Location Based Marketing is Here - Get Ready

While the folks at Facebook haven't confirmed how Facebook Places might eventually integrate with Facebook's business pages, this is in the works and once it happens companies will have an easy opportunity to market and promote their services on the social media platform.

The rollout of Facebook Places follows the launch of Google Places in April. Building on prior Google business listings, Google's solution offers up Web pages dedicated to individual businesses, showing where they are located, street-level images, and customer reviews of services or products. Businesses can also advertise through their Google Place pages.

The implications are enormous for business marketing. Expect huge growth in location based promotions and services. In the areas of the fitness industry, among other industries, very targeted applications will quickly emerge.

Watch the video on facebook pages to learn more and get your business ready for the coming merger of the physical and digital worlds ! This time with location based b2c engagement.

About the author:

Bryan O’Rourke is a health club industry expert, technologist, financier, and shareholder and executive in several fitness companies. He consults with global brands, serves as a member of the GGFA Think Tank is Chair of the Medical Fitness Association’s Education Committee, is President of the Fitness Industry Technology Council and a partner in Fitmarc, Integerus, Fitsomo and the Flywheel Group. To learn more contact Bryan here today .

How to Lead Growth During Turbulent Times in the Fitness Business

Rita McGrath shares brilliant insights into how leaders should handle turbulent times in this interview. All industries are being touched by tremendous change and the fitness industry is NO exception. As Rita notes the difficulties of leading through tremendous change are generally broken down into i) being open to the facts and not falling victim to past success; ii) the ability to diversify, iii) having discipline with new endeavors and iv) exiting less appealing and older investments. Watch this interview as Rita shares her views on how change can be best navigated. More than anything you MUST accept that reinvention is now a necessity and unless businesses in the fitness and wellness space get on board there will be very rough seas ahead.

Apple's Best Days Are Over - What Does It Mean for Fitness ?

David Olive's recent article titled Why Apple and Google May Have Their Best Days Behind Them is a thoughtful examination of the trends occuring in tehcnology today. There is a lot of rapid change going on. Its implications are broad and in fact relevant to the fitness industry; a traditional late comer to technology adoption. Why ? It has to do with change, adoption and open systems. Here are a few excerpts from David's article:

They dominated their industries until they didn’t. General Motors, Massey-Ferguson, IBM, Sears, Roebuck – in their heyday, it was unimaginable that they could be dislodged as kings of their castles by rival firms and new technology and business methods.

Apple is increasingly a smartphone company, and that sector is coming under intense attack from competitors. The maker of iPods, iPads and Mac computers now looks to iPhones for 34 per cent of total sales, or $5.3 billion (U.S.) in Apple’s most recent quarter.

Competing smartphones using Google Inc.’s Android operating system have claimed 27 per cent of the U.S. market, to the iPhone’s 23 per cent. And the Android rivals are able to play most videos and games on the Web, a capability lacking in the iPhone.

Google’s core business, Internet search, is slowing. The search business has been growing at a clip of 30 per cent to 40 per cent a year. But projections have it slowing to growth in the range of 15 per cent to 17 per cent.

Google still depends on search for 91 per cent of its $24 billion (U.S.) in sales, and 91 per cent of its profits. That’s troubling given the trend in which surfers are bypassing Google and Microsoft Corp. rival Bing and instead using the likes of Facebook and Twitter to canvass friends for information, and responding to alerts from shopping services like Groupon.

Certainly Google has tried to bolster its core franchise, with acquisitions of YouTube, ad network DoubleClick and mobile ad platform AdMob. Its Android smartphone software has become an iPhone killer for upward of a dozen Apple rivals.

Yet those businesses haven’t made a dent in Google’s reliance on old-fashioned search. With its core business facing erosion, it’s no wonder Google’s share price has dropped 21 per cent this year, underperforming a 1 per cent gain in the Nasdaq.

More consumer centric tecnhologies will emerge in the fitness industry. However, that they might rely on Apple as a central component is a question. That they will rely on Apple's mobile technology alone would really be unwise. Unfortunately many vendors seeking to deliver innovation will rely on tApple's mobile technology and that will be a mistake in my view.

Watch this video on the emergence of Android in the mobile market to illustrate my point. If you see vendors in fitness relying largely on Apple's solutions - that is a bad sign for them. Android will become the clear victor in the next two years.

Your IT Department's Fear of the Cloud

WARNING - STRONG LANGUAGE IN THE VIDEO BELOW.

Information technology is going through a tremendous shift in organizations. I'm not just talking about the technology per se; I am referring to a more challenging issue - that of the traditional role of the "IT" and its leadership That role in many organizations needs to change and how.

Used to be that the application of technologies in organizations required high levels of understanding around the technical aspects of it all. Think of the days when hobbyists would construct their own personal computers, ala Apple, in a garage. Like the Wright Brothers, IT required at its core inventors with detailed oriented personalities who had to focus on great minutia to get something to do what needed to be done. The benefits of automating manual tasks utilizing RPG or other code was low hanging fruit and a different paradigm than today. To realize the benefits of technology today in organizations requires a deeper understanding of its deployment. There exists a wide range of methods to achieve results more easily and more inexpensively - thanks to the Cloud. Hence this post and video.

I can tell you that the TRUE adoption of the Cloud is not what many in IT claim or represent it to be,. Cloud adoption is being stifled by IT leadership in many instances mostly out of fear. Fear of losing jobs; fear of being irrelevant; fear of the unknown. Business leaders need to GET THEIR HANDS around what the Cloud really is and start evaluating their options because in most cases the options are much more worthy of pursuit then they might know or are being told.  My partner Clint Lee brought the video below to my atention. It is an actual discussion in an organization between an internal customer and an IT leader. It is not an exaggeration.Watch it (pardon the expletives) and believe me when I tell you - YOU NEED TO EVALUATE THE REAL CLOUD. Feel free to contact me if you need any assistance.

Why Social Media Works for B2B

I work with many professionals and they often ask me - what is the strategic advantage for me to adopt social media ? Many, but not all, see social media as a waste of time - STILL ! Social Media is Business Media. Christina "CK" Kerlev's presentation below outlines the 10 Key Benefits that social media provides for B2B development. Read it and the next time you are confronting senior leadership questioning the benefits for social media for business development -

just pull this out and show them.

B2B Social Media Marketing: Building the B2B Business Case for Social Media

View more presentations from Christina "CK" Kerley.