In having several brick and mortar business, one of the major challenges in building a business is knowing how to get websites, blogs, social media engagement up and running.  You have to prepare the content, send it to your webmaster, wait for their upload, edit and then it may be up and running within two weeks or so? In today’s changing world of marketing to your customers on-the-go, quickly and easily it is really not cost effective anymore of having to wait on an average of two weeks to get a blog or discount out to your customers.  Not to mention the cost involved in hiring a webmaster especially in these economic challenging times.

I know how all too well the feeling of struggle and how it was all frustrating for me at times.   I am sure there are many more who feel the same way and I am here to tell you that it doesn’t have to be that way no longer.  Thanks to Google and the teachings of Christina Hill’s your challenges and frustration can be easily solved!  I wish this opportunity was around about 5 years ago as it would have saved me so much time and money.

Once I took her course and applied her teachings, I now can put up a website together in NO time.  I can have my social media sites “pinged” out within seconds, prepare a blog, create programs and services all completed and controlled by myself.  It is so much easier and the cost savings are tremendous!

Imagine what it would be like if you could design your own sites time after time and not have to be at the mercy of a webmaster – one who really doesn’t  have your best interest at heart and one who has no experience in making a website an ATM machine .

If you’re among the ranks of those who want to have complete control of your web design then the following article by my webmaster mentor, Christina Hills, is a must read.With Mobile and Local Internet Marketing being such an obvious choice in reaching your clients you need a different type of website these days.  Gone are the days of a glorified brochure website.  It is really important that a business embrace the WordPress.org type platform for a website.  You need to be blogging, you own your piece of online real estate, SEO factors and Mobile factors.

Once you take Christina’s course you will quickly discover that you will want more than just one website to run and promote your business.  Since taking Christina’s workshop and being a return alumni, I can now prepare multiple sites such as membership sites, normal sites, mobile sites, affiliate area sites, blog site, sales letter site, etc.

Watch this video now and let me show you…

Instead of paying out a small 5-figure sum to a webmaster for all this (and then and waiting days, weeks or months even), you can do this yourself in a matter of a few hours when you know how.

In the website Creation Workshop, Christina makes it easy for you.   Watch the video here!

Registration starts today and runs through till February 16th. Again when Christina says the 16th, it is the 16th!  This is a program NOT just out there in never, never land, This is a regular scheduled programmed course exactly like you would in taking a night course at a University or College!  Mark your calendars!Modeling after the success of offering super bonuses with Brendon Burchard’s Experts Academy I am offering some super bonuses to anyone who buys through me.  I do not want to overwhelm you with bonus like other, I want to help support you because I know through past experience you are going to need some support and coaching.  I want to help you for FREE!

Once again, I am an of Christina’s and when you use my affiliate link you will get the following bonuses. You must use my link to receive my bonuses.

Use This Special Link For My Website Workshop Spring 2012 Bonus Offer:

http://www.cheryllynninternational.com/chsprg2012

Here is my official Website Creative Workshop Bonuses:

1. A copy of my 86 page ebook on Mobile Marketing for local businesses. A must have manual for every business entrepreneur to help them market to the consumer 24/7 thru Mobile and Local Internet Marketing strategies and tactics.

2. Grandfathered in for a Full membership (for two years) into my NEW Monthly Membership program “LocalMobileSocial Academy” better know as LMS Academy where I work with local business owners in helping them increase sales and client database through driving local foot traffic to your front door. In using Brendon’s products.  Nowadays you have to think in terms of how I can serve consumers on-the-go so you can minimize your workload. You need to know how to effectively market these programs to keep your funnel full. I will teach and support you on that how.

3. Receive my Signature program FREE for 3 months.  If you wish to see what is included simply go to http://www.cheryllynninternational.com/signature-progam.  I really want to help you grow your business with Mobile and Local Internet Marketing strategies and tactics.  I am there for you!

3. One on one coaching session with me. I charge $400 an hour and you will receive a one hour session where we focus on how to grow your local business.

Quit trying to figure this out for yourself.  Buy Christina’s program thru my link and we will work together to get this done for you. I will be there for you!  I wish I only had this support when I owned my brick and mortar businesses.  There wasn’t and I do believe still today nobody is offering this type of support for local businesses.

The value of all these bonuses far exceeds what your investment in Christina’s Website Creation Workshop is. You can also use Christina’s program as an investment in your business education and use it as a business expense.  But you must act now while Christina’s is still offering Experts Academy.  He hasn’t opened this up for the past 12 months and she closes it soon!.  And trust me you will NOT be able to get in until he opens it up again.

Use This Special Link For My Website Workshop Spring 2012 Bonus Offer:

http://www.cheryllynninternational.com/chsprg2012

Here’s how to claim your Website Creation Workshop Bonus:

1. Purchase Christina Hill’s program with my Affiliate link so I get credit for your purchase:

2. Then IMMEDIATELY submit your purchase confirmation email/invoice/order # to my support team so we can verify with Christina’s team that you are indeed on our list of buyers, and so we know how to contact you about claiming your Website Creation Workshop Bonus. Send your receipt to support@cheryllynninternational.com

Submit your information here to claim your bonus for Website Creation Workshop: support@cheryllynninternational.com

Use This Special Link For My Website Workshop Spring 2012 Bonus Offer:

http://www.cheryllynninternational.com/chsprg2012

Website Creation Workshop Bonus Terms:

I, Cheryl Lynn, am an Affiliate of Christina Hills. In order to qualify for this Website Creation Workshop Bonus I must receive full Affiliate credit for your Website Creation Workshop purchase between February 7, 2012 and February 16, 2012, and must get paid the full commission for your Website Creation Workshop  purchase. Some Bonus items will be given out before the refund period ends, others after the refund period ends. If you request a refund, and/or miss scheduled payments you forfeit the Bonus items. I also reserve the right to modify this bonus offer in any way I deem necessary including giving you more cool stuff than I promised.

Even if you don’t want to join Christina Hills Website Creation Workshop program, please do me a favour and Facebook like the blog post, or tweet about it, or share it with your list.  I’d very much appreciate the help spreading the word about my Website Creation Workshop Bonus

Last year I purchased Total Product Blueprint, one of Brendon Burchards signature products. To say it was one of the best products I invested in is an understatement.

Over the past three years I have purchased a lot of products and programs that I thought would help me create programs and products for my business of which did not help me.  It wasn’t till I came across Brendon’s Total Product Blueprint that everything shifted for me. I replay and replay and replay this product of which has helped me tremendously.  He goes through every step-by-step of the process.  It is just like something they teach you in a college or university.  It is amazing.  So I promised that I would promote his next program or product to my fellow subscribers.

As a Mobile and Local Media Specialist for local businesses, it is really important these days to take a hard look at your business marketing strategies and blend them with the online world.  Every local business entrepreneur is an expert is their field and online consumers want to hear from you.  They need your advice! But you must reach them more and more these days using the internet.

Local business owners have started the positioning process of being the expert in their field. so NOW is the time to learn how to get it working for you 24/7 in the most extraordinary marketplace…..the INTERNET.

What you will learned from Brendon’s program is amazing and there is no end in sight as to what is possible for you and your local business.

Modeling after the success of offering super bonuses with Brendon Burchard’s Experts Academy I am offering some super bonuses to anyone who buys through me.  I do not want to overwhelm you with bonus like other, I want to help support you because I know through past experience you are going to need some support and coaching.  I want to help you for FREE!

This year, I am an affiliate of Brendon’s and when you use my affiliate link you will get the following bonuses. You must use my link to receive my bonuses.

Use This Special Link For My Experts Academy Bonus Offer:

https://burchardgroup.infusionsoft.com/go/ea5live/cherylly

Here is my official Experts Academy Bonuses:

1. A copy of my 86 page ebook on Mobile Marketing for local businesses. A must have manual for every business entrepreneur to help them market to the consumer 24/7 thru Mobile and Local Internet Marketing strategies and tactics.

2. Grandfathered in for a Full membership (for two years) into my NEW Monthly Membership program “LocalMobileSocial Academy” better know as LMS Academy where I work with local business owners in helping them increase sales and client database through driving local foot traffic to your front door. In using Brendon’s products.  Nowadays you have to think in terms of how I can serve consumers on-the-go so you can minimize your workload. You need to know how to effectively market these programs to keep your funnel full. I will teach and support you on that how.

3. Receive my Signature program FREE for 3 months.  If you wish to see what is included simply go to http://www.cheryllynninternational.com/signature-progam.  I really want to help you grow your business with Mobile and Local Internet Marketing strategies and tactics.  I am there for you!

3. One on one coaching session with me. I charge $400 an hour and you will receive a one hour session where we focus on how to grow your local business.

Quit trying to figure this out for yourself.  Buy Brendon’s program thru my link and we will work together to get this done for you. I will be there for you!  I wish I only had this support when I owned my brick and mortar businesses.  There wasn’t and I do believe still today nobody is offering this type of support for local businesses.

The value of all these bonuses far exceeds what your investment is in Brendon Burchard’s Expert Academy is. You can also use Brendon’s program as an investment in your business education and use it as a business expense.  But you must act now while Brendon is still offering Experts Academy.  He hasn’t opened this up for the past 18 months and he closes it next week.  And trust me you will NOT be able to get in until he opens it up again.

He is only opening it up, he says, to 400 students this time around and many have already registered like myself!!!

Use This Special Link For My Experts Academy Bonus Offer:

https://burchardgroup.infusionsoft.com/go/ea5live/cherylly

Here’s how to claim your Experts Academy Bonus:

1. Purchase Experts Academy with my Affiliate link so I get credit for your purchase:

2. Then IMMEDIATELY submit your purchase confirmation email/invoice/order # to my support team so we can verify with Brendon’s team that you are indeed on our list of buyers, and so we know how to contact you about claiming your Experts Academy Bonus. Send your receipt to support@cheryllynninternational.com

Submit your information here to claim your bonus for experts academy: support@cheryllynninternational.com

Use This Special Link For My Experts Academy Bonus Offer:

https://burchardgroup.infusionsoft.com/go/ea5live/cherylly

Experts Academy Bonus Terms:

I, Cheryl Lynn, am an Affiliate of Brendon Burchards. In order to qualify for this Experts Academy Bonus I must receive full Affiliate credit for your Experts Academy purchase between January 18th, 2012 and January 24, 2012, and must get paid the full commission for your Experts Academy  purchase. Some Bonus items will be given out before the refund period ends, others after the refund period ends. If you request a refund, and/or miss scheduled payments you forfeit the Bonus items. I also reserve the right to modify this bonus offer in any way I deem necessary including giving you more cool stuff than I promised.

Even if you don’t want to join Experts Academy‚ Please do me a favour and Facebook like the blog post, or tweet about it, or share it with your list.  I’d very much appreciate the help spreading the word about my Experts Academy Bonus

Apple showed off digital textbooks at its education event in New York this morning.

In watching the lastest news release unfold, our students must be happy.  It’s happening…to go to school soon you will have to purchase an iPad and down load your Grade Level Apps.  WOW!  Did you know there are over 20,000 educational Apps.  No more of the painful back slinging weighted down back packs.  On the evening news tonight, within my home town here in Canada, already there are school in beta testing mode with the iPad.

This will have a huge affect on bookstores on our planet as Apple goes worldwide in their launches.  This is a worldly trend happening to local businesses that will take bookstores down and more rental properties vacant.  Yuks another hit on local businesses!

But on the other hand there are so many positives, savings on educational costs, saving our trees (paper), etc.  Just think, a teacher stands at the front of the class as says, “Tonight download App 1234 as we will be working on that material in tomorrow’s class.”  And the list goes on and on.  Steve Jobs did say that he was going to enter in the book market place.  And here it is!  To bad he will not able to see the unfolding for his once again brilliant idea.

This is why I have preached over and over again to local business that Mobile is here to stay and they better get prepared!  With this new press release, Apps now just took on a whole new positioning power.  For EVERY entrepreneur out there weather you are a local business, speaker, author, coach, etc. you must strongly begin the process of getting your business website mobilized, creating kindle book formats and creating Apps.  I wasn’t really pushing Apps for my clients but it is so important now with this news to really begin getting your all businesses mobilized.

The service, dubbed iBooks 2, will allow textbook makers to create fully interactive titles for Apple’s iPad. According to the company, users will be able to swipe across the display to open textbook pages and view movies within each chapter. The operating system’s familiar pinch and tapping features are also available, giving users more interaction with titles.

It’s the interactivity that Apple was focused on. The company says that kids will be able to see 3D images and rotate them to get a better feel for what, for example a DNA structure looks like. The books can also be switched between portrait mode and landscape modes to make text and images easier to interact with.

As with traditional textbooks, students can easily mark up titles from the iPad. Apple showed how kids can highlight text and add a note to a page. All those notes can then be combined to make study cards. Those cards, which are basically virtual 3-by-5-inch cards, let students put a topic on one side and the definition on the other, similar to flash cards.

Apple has already formed partnerships with a host of major textbook makers, including Pearson, McGraw Hill, and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. That’s important. According to Apple, those companies are responsible for 90 percent of all textbooks in the U.S.

To spur people to develop textbooks, Apple has launched a new application. Dubbed iBooks Author, the free Mac OS X application lets authors create both textbooks and books. The application includes templates to quickly create books, but users can also drag and drop images and video into the title. To add text, Apple lets users drag and drop a Word file from Finder into a chapter. The application then automatically creates sections and headers.

So, where can the textbooks be found? According to Apple, iBooks 2 is an application that’s downloaded from the App Store to the iPad for free. The textbooks themselves are priced at $14.99 or less, Apple says, and once purchased, the textbooks can be redownloaded at no additional charge. A textbook section has also been added to the iBooks store.

Apple’s iBooks 2 is available starting today. Textbooks focusing on science, math, and other disciplines are currently being offered.

Why is this study really important to local business?  It validates where your customers are hanging out and if you tap into this Mobile Marketing strategy for your business it could possibly increase sales and client database for your business.  When I speak with local entrepreneurs I always mention how important SMS texting and QR Codes are for their business these days and in the diagram below, from Pew Research Centers, it clearly shows that.  Every business should be thinking of some form of Mobile marketing for their business in 2012.  Have you ever wondered though how those smartphone users are using their mobile phones? To help you get a better understanding of how smartphones are being used to support your Mobile and Local Internet Marketing initiative, here is an infographic below.

By the end of 2011 there was approximately a 44% penetration rate of smartphones with an extremely fast growth rate.  There are about  5.5 billion mobile devices of which 2.2 billion of them are smartphones.  Every mobile device these days being sold can handle texting, that is of course if the end user has it turned on, that is no wonder why it is #1 on the diagram below.  However, not all mobile devices can take a picture and have it render to a URL (QR Code Marketing) and that’s why it is #2.  The #3 category on the diagram below is Internet Browsing which is used for Local Browsing, your clients browsing for your keyword such as “plumber austin texas”.  Then #4 Email Marketing is where you capture their name, email address and cellphone numbers because your clients want to be reached by email on-the-go.

Now it doesn’t surprise me that Apps are #5.  Apps have that sexy ring to them but Apps are the most likely to get deleted and not used, faster than anything else on a mobile phone not unless your App is compelling and your clients love it.  I always suggest to my clients, put all the other marketing strategies in place first before spending the thousands of dollars to create an App.  Apps are the first thing to get deleted also if a phone is reaching it’s storage limits.  Apps take a wee bit of time to put together so to help you increase sales from Mobile and Local Internet Marketing faster, it is best to focus on the top 3.

Remember, print media marketing is going down and mobile media is growing leaps and bounds with a continued growth rate from here on in to help businesses increase sales.

Does the data below match up to how you use your own smartphone? Let us know in the comments section below.

There are so many local businesses on our planet and with over 5.5 billion phones and over 2.2 billion smartphones available to market to, it is an awesome way to stay connected with your clients who want to shop at your place of business.

In this case study it is a retail store in the gaming industry.  They have an awesome desktop website selling everything from online games to games for Playstation 3, Wii, Xbox 360 and many, many other platforms.  In 2004 they saw a report stating that the gaming industry as a whole was worth 10.3 billion.  A couple of years later, they opened up their first store.  They now have 2 stores and looking at expanding and adding more locations.

It was obvious to them that the demographic coming of people into their stores where very text messaging savvies.  Just about everyone had or used a cell phone and constantly where texting.  They where not sure if everyone had a smartphone, as they where thinking of possibly putting an APP together, but rather what they knew for sure was that just about everyone was texting one way or the other with their hand held device.  It was crazy!  It was at this point that they started thinking Mobile Marketing and began implementing campaigns to their clients through their mobile phone.

This is a true example of which I speak about every day to local entrepreneurs……Mobile and Local Internet Marketing!

Their text messaging campaign took only minutes to set up once they found the right company to help them with it!  That was it and they where ready to go.  Even when it came time to send out their first text message, it took less than a minute as everything was so quick and easy to do.

HOW THEY SET UP THEIR SMS TEXT CAMPAIGN

They selected a keyword representing their business.  They then where given a 5 digit short code number.  They then put that keyword and short code on everything and everywhere!  They had it on their website, receipts, mailers, posters, facebook, e-mails and displayed it around the store in various places.  They figured that if a customer was looking at something in their store, they most likely had a their mobile phone with them and they should opt-in to their message campaign.

WHAT THEIR FIRST TEXT MESSAGE SAID

They sent the following text message out to their SMS subscribers midday on Sunday saying “Our Street Fighter IV tournament is this Sunday at 7:00 pm!  Sign up online at resetgames.com and pre-order Super Street Fighter IV for next Tuesday!”

RESULTS

With the last minute reminder via text message, they had a record attendance at this specific in-store event.  It was awesome!

ADVICE FOR OTHER RETAIL STORES LOOKING TO LAUNCH AN SMS TEXT MESSAGING CAMPAIGN?

Promote your SMS keyword on everything!  An SMS keyword is the biggest asset for any retail store.  With the small additional cost to add an SMS keyword to a poster or mailer, you can generate hundreds of captive customers.  Mobile and Local Internet Marketing is a NO-BRAINER!

If you are interested in learning more about this type of Mobile and Local Internet Marketing campaign for your business, please feel free to fill out your information at http://www.cheryllynninternational.com/contact  or email us at support@cheryllynninternational.com.

How Cool is this a Mobile App to inspire holiday cooking…..The Safeway Chef Assistant iPhone app.

Safeway Chef Assistant App

When I saw this come through yesterday, of course as a Mobile and Local Internet Marketing specialist I had to download the App.  This is really cool!  When I loaded it up from my ipod, I was greeted by the sound of a Turkey.  It was so funny, Casey (our dog) started to park, thinking an animal was in the house. It was so funny!  However, Safeway claims you can cook a turkey in a 2-hour window.   Mmmmm, I am not fully sold on that yet.  Since I haven’t cooked my turkey yet, I cannot honestly say that this works.  I am really curious though.

Safeway is helping consumers prepare for the holidays with a recipe and a Mobile iPhone App.  What a concept!  Talking about giving customers what they want.  Safeway did a survey to their customers and the results showed that there was an opportunity to build a broader awareness of all that Safeway has to offer to alleviate seasonal stress. According to the survey, 58 percent of women said their biggest holiday regret is being so busy that they don’t get to enjoy the food or company. To win back some of the lost time, the Safeway’s new Chef Assistant free mobile application shows how easy it is to prepare a flawless, moist and delicious turkey with an exclusive 2-Hour Turkey Recipe. In addition to step-by-step instructions on how to prepare, cook and carve a turkey, the application features four custom timers and reminders to ensure steps aren’t missed.

Combined with their Holiday Inspirations website and the “Chef Assistant” Mobile App, Safeway provides inspiring solutions to help with holiday menus, events but more importantly their Mobile App. What a way to be connected with their customers even when the stores are closed over the holidays.  How many times do you think people will be mentioning the word “Safeway”.  What a brilliant way of name branding.

The Chef Assistant app is available for free in Apple‚ App Store.

Mobile cooker

• The app is aimed at moms and families who are looking for tips on cooking holiday meals.
• Using the app, users can view step-by-step directions on how to cook a turkey in two hours.
• Consumers can view tools inside the app to find the perfect cooking time for their turkey based on its weight.
• The app also includes a three-minute video demonstration that walks users through the process of preparing a turkey meal.
• Food lovers can also watch a video on how to carve a turkey.
• To cater to Safeway‚ target demographic of savvy moms, the app aims to make meal preparation simple with four ingredients.
• In order to move forward through each step, users must indicate that they have completed a step by tapping.
• Consumers can also set a virtual timer to cook their turkey with voice reminders.
• The app also features a section with commonly-asked questions about cooking a turkey.
• For example, one of the questions is, should I not stuff the turkey before cooking?‚
• In addition to cooking content, the app is branded with Safeway and its other owned grocery chains.
• Safeway has also rolled out a mobile Web site that is holiday-themed with tips for entertaining and cooking during the holiday season.
• Users can access the mobile site at mobile.safeway.com for recipes and receive tips from Safeway chefs Jeff Anderson and Debi Lilly.

Mobile Grocery Store

With the holidays quickly approaching, many grocery stores are rolling out mobile initiatives similar to Safeway.  For Safeway, the special-edition app is a unique decision because it focuses on Safeway, consumers but does not offer any in-store features, such as a location finder or store deals.  However, their mobile site features a location finder, deals and links to follow the grocer’s social media links, which are all important features for a mobile site to have.  They created the Safeway Chef Assistant mobile app to help there customers spend less time cooking and more time with their family and friends jsut like their survey showed.

Cheryl’s Final Take

I think this is an amazing App for a grocery store.  In September 2011, Safeway surveyed 525 women who have hosted or are planning to host a holiday party via online provider, Zoomerang. Given that 40 percent of the women surveyed said their biggest holiday stress is accomplishing everything that needs to be completed within budget, Safeway delivered affordable solution….FREE App. It is all about the customer and not about them, but yet, their name (Safeway) will be in front of millions of people all around the world even when their door closes for the holidays.  What a great branding idea! Many grocery stores may want to model this type of Mobile Marketing strategy for their business.

Safeway Inc. is a Fortune 100 company and one of the largest food and drug retailers in North America, based on sales. The company operates 1,694 stores in the United States and western Canada and had annual sales of $41.1 billion in 2010. The company’s common stock is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol SWY.

If you are thinking in developing an App for your business or you are considering implementing Mobile and Local Marketing strategies and tactics for your business, please visit our website at http://www.cheryllynninternational.com.  We look forward to working with you and your business! 905.981.8761

Google Nexus S 4G

If you live in the San Francisco Bay Area, Google Wallet platform has arrived at the Gap, Old Navy and Banana Republic stores just in time for holiday shopping.  It is predicted by 2015 that many will refer to our current wallets as the “Old” wallet payment method of buying items in stores.  Though the technology is years away from becoming mainstream, Google has enlisted a number of major retailers, including Toys “R” Us, Macy’s, OfficeMax and Bloomingdale’s as partners also.

To sweeten the deal, the clothier has partnered with Google and will offer 15% off purchases through February 2012 for using the technology. Shoppers can also find and redeem promotions while in-store. Customers who don’t have Google Wallet can use MasterCard’s PayPass.  Google Wallet payment methods can be used on only Sprint Nexus S 4G phones and Google’s new flagship device.

Customers love the convenience of smartphones from finding stores to browsing products, to actually transacting. Google is making it easier for consumers to shop using their devices they love.

Click here to read more…..

Shopkick Mobile App

2012 Will be the year of mobile-local retail.  However, during the upcoming 2011 holiday season consumers should be aware of a NEW and fun Mobile App that rewards consumers for “checking in” locally.  The company is called Shopkick.  They have partnered with major retailers across the US and consumers are rewarded for “checking in” locally.  Yes, I said the US.  I tried to download the Mobile App here in Canada and thanks to “GeoTargetting” the App would not even load.  Matter of fact I got a message saying, “This App is not available in your area.”  Chucks!  So I share this exciting Mobile App with my US friends.

For the US local business this is a great idea for you to increase business during this upcoming holiday season 2011.  At the same time it is really fun and rewarding for the consumer.  We are headed to a world of what I call “Experience Shopping”.  It is all about the experience you are giving to your potential and existing clients.  Mobile is fun and sexy!  Give a consumer an option to have fun and scan an item with their Mobile phone to receive points on a product purchased?  You will have a greater chance of winning their business and at the same time a continued loyal customer.  I believe this type of experience will certainly reduce shoppers researching other competition while shopping in a store.  Mobile phones are the craze these days.  I see people tripping over thresholds while entering a store because they have their heads down texting on their Mobile phones.

Jeff Schumacher, Chief Marketing Officer of Sports Authority said, “We had 50% to 70% more shoppers walk into the store  when we increased the rewards for walking in with Shopkick.” 

“Shopkick is like store bricks on steroids.” says Martine Reardon, EVP Marketing and Advertising, Macy’s

I am not a fan of local business owners investing in Groupons.  Groupons attract one time buyers and I like to see consumers coming back over and over again.  Groupons depend so much on up-selling that the local business owner better have their staff taking a salesmanship course.  And, at the same time Groupons are SO expensive for a local business.  Shopkick has created a fabulous concept to bring the consumer back while offering them great savings on their Mobile phone.  This is a great strategy for a local business in driving more foot traffic to their front door as I explain in my new ebook “Mobile Mastery 2 Millions”.  This is how I always think when working with my clients.

Yes for my friends in the US this is an awesome Mobile App!  Hopefully Shopkick will increase their market to Canada because in 2012 it is going to be imparative that all local business bring Mobile and Local Internet Marketing strategies into their business to increase sales and drive foot traffic.  Mobile is not going away, it is here to stay.

 Aaron Emigh of Shopkick tells us how consumers are using their devices in stores.

Tuesday afternoon Facebook introduced their app for mobile phones that acts as a standalone group chat client for mobile operating systems. The app, now live for download, expands the chat features in Facebook’s existing mobile appto include features like location-sharing, mobile photo-sharing, and — most importantly — instant messaging to friends or groups on Facebook. The app is already available for Android and Blackberry phones along with the iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad (although the app is not yet optimized for the iPad’s larger screen..   I downloaded this app on my Android mobile phone.  I did all the log in stuff and it works pretty cool.  Although I don’t chat a whole lot I probably won’t use it that much so I can see deleting it to save some space on my mobile phone.  But it is a good app it you like to chat.  Price is free but there is a paid version for $4.21 (CDN)

This new Facebook “Go Chat”shows you a clear overview of your friends in the chat, making it easy to chat with multiple friends without getting confused.  Go! Chat Facebook is a very feature rich application that is actively developed further, which is always good news for the user. It’s already very popular and widely used among many android phone users.

Some of its features include leaving voice messages, automated away messages, the use of smileys, sharing photos etc. Great app if you’re a facebook user.

FEATURES:  chat via facebook, share photos, leave voice messages, easy and secure login, use favorites and much more

Official page for Go! Chat Facebook app

Scan barcode to download

   (how can I use my android phone to scan barcode and download?)

Facebook purchased messaging firm Beluga back in March which Beluga team members have had a hand in the app’s creation. The timing of the release along with its features seems like a fairly direct response to Google+ and its huddles feature that also lets you instantly chat with friends.

Facebook has repeatedly denied that the flurry of recent announcements from the social networking giant and the company’s chat releases, like video calling in partnership with Skype were a response to Google‘s new social network, but the parallels are hard to ignore. With Google+ growing to more than 25 million users in just a little over a month, it’s hard to imagine that Facebook isn’t at least a little threatened.

Google+ released an update to its own app earlier this week that brought increased functionality for the nascent social network’s own chat services along with iPad compatibility.

This is one of the reason I love what I do.  Mobile and Local Internet Marketing is my passion.  I love to help entrepreneurs with their QR code strategies.  But this is even better…QR codes used for finding missing children?  WOW!  While QR codes have been used in countless marketing and social media campaigns, did you know that they are also being used to find missing persons?

Stephen Watkins, a Canadian father searching for his two missing sons, suggested the idea to add QR codes to missing children posters in order to assist police and passersby in finding them.

Another father, Henry Da Massa is still hopefully that he will find his daughter, Pearl, and has also been using QR codes. “It just bridges that gap between someone seeing something and having to make a mental note to look it up later,” said Da Massa.

In addition to parents of missing children, the Toronto Police have also been using QR codes on missing persons posters. “These new smartphones, that’s the basis of a lot of the newer generation communication and we need to reach everybody” said Const. Wendy Drummond, Toronto Police Services.

Using QR code technology to get the word out reaches a much wider audience than in the former days of the milk carton, and also allows for the inclusion of more photos of the missing person.

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