February 2018

Here at Think Cirrus we provide WIFI for many clients within retail and hospitality. And we love it. It provides guests with an excellent WIFI experience but from the point of view of the business owner, (yeah that’s you) – it provides vital contact details and data gathering that you can’t afford to miss. Why is WIFI Data a Hidden Gem? Because for every customer who logs onto your WIFI, you’ll acquire customer contact details. They will enter their name and email address which is a marketing communications gold mine. This means you can keep in touch with them, and not only get them to double and triple opt in, but you can email them, add them to social media advertising lists and much, much more. But today we’ll tell you how to add their details to Facebook custom audiences.   What is a Facebook Custom Audience? A custom audience is an ad targeting option on Facebook Ads and lets you find people who you already know on your business Facebook.  A custom audience from customer list could be from the customers who have logged onto your wifi. They have chosen to opt in and you can use facebook ads to retarget/remarket your business. To enable you to be able to do this I have sourced a guide from facebook for you to use. Happy promoting!   Create a Custom Audience from a customer file This article contains instructions on how to create a Custom Audience from your customer file. Before you begin Make sure the customer file you want to use is ready. If you want to get the most out of the data in your customer file, consult our best practices while creating it. Create a Custom Audience from a customer file Get Started To get started creating a Custom Audience from your customer file: Go to your Audiences If you already have audiences, click the Create Audiencedropdown and select Custom Audience. If you don’t have any audiences, you’ll see audience creation buttons, rather than dropdowns. Click Create a Custom Audience. Click Customer File Click Add from your own file   From there, there are five parts to creating your Custom Audience: Add Customer File Edit Data Mapping Hashed Upload & Creation  Next Steps Below, we’ll breakdown each one. Add Customer File To add a customer file: Choose whether you’ll upload your customer file as a file (.txt or .csv) or copy and paste it. If you choose to upload, click Upload Fileand select your customer file. If you choose to copy and paste, do so in the “Paste your content here” field. Give your audience a name and description if you want to. Click Next. Tip: You can download a data file template we’ve created that’s set up to help our system map your data more easily. Click Download file template to check it out. Edit Data Mapping We show you a preview of your data and how we’d classified it. There are three statuses you may see in this preview: means we think we know what type of data this is (but you can correct us if we’re wrong – see below) and will use it when trying to match the information in your customer file to people on Facebook. Only the data with this symbol gets uploaded for matching. means we’re not sure what type of data this is or you’ve told us to leave it out of matching. If we’re not sure, you can tell us (see below). Check out our best practices guide to make sure it’s formatted in a way we can use. means the data type has been identified (either by us automatically or by you), but we can’t detect a supported format. You may have to reformat the data in your file or select a formatting option from a Choose format dropdown (see below). For example, birthdays can be listed in different formats like MM/DD/YYYY or DD-MM-YYYY. Learn more. You can also leave the data type out of matching (see below). Note: If you’re seeing a lot of errors, it may be because we’re looking for the wrong delimiter (the punctuation mark that separates data points). You can change this by hovering over “modify the delimiter” and choosing a new one. You can interact with your data preview in three ways: Changing the data’s type Removing the data from match consideration Changing the data’s format To change your data’s type, click the dropdown and choose what type of data you’ve provided. From this dropdown, you can also choose Do Not Upload, which tells us not to use that data when matching. To change your data’s format, click the Choose format dropdown and choose what format we should be using to match your data. Note: Every piece of data requires a type to be usable, but only some kinds require formatting details. You’ll only see the Choose format dropdown if it’s necessary. If you need to change anything about your customer file to maximize the number of identifiers we can use, do so now. Once you’re ready, repeat the steps above. When you’re satisfied, click Create & Upload. Hashed Upload & Creation We hash your data, upload it and create your audience for you. This may take a little while if your file is large. Feel free to continue working in another browser tab or window while you wait. Next Steps When we’re done creating your Custom Audience, we automatically generate a list of next steps you can take to get the most out of it. You can take one of those next steps immediately or click Done to finish. Get more information on two of the next steps you can take: creating a Lookalike Audience and creating an ad. Learn how to edit your Custom Audience.  

1. Updates are Managed Every wireless system requires firmware and software updates. If these updates aren’t carried out or are done so incorrectly with have a serious impact on the connectivity and performance of your network. With a managed WIFI solution you’ll be supported by a team of experts who will live the system every day, understand what needs to be done, how it works and how it’ll affect your performance. This means the team will complete the updates at the right time for your system to keep running at its best. Wireless is a utility like electricity or water it’s a fundamental requirement for every business to operate. The problem is, few small business owners have the skill set, the time or the inclination to support the ever-changing needs. It’s both a financial and technical challenge to keep up with demand. Which is why deploying a managed WIFI system is the perfect solution 2. Device and Wi-Fi Alignment Devices today such as laptops, tablets and phones have an 18 to 24-month life span before another version comes out and you never know who is going to be bringing what onto your network next. Your current WIFI system will probably last from 24 – 36 months, the problem is, this isn’t well known amongst small to medium sized business owners. As a result, business owners think that the technology in place will still be fit for purpose, but you land up trying to support the latest devices on an outdated WIFI system that is over 5 years old. With a managed WIFI system you can guarantee you’re always going to have the latest infrastructure in place to support the latest devices being used, this is because your systems will be updated and refreshed every 36 – 48 months, perfectly within the optimal limits. 3. Wi-Fi as a subscription (Wi-Fi as a service) Think Cirrus is an expert when it comes to getting high quality, robust WIFI connectivity into hard-to-reach locations, listed buildings such as within the Rows in Chester City Centre, HGV stops and campus-based organisations. Think Cirrus can provide Wireless-as-a-Service (WaaS), another acronym… yep, sorry we know.  All this means is that you buy connectivity from us, paying for it on a service basis. If you own a hotel, holiday park or caravan park and your customers wish to purchase WIFI from you, you can choose whether you pass on all or some of the costs by charging them to use your WIFI. Buying WIFI connectivity as a service is a very low-risk option, as all support and technology upgrades are included in the service, and the cost to you is spread over a period of time. 4. Worry-less management. With a managed WIFI solution you don’t have to think about it. Your Managed service provider will do everything you need to. With Think Cirrus there are no call out charges as its all included as part of the monthly support payment. There are no hidden costs, just open and honest I.T. Boost Your Business and Engage Customers with Wi-Fi   Or you could just decide that it’s 1995…

  If managing your Wi-Fi is making your hair turn grey, then think again. There is a solution out there, and we’d like to explore it with you. A fully managed service provider is around the corner, to remove the hassle and hold your hand every step of the way. What is a Managed Wi-Fi Solution? A managed wi-fi solution is a wireless system with minimal upfront costs. The Managed Service provider (MSP) will fix or replace existing technology/equipment and monthly, the MSP will monitor and update what’s needed at the right time, for a reasonable monthly fee. If you don’t have the skill set or inclination this is an ideal situation. If you don’t want to have to even think about positioning a router or access points as it can be time consuming and frustrating. If you just want things to work, that is where your MSP will come into play. They’ll be your support system. Most MSP’s should visit you on site, at your venue or office, HQ, and carry out a network analysis and will ask qualifying questions to determine what your needs are. How many users and devices will need to be active at the same time. Do you want guests to access a network which is separate from your own? Do you need to take Wi-Fi payments on the network.   Is your business growing, as managed Wi-Fi is scalable and can grow as fast or as slowly as your business. Most MSP’s should have the capacity to monitor your systems 24/7 and they will update the software and firmware as part of the monthly subscription. Upgrades and patching Upgrades will be carried out at a time convenient for you and if a piece of equipment fails we will replace it. Most MSP’s will make sure that all your technology and equipment is up to date and Most MSP will purchase all the equipment that is needed, and install it, get you up and running and keep holding your hand whilst you run your business. There is a lot of information here so to summarise, instead of having to take your time away from growing and running your business, why not let someone else run it for you?