The "Not So Early" Adopters

In my last post, I discussed why it's a good time for small, local retail businesses to start considering using social media outlets for marketing. Considering being the key term. There are a few caveats to this emerging trend that could be a recipe for disaster.

A great example was brought up by Kevin Palmer at Social Media Answers in his post about Chipotle's experience with this and brings up the concern that, while some small business owners aren't aware of the technology, neither are the customers. In order to take advantage of a Facebook Deal, you have to have the latest version of the Facebook app on your iPhone or Android (Blackberry has Places but not support for Deals yet). This may not be an issue for iPhone (I wouldn't know, being an Android user) but it is for Android. Mostly, I suppose, because there are so many versions of Android on so many different platforms. Just a week ago or so I had to show a friend that Places existed and he had to install a newer version of Facebook to use it. Good news being that he has been using it since, just for the sheer social aspect of it, not Deals. The caveat here being, while it's a great pitch to owners to say that there are 200 million mobile Facebook users, but what percentage of them know of, and how, to use Facebook Places. And furthermore, how much confusion, anguish does this bring to a customer who sees Deals offered to a select few; those willing, and know how, to use Facebook Places.


Another issue worthy of note is how tech savvy should a business owner/manager be, or expect their employees to be? Angie Henderson Moncada, over at The Virtual Water Cooler, shares her exploits using Deals at Macy's - one of the other early adopters of Facebook Deals - and proves how troublesome it can be. I can just imagine how puzzled a cashier would be when I show my phone screen with a discount code and they have no idea what they are supposed to do with it and whether they are being Punk'd or not...

How much training would be needed for employees to do something like this? Maybe not much for Hot Topic employees perhaps, but a department store? I would venture to say, quite a bit! I can just imagine handing over my EVO to someone who still owns a flip phone so they can see the discount code / image / whatever and wonder if they're going to drop it because they're holding it so loosely afraid to break it. All the while, me making sure the screen doesn't time out during, or else it's just chaos after that...

But let's flip the tone of this, because I'm more concerned with the small business owner. Your local convenience store, bar, restaurant, etc. that would benefit from starting something like a loyalty program. And a simple solution is to just have a code they can use at the register / POS system for the current Facebook Deal so the cashier doesn't have to handle the customer's device.