Ever wonder why so many business offer free WiFi? It seems like everywhere you go, from the swankiest hotel lobby to your local McDonald’s, wireless internet is available free of charge.
But nothing’s ever completely free, is it?
There’s a selfish reason why businesses bother to give customers (and yes, even the moochers who use your WiFi with no intention of buying anything) free internet access. This isn’t charity…
No, business owners aren’t offering this service out of the goodness of their hearts. This is especially true regarding those who are smart enough to require users to sign in with Facebook or Twitter or some other social media platform before they can get on their internet.
When you get social media involved with your free WiFi, it’s known as “social WiFi”. Here are 3 ways rolling out a social WiFi program will benefit your business:
- Get Your Name Out There
Phone books are dead, my friend. If you want to get your name out there nowadays, you’re going to need 2 things: 1) a high search ranking and 2) a strong social media presence.
Social WiFi will help you out with the social media side of things. By forcing users to interact with your brand to just connect to your internet, you’ll rack up more Facebook likes and increase the likelihood that you’ll get some of those ever-important personal recommendations to drive new customers to the door.
- Collect Information and Expand Your Marketing Database
If you want to get a hold of exactly what kind of people are patronizing your business, there’s no better way than getting access to the Facebook profiles of the people who decide to walk through the door.
Forget about simple traits like age, gender, and level of education… Facebook allows you to tap into much more information; you’ll get a look at the complete personalities of the kind of people who you already know are interested in your services.
Use that information to analyze the overall taste profile of your customer base and tailor your advertising efforts to appeal to the personality traits you now know (through Facebook) describes your average customer.
- Engage Customers
Also, now that you’re Facebook friends with your customers, you’ve got a more direct venue than traditional advertising to promote your services. People tune out during TV commercials (and skip them entirely if they have DVR) and throw away print ads, but they will check their Facebook. If you can find a way onto their Facebook feed, you’ll actually get noticed.
Once you’re on that feed, go ahead, engage! Get creative with your posts; try to make them something people would actually want to read instead of a straight-up ad. Produce some compelling posts and you will get attention, and that attention will directly lead to extra traffic.
Contact us at (330) 931-4141 or info@qualityip.com for more information about the benefits of offering free WiFi or about our IT services.