for about 10 years, and blogs have been around for closer to 15. Only in the last two years has social media become commercially viable. I whip out that line whenever I hear people dismiss a new evolution in the social media space as being a ‘fad’ or purposeless.

The latest evolution in social media, geolocation, has dealt with the same withering criticism by non-users. The difference is that the commercial applications of geolocation are much clearer than they are with Facebook or Twitter. There are many companies and services vying for geolocation users’ hearts, but right now that crown belongs to Foursquare.

Geolocation’s early adopters who saw the commercial appeal included Starbucks, who signed a deal with Foursquare to promote their Frappuccino Beverage by offering a discount to the “Mayors” of individual Starbucks locations.

Now it has begun to trickle down to SMBs (small and medium-sized businesses), who are also beginning to offer discounts and benefits to customers who “check-in” at their store.

Here are some tips that SMBs can use to engage their customers, encourage them to check-in and get them to tell their friends: