Ramikins have been proffered in exchange for the spoils of the home-made jam kettle;  an unwanted Freeview box has been bartered against some freshly delivered wood burner logs;  and CDs, DVDs and books have been exchanged through an informal library arrangement.  On my walk to the station I've seen several households offering their neighbourhood the chance to take away unwanted furniture, mirrors, cookware and china from their front yards for free.  Rather than rely on the ingenuity of ebay to rid themselves of their shackles, householders are pimping their belongings to any taker or passerby. 

Naturally my thoughts then turned to how this austerity citizenship is impacting on interior design.  One person's rubbish could well form the basis of a room make-over or become the jewel in a dimming crown.  It's well documented how reclamation and architectural salvage companies have boomed over the last decade.  Several, such as Lassco's Brunswick House, have featured in fashion and interiors shoots.  But interior sets that are dominated by front yard booty, could equally form an interesting insight into today's abstemious society.  Emily Campbell's RSA blog 'Design and Society' relishes the prospect of design in these economic times, extolling the potential creativity that is unleashed through "the tension created by production constraints".  Take the ingenious work of the Bauhaus movement that developed out of Germany's socio-economic competitiveness following the First World War.  As hard as recession and significant cost-cutting are to society, history has shown that resourcefulness combined with imagination and moral integrity can lead to some of the most creative periods in any era.

By interacting with your customers using social media it is possible to build loyalty and develop a better understanding of the needs of your audience. Segmenting these relationships by location enables you to hone the conversations you are having and make them more relevant to your customers' needs. There are numerous platforms you can use to facilitate this, but there are some bases you should cover immediately:

When the digital atom bomb that is Google explodes into a new sector, it’s clear it’s time to sit up and take notice. Google has recently made several waves in the location arena, including the launch of Google Latitude, which tracks the location of searches and Google local search, which provides tailored search results based on your location. Google is also incorporating geotagging ie geographical tagging into Google Buzz.

Twitter has become more sophisticated recently when it comes to geotagging. It is now possible to pull up location-based information from individual tweets on the microblogging website. Twitter also recently developed the facility to search and view trending facilities by location. In addition, there are some clever tools you can use to make it easier to build communities by location on Twitter, including TwellowHood, a directory enabling you to cross reference users by location and interest, TwitterLocal, which allows you to search by area, Nearby Tweets, does what it says on the tin and Happn.in, gives trending data based on location.

iPhones, Blackberries and the evolution of the mobile have had a huge impact on both social media and location-based networking. There are numerous social networks now purely based on location, including Foursquare, Gowalla, Loopt, Brightkite and Yelp. With over half a million users, 1.4 million venues and 15.5 million ‘checkins’, Foursquare currently holds the crown as the most used location-based networking app.

Foursquare enables users to check in at different locations and compete to win points, badges and mayorships based on activity. Companies can make offers to users when they are close to their business or organisation, offer special bonuses to the mayor and even create bespoke badges for customers to compete to win. Users can also leave reviews for their friends at different venues giving you great access to customer feedback.

Taking relationships out of social media into the real world should be your ultimate goal. Organised tweetups provide an opportunity to build on the communities you have grown online and have face-to-face time with your customers. If you’re not confident enough to organise your own tweetup, there will be existing tweetups taking place you can attend. Meetup.com gives you instant access to a list of tweetups going on in your area.

Before you start interacting with customers through social media portals it’s important you take a step back and review which portals are going to be right for your organisation based on where your customers are. Once you have determined your goals, you can then go on to build a presence. You should customise the portals to your needs and ensure you give compelling promotions and offers to your customers – but remember, the key to social media success is having conversations and building relationships first.

As your campaign grows, it’s imperative you track everything and be prepared to adapt as your customer base grows and changes. Be honest and transparent about your intentions at all times to ensure you retain consumer trust.

Lastly, don’t be put off by recent well publicised concerns about encouraging your customers to share their location. It’s important to apply some common sense and explain to anyone with concerns that they will not get robbed just because they share their location!

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