PADI Islands

Geo-Location Rewards

Facebook Places Check In, Google Places, and Foursquare all offer your customers or potential customers the opportunity to check in at your shop or centre.  They’ll only do it if there’s something in it for them (although Foursquare awards you points for a check in, and Mayorship for repetitive check-ins).

Use this functionality to reward loyal customers, encourage friends to visit, and build awareness of your brand. Facebook offers many opportunities for promotion, here are a few examples for marketers:

1.Offer discounts for check-ins
Directly offering discount to the visitors who check-in on Facebook when they are in your shop, or have repeatedly visited a number of times.  If you want them to physically walk into your store, place a ‘secret code’ somewhere in your store.  If they don’t enter this code when they check in, they don’t get the points.
2.Giving tasks to your customers
The check-in function allows a ‘treasure hunt’.  For example, within a set period of time, visit a certain number of coastal dive sites.  If you sync this with a trip you’re running to these dive sites, you’ll expect increased signups.  Or have your referral customers check in at the airport when leaving for holiday, and when they come back to receive a special offer.  You then know when they’ve returned from completing their Open Water Course and can email or phone them to find out how they got on (and sign them up for some local diving or a repeat holiday).

3.Attendance tracking

When people check in at your centre for each confined water session, knowledge development or open water dive, reward them with a point.  When they’ve checked in each time, it appears on their Facebook wall, giving you free publicity to all their non-diving friends.  If they follow through and check in for each visit, then reward them with a special offer.

Turn Your Facebook Page into a Lead Generator

You want to capture potential customers and have a way of contacting them in future, or entice them along to your store to take advantage of special offers?  Here are some suggestions:

A. Add an enewsletter sign-up link

1. Give FB users the option to join your email list. Constant Contact and Mail Chimp have free Facebook apps that add an e-newsletter sign-up link to your page.

B.   Ask a Facebook Question….
In the same spot where you’d post a status update, you can ask a question or create a poll.

For example:

• What type of fins are better: blades or split?
• To our female divers: how do you feel about pink dive gear for women?
• What is the most useful specialty to have?

(Remember, your opinion, or the opinion of your instructors is less important than having your customers engage in dialogue with you).

C. Always write back
If a customer takes the time to engage you by someone writes on your wall, or posts a picture, acknowledge them with a friendly reply. It seems obvious, but not everyone does this.

D. Offer a Facebook-exclusive promo
Facebook users expect special deals for “Liking” you on Facebook. Here are some promo ideas to maintain their loyalty:

2011 Unlimited air fill card for £200

“Unlimited” sounds scary to a business owner, but studies show consumers vastly over-estimate how much they’ll use something that’s unlimited. Curb your risk by offering this to the “first 10 callers – limit one per person”

Are you (or your gear) in need of a Tune Up?
Like us on Facebook and get 2-for-1 scuba review or regulator service. Invite your friends to “Like” us for a 2-for-1 Discover Scuba Pool Experience.

June special – Enriched Air Class £99 with 10 sign-ups

Run a Groupon-style promotion among your Faceboook fans. Using the example above, if 10 people sign up and provide their credit card information, the deal is “on” and the discount stands. Use your Facebook wall to post updates on how many more sign ups are needed to tip the deal.

Inexpensive Facebook Ads – The most bang for your buck (20 different adverts for 20 different demographics)

Google Adwords were allthe trend around 12 months ago.  Now everyone is competing for the same keywords; meaning the price has risen.  Facebook receives more hits than Google (March 2010 Facebook overtook Google as #1 site), and Facebook is being used more and more for content searches.

Facebook responded to Google Adwords with Facebook Ads.  This is similar in concept, and on the same pay-per-click basis as Google, but more powerful.

Facebook allows you to choose the demographic you wish to display Ads to (Facebook has the biggest database of consumer preferences worldwide).  These aren’t just limited to Age, Sex, and location.  You can specify to people who have birthdays arriving, who have particular ‘likes’, or within a more detailed demographic using the Facebook Ads tools.

To get started, visit the Facebook Ads Section, click ‘Create an Ad’ and have a play around.  It won’t cost you anything to discover how many 18-35 year old male windsurfers there are in your area that have a birthday today…and if there’s lots, you can create a specific advertisement for them…and then target the over 55 female golfers in you area also?

Once you’ve found a particular demographic you wish to advertise to, create an attractive advert that speaks to this particular group and let it run.  You’ll pay on a per-click basis, so you’ll need to be sure that a high percentage of users are going to sign-up or purchase from you (have a look at this eBook (Seth Godin link) if you need help with that).

Drag Facebook content to Your Website

So far, in the previous 6 articles, you’ve had to play on Facebook’s terms.  Anything you’ve done is inside Facebook and you’ve been constrained by Facebook’s layout.  Now it’s time to start harnessing some of Facebook’s features and embed them inside your website.

How about a list of testimonials on the front sidebar of your website, you’ll never have to update them if they’re linked to your Facebook wall or discussion group.  This is relatively simple to implement, but it will require you to have access to your website (not the Divemaster who once programmed your site 3 years ago before leaving for Mauritius!).

The Easiest way to get started is to use the Facebook Like Box, but for more advanced techniques, contact the PADI Marketing Department or your PADI Regional Manager (Richard.howes@padi.co.uk or John.carlin@padi.co.uk).

Don’t forget: Facebook pages get ranked in Search Engines as well

Your page name, along with its contents will get crawled by any search engine (including Google) and therefore some form of SEO is worthwhile.

The ‘About’ box on your Facebook profile is the best place to put keyword dense wording about your centre (remember to keep it readable to humans), and will assist with the ranking of your page relating to the keywords included in the text.

If you can’t see the ‘About’ box on your page, simply click the “Write something about [YourPage]” link in the area under your page profile picture.  There’s a 250 character limit to this text, so you’ll need to choose your words wisely.