Public WiFi: what your business should know

Offering free WiFi? Read on... Businesses that offer WiFi to the public should consider a few points when offering Internet access. Yesterday's announcement from the Home Office also brings up the grey area of free Internet access to the public.

 

Businesses that offer WiFi to the public  should consider a few points when offering Internet access.  The announcement yesterday  from the Home Office also brings up the grey area of free Internet access to the public.

A case in point: Ixer had a restaurant client that offered free access on an open network to their guests.  No sign in , no access code. This was a selling point for the guests, great for publicity and generated  foot traffic. However with open, free access there was no log as to who was online, for how long and for what purpose.  Additionally the host providing the service was missing a great opportunity to connect with and gather user details for future marketing.

This is where a managed portal really helped:  hotels, cafés, charities, community centres and the like can all benefit from services similar to what the public now expects at airports, train stations and other large public areas. A managed, custom branded  portal offers  Internet access  to the  user with logon using social media or an email. This allows for the business to track who is using what for how long as well as gathering user data. This is a great way to raise your profile : you can exchange Internet access for ‘likes’ on Facebook, ‘follows’ on Twitter or even your customer’s email address. This activity will appear in your guest’s social media network, promoting your business to thousands of new prospective customers.

Additionally there are management features: you’ll be able to see the breakdown in demographic, including percentage of men to women, number of Facebook and Twitter engagements and guest age. Not only will you be able to see your presence on social media growing, but you’ll have a wealth of data about your guests to help you craft future targeted marketing campaigns and generate return business.

It's no longer just airports and train stations - small businesses can  and should  benefit from providing Internet access with a managed solution that allows guests to surf and businesses to track and log usage.

_______________________________________________

 

 



Looking for something specific?