What’s the future of iBeacons?

techinasia.com

Social media exploded into the scene about a decade ago, completely changing the way we communicate with people. It gave us a way to discover and share anything and everything our hearts desired. Lately there has been an initiative to merge online and offline experiences to create a seamless and truly integrated world.

We are all familiar with the idea of “checking in” or having a business ask us to “like” them through a sign or message. Various apps have already popularized this concept. iBeacons however, can do these and much more.

iBeacons Explained

iBeacon interaction is based on Bluetooth technology instead of the internet. This allows for short ranged interaction without the need for an internet connection. Not only that, iBeacons allow businesses to send locational and contextual greetings or messages to people. These greetings and messages could be linked to pages where people can “like” or “share.” This is much easier than navigating through multiple pages.

iBeacons are not directly competing with internet locational services. Instead, they complement each other. With the ease of access that iBeacons bring (via one tap access), it encourages people to leave reviews, share their experience or give the business the coveted “like” on company websites or review platforms, like Yelp.

Contextual and locational social media sharing is trending right now. iBeacons and social media together may be the next social media revolution.

Connecting virtual and physical

Most of us are now used to the idea of purchasing an item online, followed by a conspicuously placed “share” button to share details of the product with our followers.

iBeacons allows that in the physical world. With a little tweak, an iBeacon could send a push message prompting them to share their purchase with the world. This simple interaction provides a great way to encourage and improve social media engagement for your brand.

iBeacons and analytics

As analytics and review metrics become ever more important as a business development tool, iBeacons are a fantastic way to bring your business into the Internet of Things era. These metrics are increasingly used in social media and local SEO (Search Engine Optimization) ranking factors. Not only that, iBeacons can also be used to track physical footfalls. This provides a real world heat map of customers in a physical store which is crucial for product placements, contextual messages and consumer personalization.

Initial use of iBeacons

Currently, the most common use of iBeacons is in retail. Shoppers in a physical store could receive digital coupons, product information or any notifications that enhances their shopping experience. Combined with the new analytical powers iBeacons provide, the data translates into more sales and more importantly, online exposure.

Future of iBeacons?

iBeacons has had the “potential to revolutionize” the world for several years now. As of now, it has yet to fulfill that potential.

From the ALS ice bucket challenge of 2014, we can see that social media plays a huge part in campaign virility. iBeacons may be the product that enhances social media, but as of now, iBeacons need the power of social media to gain popularity.