That being said, I definitely see it as a way to improve performance for sales or ops that function outside of the office. My former client, UPS, is always looking for ways to motivate drivers to increase their volume pick-ups per day, and hence (Average Revenue per Employee). If you create a contest using LBS coupled with incentive, that would be a great way to increase productivity. Just one example, but I suspect this is an area that could benefit the most from LBS within this sector.

As you likely know, based on some of my tweets about this subject, I am of mixed mind about LBS. Yes, it can drive business and provides brand recognition and customer engagement, but many people (myself included) find the messages are often little more than social media/web 2.0 clutter (that is, to the person receiving the “I am here!” broadcast messages).

That said, you offer a number of good ideas. Indeed, LBS can work in the B2B space and using prizes and game-type hooks to increase engagement can add special interest and excitement.

Then, too, my devil’s advocate side says one drawback is that you are only dealing with a small subset of a given business community — those individuals who are LBS-enabled. A fair number of folks don’t want to deal with LBS and may be put off by having to download and use such an application in order to participate in a promotion, event or other business purpose.

Deni
@dkasrel in the twitosphere

Thanks for the thought provoking post.

Ryan - now now, Kent wouldn’t “punch you on the face” (i would) haha kidding (i’d force tapas on you instead) and of course the current forms of incentive are derived from what’s already been successfully done for B2C..i was just tweeting with Dave yesterday of the virtually untapped market for LBS companies to start developing for B2B, that is, if the apps were indeed meant to be a tool for enterprise and client relations. thanks for stopping and sharing.

For B2B I think it’s even tougher. What do I want LBS to do for my businesses? Well if you’re not talking strictly marketing, I suppose what I want is it to streamline a process which is currently labor-intensive. For example, if I ran a business that deployed service techs at client sites, then it’d be helpful to have a LBS that would check them in and out at the sites, and tie into our time/billing system to assist in accurate client time-based invoicing. I might be interested in a LBS that checked staff in and out of our offices when they arrived (though none of MY staff would consent to use it, and Kent would probably punch me in the face for even asking…).

Ultimately it’s going to take a lot more than some swag to get me to go through the rigamarole of dragging out my iPhone and going through some process to tell everyone where I am (and we are talking about a guy who’s not crazy about people knowing where he is all the time). I will say that your first point above - checking into business events - is intriguing and appealing to me, especially if they’re bigger and draw a large crowd. I’d love to know who actually showed up at our Polo for Heart event or TIFF premiere…

As with all new offerings, time will tell. I think for B2B to adopt and then drive, it has to be less gimmick and more substance than it is now.

Thank you.
Angela Dunn
aka @blogbrevity