Grow your customers one digital tap at a time.

WE are no longer living in a material world.

We are evolving in a digital one

The way we do business has changed dramatically and there has been 10 years’ worth of change in one year.

COVID-19 has shifted perspectives and businesses have pivoted towards how they run their business - choosing to adopt technology and thinking outside-the box. 

When it comes to adoption of positive changes, it sometimes only takes a few tweaks or incorporating a different gadget or process to see the advantages to your business.

Here in the Mackay Isaac Whitsunday region, businesses to entrepreneurs are using different apps and gadgets to take their business to the next level and connect with their customers.

Mackay Beauty influencer and owner of Tianna Jayne Make-up Artist, Tianna Neeve hit the online world at full speed when COVID-19 hit, utilising social media channels, shopify, square app and adopting Social Dot to her make-up and fashion styling business.

“Social Dot kept popping up and the social media algorithm, always leads me to business tools that may help entrepreneurs and small business.

“I had a look at Social Dot, it wasn’t a big investment it was actually very affordable and less than it would be to go and get 200 business cards printed,” Ms Neeve said.

So, what is Social Dot?

Social Dot is a physical Dot sticker that you are able to place on the back of your phone or within your business, giving customers the opportunity to TAP the Social Dot with their phone, to which you can share contact information, social media platforms, and custom links such as FAQ’s, pricing, photo galleries, cafe menus, COVID-19 safe check ins.

Social Dot creator Mia Dickson created the gadget during COVID -19 after her Townsville Yoga classes and workshops closed.

And it was during this pivot of business Ms Dickson decided to find a solution to an ongoing business problem.

“I found that after class, students would come up to me and ask where they could find me on social media. I didn’t carry business cards, but we were both standing there chatting, phones in hand. 

“So, once we went into lockdown, one afternoon by our backyard fire I was chatting to my husband voicing my frustrations and realised that I needed something magic to zap my information to the other persons phone instantly.

“This is where the strong sense of problem solving started burning - there must be other businesses out there with the same frustrations. So, we got to work,” she said.  

Social Dot uses Near Field Communications (NFC) similar to tap and go on credit cards, however the main functionality of Social Dot is the website and the customer being able to update links and contact information instantly.

Ms Dickson said she started building the brand, website and creating moulds and test products in June 2020 and launched in August.

“I’m just a mum from Townsville, self-funded, self-taught, with a lot of grit and determination.

“We have hairdressers sticking them on their mirrors in the salon to show their body of work. We have cafes using them as replacement menus- no more paper menus with COVID-19.

“We also have a grazing board customer that places her Dot on the boards she delivers so everyone at the party can find and follow her and this has turned into repeat business for her”.

Ms Dickson said part of the Social Dot included analytics so businesses can see what links are being clicked on and to focus their marketing accordingly.

Part of the Social Dot early adoption and success has been thanks to alternative Social Media channels, such as Tiktok, which can be a new way to find a new customer base.

“We put our brand on Tiktok and managed to get 1.5M views and this is when the demand for international shipping started- the plan was to just ship to Australian and New Zealand”.

Ms Dickson said business cards are not dead, they have gone digital in this current world and people want to see more of this technology.