NFC and Social Media
Posted on by Timothy Boyle
NFC has an incredible array of possibilities that can be utilized to enhance consumer engagement, increase sales, or provide additional value. For each business or organization however, the possible uses vary, and while one type of use may be great for one business, it might be completely useless for another.
One possible use for NFC is connecting consumers with various social media platforms. This is clearly a great use for say a restaurant, bar, or retail establishment, but not necessarily all that useful for say a law firm.
Let’s assume you are the owner of a bar. Your goal is to increase the number of people that imbibe at your establishment every day. You know that social media like Facebook and Twitter can be utilized to help you achieve this end. When people at your bar “check-in” to your bar it helps advertise your bar and acts as an endorsement. This helps to attract these people’s friends who might be nearby, or such endorsement might help persuade them to visit at a future occasion.
The problem is that very few customers actually “check-in.” To help convince more consumers to do so you might decide to place QR codes on all your coasters and have a call to action to “scan the code and check-in on Facebook!” Or something similar. You would likely notice more “check-ins”, but this option still requires someone to go out of their way to scan a code; an improvement but not necessarily your best option.
The most effective way to increase this use of social media to advertise your bar would of course be the use of NFC tags. With NFC, instead of trying to convince a consumer to scan a QR code, you can make it so that the consumer, simply by placing their phone on the bar or a table, is given a notification that pops up on their phone and allows them the option to “check-in” or not. This makes it extremely easy for the consumer and requires almost no effort; and the number of “check-ins”, “likes” or “shares” (all free advertising for you), will likely increase in dramatic fashion. And the increased foot traffic from this high value advertising will make using NFC worth it.
This is but one of the almost infinite ways you can utilize NFC technology, but before you jump on board the bandwagon please make sure you understand the general best practices and are using a NFC platform that will help ensure a successful NFC campaign without the hassle.
