Social and Mobile are Connected, and Local is Where all Transactions Happen

The Web and mobile have gone local. One out of every five searches has local intent.

One out of every three mobile searches has local intent.

So, if you are a local business and you aren’t engaging your connections via mobile, you maybe missing a vital component of your interactive marketing.

Here at the SMX conference, they call it SoLoMo, but we call it Mobile, Local, Social. (duh.) SoLoMo doesn’t do it for me, but I have the feeling they may have called it MobLoSo, if we didn’t already own the name. Mwhahahaha.

But whatever you call it, it’s very important.

According to Greg Stewart, here at SMX, the intent of a consumer using a mobile device with social and local utility, 50% want to get coupons.

A study from 2010 of consumers using sources to find local info and content, the numbers show clearly that cell phone and mobile devices have the highest YOY growth rate.

Facebook is accessed on a mobile device 1/3 of the time.

Consumers are increasingly using more sources to find local information and content.

• 76 percent using search engines
• 67 percent use a print YP or WP directory
• 60 percent use IYP sites
• 47 percent local search sites
• 14 percent use mobile, up 40% from 2010
• 9 percent use social media, up 28% from last year

Where is Local Business Information Found?

• 56 percent find it via Company Page
• 55 percent Recommendations (from friends)
• 48 percent Promotions
• 43 percent Ads
• 42 percent References
• 35 percent Apps
• 25 percent Consumer Reviews

Local Search Foundation is about Listing Management

• Accuracy: Ensure that business listings contain the correct information.
• Distribution: Disperse listings to multiple distribution channels.
• Signal Strength: Business listing is accurate and identical across multiple channels.
• Enrichment: Add additional information/features to listings

Claiming and optimizing local listings leads to additional visibility in local search. Nearly half of social network searchers select a local biz based off of consumer ratings and reviews.

So, this is where the rubber meets the road.  Make sure that you have a system in place to help convince your customers to leave reviews for you.

Three key factors in local search rankings:

1. Reviews
2. Citations
3. Links

Despite the importance of this information, only 23% of consumers have ever left a rating or a review for a business and only 6% are active in leaving reviews and ratings. People WANT the information, but most are lazy bastards.

5 Mobile Local Search Takeaways from Greg Stewart

1. Make sure basic listing information is visible and accurate
2. Optimize your pages
3. Engage and capture users through promotions
4. Ask consumers for rating and reviews
5. Monitor all local search sites to see what’s going on and what’s being said about you.

Next up at the panel is Gib Olander, the local guru for Localeze.

It’s never been more crowded and more exciting to be involved in local, social and mobile than it is right now.  People want to get started and create apps. They’re excited about it. That fragmentation is always proving some difficulty in marketing things. He’s gonna share some trends.

• 38 percent of mobile searchers frequently look for local retailer info including phone number and address
• 70 percent of all mobile searches result in action within 1 hour
• There are 6.8 billion people on the planet. 5.1 billion of them own a cell phone, but only 4.2 billion own a toothbrush.

Honey badger even thinks that is disgusting.

Mobile Local Social is getting more personal. Increasing at the local level, our friends’ recommendations are apparent and very important.

Also, services are taking check-in history and presenting similar types of businesses in search results when you visit new destinations. This makes it very important for marketers to upload meta info into listings services.

Our friends are influencing what we’re seeing at:

• Google+
• FourSquare
• Gowalla
• Yelp
• Facebook

What does this mean?

• Establish your online identity, it anchors customer experience.
• Claim your listing or your identity won’t exist across Mobile Local Social.
• Avoid fragmented listings.

Word of mouth is still important

• 83 percent of online shoppers say they are interested in sharing info about their purchase with people they know.
• 90 percent of customers trust recommendations from people they know and 70 percent trust the opinion of unknown users
• Consumers say word of mouth is the #1 influence on Electronics and Apparel purchases
• Many local searchers still considering multiple businesses. 45 percent of consumers say they have products in mind, but don’t conduct a local search for specific businesses.

For more information on Mobile Local Social, here is a post from June from SMX Advanced on how Mobile Local Social drives sales