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Here is a follow up on some of my previous writing about geolocation. It seems to be the great talk of the – at least in the social media sphere.
During the South by Southwest (SXSW) conference last month, location based services was announced to become the new dominating technology in 2010. SXSW is a five day long festival covering the development within web and digital media. Four years ago it was Twitter that was predicted a great future in the digital world.
Two location based services have been dominating the market: Gowalla and Foursquare and lately they have been growing rapidly. On SXSW Gowalla took the lead whereas in Denmark, Foursquare seems to have gotten the most users. I have been using Foursquare for some time now, and will let you in on the basics.
What is Foursquare?
Foursquare is a social network that you use from your mobile GPS device (Android, iPhone, Blackberry). Foursquare locates where you are, and you can check-in to the different places you visit. You can share your check-ins with your connections or connect Foursquare with Facebook and Twitter to update your online network.
When you add connections, you can follow their check-ins or see who else is checked in at the places you visit. You can then add tips for different places like “try out their homemade cake” or add other tips to a to-do list. Leave a ’shout’ and Foursquare functions like a location based microblogging tool.
Foursquare has added a gaming feature to spice up the experience. The person who has checked in the most at a place is awarded mayor of the place. Also you can earn badges for doing different activities. For instance you earn the ’swarm’ badge if you have checked in together with more than 50 people or you get the ‘Zoetrope’ badge once you have checked in to 10 cinemas.
Real Time Social Networking
What probably puzzles the most is: “what can I use it for?”. Well, in my opinion, location based services is still at an early stage, but I find the potentials of it promising. The idea of bringing social media with us as we go just paves the way for how digital media can be used in our everyday lives. Instead of sitting in front of the computer at home or at the office, we now connect our online activities to our real-life activites.
Foursquare prompts spontaneous meetings between people to occur and keeps you updated. For instance, you’ll know that one of your friends is busy because he just checked in at a venue or maybe you can meet up because you just saw one of your friends checking in around the corner. And the feature of seeing who else is checked in is a good opportunity to strike up a conversation with new people. What is really useful is the possibility to check out nearby tips from people who have been visiting the places close to you. It’s basically about exploring the world and the people around you.
Foursquare For Businesses
So as a social tool, the advantages of using Foursquare is pretty obvious. But what is even more relevant is probably how businesses and brands can make use of it.
Right now, shops, restaurants or other services with a real location receive free publicity when people check in at their place and share it with the connections. If a restaurant is really good, it will probably get good reviews from its visitors. This is in itself of great value, since user-driven content is generally more trusted.
But places and brands are also starting to take advantage of this offering discounts or special offers for the one who holds the mayorship. This inclines people to check in more often in the running to become mayor. A place will thus get more mention while rewarding loyal customers. In the end, it’s all about getting that extra value.
One of the most prominent brands adopting this is Starbucks which runs a customer loyalty programme where customers earn a ‘barista’ badge after 5 check ins. Some brands are already mastering the game of Foursquare by being present and tapping into its functions.
It usually takes a couple of years until businesses and enterprises have adapted to a media trend. So probably we will see location based services expanding within the next couple of years along with the spread of smartphones.
Check out this clip about Foursquare:
You may also feel like reading:
» The Marketing Potential of Geotagging and Geolocation
» Foursquare vs. Gowalla
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