By Lindsey Willinger

Social media is one of the largest marketing and advertising vehicles for businesses; a reason for this that is that mobile technology is now making it possible to access social media sites from anywhere as long as you have your cell phone. Mobile phone creators are ultimately helping companies because everything can be done in real time with customers. Smartphones are allowing people to recommend businesses the minute they like them, customers can gain points for going to a certain business, letting business post specials as soon as they want and ultimately resulting in more foot traffic and profit for many business owners.

Cell phones are not only used for calling now, businesses are utilizing their capacities by using them as a successful marketing and advertising tool to target more consumers. One way companies are doing this are with apps. Apps on cell phones now let customers get on social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, Yelp and Google. Foursquare app allows customers to check in when they are at the location of that business, the more times they go to that business and check in the more points they obtain.  As they check in more and more from the business site and the more points the gain a business might give them a coupon or something special for being such a frequent customer, and in return this encourages consumers to use their mobile phone is businesses.

Also by checking in with certain businesses, friends of the customer can see where they shop, eat, or go and may be influenced to try. According to Mashable, social media networks such as Foursquare, Loopt, Google latitude and Gowalla enable businesses with a physical location to not only communicate with customers online, but actually gets more of them to walk in the door.

Business are also benefitting by these type of apps because if a prospective customer wants to try a new place because it is close to where they are, they can simply just get on their cell phone and see what others have to say about it. That customer can also comment on if the recommendation was true or helped them at the same time that they are in the business. 

Applications such as Facebook and Twitter let benefit businesses by letting the business owner themselves post in real time specials as they think of them. Mobile phones also let customers check Facebook and Twitter as often as they wish and from wherever they wish. This lets the customers see the up-to-date specials. Businesses are seeking to increase foot traffic, sell more of a particular item, see more patrons at a certain time of day, promote a special, want new customers, and reward frequent visiting customers when they use mobile media.

Cell phones have come a long way in helping us live better lives from our cars, but now they are helping businesses get more customers and improve their bottom-line. 

Information gathered from: 9 Killer Tips for Location-Based Marketing