Jump on the Pokemon Go train

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After seeing a sign at the Gonzales County Jail Museum asking visitors to refrain from playing Pokemon Go, we asked our readers, through Facebook, about their experiences with local businesses and their interactions with the game. There were some mixed answers but you can sum up the points with some believing this app causes more harm than good while others had the foresight of using this as a marketing ploy.

Not to pick on the jail museum but if you wanted to get some more foot traffic, why go against something as popular as Pokemon?

Craze or not there’s no harm in taking advantage of Pokemon Go. When the number of active users on an app that’s been released for a little over two weeks now has already surpassed the amount of active users for something as popular as Twitter, how could a business ignore it?

There are great national stories out there about how small businesses have taken advantage of Pokemon Go. I just read online that an animal shelter was offering their shelter dogs for rent for adults who didn’t want people to know they were playing Pokemon. For a small fee, this animal shelter will rent out their dogs to players so it looks like you’re walking your pet and not walking around aimlessly for Pokemon.

As ridiculous as that all sounds, it actually worked. At least one “rented” dog was even adopted by someone who bonded with the pup.

Here in town, the Gonzales Chamber of Commerce offered up a free bottle of water, a visitor guide and a map to Pokemon Go hunters.

“We will also point you in the right direction to some of our Chamber Member businesses and historic locations that may be hosting as well,” they wrote through social media.

Skeptics can point out and say, “well we can get them close to our stops but how do we get them to actually come in and interact with us?”

Perhaps follow the lead of many restaurants in the United States who use lures to attract gamers to their spots. There’s a story out from cnbc.com where a New York pizzeria saw sales rocket up 75 percent over a weekend because Pokemon Go players would come down, grab a bite to eat and a few drinks while playing the game.

As we wrote a week ago, there are many Pokestops downtown that are near enough for businesses to take advantage of. I’ve walked down to Texas Heroes Square and seen for myself different types of people playing the game. A young Gonzalean came up to me and said he’d never really walked downtown but because of this game he’s discovering places he never would have before. Another jogger was walking around with her son because the little guy wanted to play, so she used this as a chance to get out for some exercise.

These are consumers and perhaps potential customers. This is a market that will remain untapped if you ignore it.

And who knows, maybe Pokemon Go grows old and goes away the next week. But if you hop on the train now, it may lead to long-lasting relationships with consumers you may not have thought you’d be able to reach.

I’m a man of habit. As much as I try to go out and do new things, once I find a spot I tend to stick with it. So if a new pizza place such as the pizzeria I referenced earlier attracted me to the spot and I enjoyed it, well they’ve just made a loyal costumer out of me.

Don’t ignore Pokemon Go, or any other fad that comes up. Doing so will only leave you out of touch and left behind.

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