Waze and Your Business

Photo credit:  www.waze.com

Waze. Maybe you’ve heard of it, maybe you haven’t. Chances are if you haven’t, you will in the very near future. Waze is a free app offering one of the largest community-based traffic and navigation apps that was acquired by Google.  This app is used throughout the word by motorists to share real-time traffic and road information. The basic premise is that fellow drivers are helping one another out by saving each other time and fuel. How does it work? It’s simple. Users just type in their destination address and drive with the app open allowing them to passively contribute to the real-time traffic and road data by sending the user’s speed and location back to its database to calculate drive times. Users have the ability to report accidents or any other hazards along the route.  As with other navigation apps, Waze will give you turn-by-turn voice navigation and real-time traffic alerts along with other location-specific information. How can it help your business? Waze has a “Places” feature allowing users to give a report about their destinations. This feature allows users to snap a pic, add information about the place, and drop a pin. Another cool feature is that users can check into Facebook and share the location on Twitter without ever closing the app. The app is community user-based allowing users to add their friends so that groups of friends can keep track of each other on a trip or plan other events. As a business owner, it is important that your location information is up to date and ready for users. Because the app is community-based it finds community-recommended businesses along the route. It is constantly learning from users and has the ability to calculate the perfect route allowing what more and more consumers have come to expect—to get exactly what they want when they want it. Waze gives businesses the opportunity to capitalize on the specificness of the app by offering location-based advertisements to drivers along their routes. Companies can claim their listings in the app and advertise their locations when drivers are nearby. There are a number of advertising options such as Branded Pins, think of it as a store sign; Zero-Speed Takeovers, this is more like a digital billboard that pops up when drives come to a complete stop; and Promoted Search ads, which are displayed when drivers are searching for a specific type of business. To find out how your business can benefit from Waze, contact Cyberspyder Market Services, a Waze-certified partner. Let them do the work for you to give you the ability to connect with your customers in a fun and unique way.