I was delighted to meet Brandi Hann this morning for coffee at a local Starbucks, located in the heart of Columbus’s Arena District. This particular Starbucks draws literally hundreds (if not thousands) of customers daily from a variety of Columbus’s mid-sized and large businesses, including SBC Advertising (where Brandi works), Nationwide, AEP and a slew of others. The Arena Starbucks is a busy place, full of important coffee meetings, fifteen minute breaks, and before- and after-work jolts.
As I checked in on Foursquare, I received an onslaught of tips. This isn’t uncommon, especially in high-traffic retail-level establishments like the one in which I was standing. I covered a few ideas on how retail businesses can begin taking advantage of location based applications like Foursquare in a previous post.
Using Foursquare in a business-to-business setting is a different story. The funny thing about the Arena Starbucks is that it’s located on the ground floor of a building that sits right next to Nationwide Arena and houses Resource Interactive, one of the largest and most recognized interactive marketing agencies in the nation. What surprised me was that instead of receiving tips from Bucca Di Beppo or Gordon Biersch (two restaurants just across the way), the tips I received while waiting for my coffee came straight from the good folks at Resource.
Good to Meet You, Matt
Apparently, Matt Sidesinger is a popular dude among his buddies at the agency. And while one could take the tips from his fellow co-workers to be negative, I personally found the tips amusing (especially the one referencing Nixon – that made me laugh). What’s important to consider here is that with nothing better to do until my coffee was ready – and with my trusty iPhone in hand – the Foursquare tips worked to create enough curiosity in me to find out who Matt actually was. In a few short clicks, Google was told me all kinds of information about Matt Sidesinger, one aspect being what he does for Resource Interactive.
Matt is an accomplished developer, who apparently gets along with his co-workers and seems to have a sense of humor. Hence, a very soft brand perception was delivered in the period of about 3 minutes.
Humanizing Business-to-Business & Strategic Serendipity
The whole experience this morning got me thinking. How could we make this better? How can business-to-business organizations leverage a location-based application like Foursquare, which is predominantly thought of as business-to-consumer tool? Moreover, how can B-to-B companies leverage the retail and restaurant locations adjacent to their offices, much like the case of Resource Interactive? Is there an advantage to strategically engineering serendipity though location-based tips? Can B-to-B companies use location-based tools as another component towards putting a human face on an organization?
I think so.
This morning’s experience left me with even more questions…
- What if I received a tip that told me something interesting about Nancy Kramer, Resource’s Founder & CEO? (Feel free to replace Nancy’s name with any B-to-B company leader.)
- Better yet, what if a tip contained a secret word that – when given to an admin – allowed me to book a 30-minute coffee meeting with a high-level individual at the Starbucks downstairs?
- What type of experience would it create if, suddenly, I received tips regarding multiple humans inside Resource Interactive, with titles, phone numbers and a snippet of personal information like a hobby or favorite restaurant?
- What if the tips contained customer testimonials with links to the work?
- What if a tip contained an invitation to a monthly company happy hour where I could get to meet people who worked there outside of business discussions?
- For Social Business Strategies, would it be effective to leave a tip at Katzinger’s or MoJoe Lounge (just down the street from my office) with directions and an offer for a coffee meeting?
- Could a B-to-B account executive (with permission from their client) leave a Foursquare tip at their client’s location with a reference to speak with and their contact info?
Some of these ideas are off-the-wall, and I don’t necessarily have all of the answers to my own questions above (yet). I am, however, starting to see more and more potential opportunities for Foursquare and other location-based apps in a business-to-business setting.
Can you see anything worth trying out? What ideas (of mine or yours) might be worth an experiment?
