I’m not much of a user of the current location-based social applications, things like Foursquare or Gowalla. When I started thinking about why, the answers were mostly business-related. If I point out where I am, it might give something away (if I’m in Memphis, am I with FedEx? If I’m in St. Louis, am I visiting Build-A-Bear?). If I point out where I am, it means you might want to meet (which is sometimes great, and sometimes not entirely possible). I just haven’t found the business value of telling everyone where I am.
I don’t want to be the mayor of things in Foursquare. I want to be the mayor of things in real life. In my little town, when I walk into my restaurant of choice, they know me from my frequency. They give me excellent service. They let me order off the menu. That’s much more fun than being the “mayor.”
Now, the missing ingredient? If there were context. I’d gladly tell everyone in LinkedIn where I am. Why? Because there’s at least a glimmer of possibility that we’ll have a business reason to connect instead of a serendipitous social reason. (Don’t get me wrong: serendipity is awesome. I’m just not always keen on decloaking for social-only reasons.)
So for now, feel free to go map yourself. Me? I’ll just let people know when it seems appropriate.
What’s your take? chrisbrogan.com
Showing posts with label Gowalla. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Gowalla. Show all posts
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
360 Digital Influence Blog: Its all about location. But will there be a winner?
Since everyone is talking about location let’s extend the conversation Sophia started in her post “Geo-Location Is Truly Everywhere“.
It seems we at interesting point in time in location based content. One one hand you have the early pioneers of this new land Foursquare and Gowalla (I will leave Mytown on its own because of the amazing gaming experience) who are consistently gaining new users. But what happens to Foursquare and the likes when people start tapping into the API for Twitters geo location data and when Facebook checkin gains critical mass ?
On one hand the openness of API’s means all platforms can technically benefit because there is more geo tagged content. For example if Foursquare pulled in places data which was actually tagged via a tweet it would only enhance the experience consumers have while trying to oust their others as the “Mayor”.
The flip side is that the critical mass of Twitter and Facebook could mean doom for the little guys.Kind of like when the big box retailer moves into to small town America.
The advantage I see Facebook having in this space is the amount of behavioral data it collects both implicit and explicitly. This could translate into highly targeted content and very relevant offers. If there was a way to opt in for specials or useful content delivered to my mobile device from my favorite brands I would do it. The challenge with the current models is that they are only location based and not preference. This may feel like spam to some.
Assuming the start ups can extend their platforms and keep a fun gaming experience with a proper balance of rewards extending beyond a badge there is plenty of shelf space available.
Only time will tell how this will shake out but either way location based content and marketing has made great progress. It is proving to be a unique way for brands to engage and reward their most loyal customers with special offers based on frequency or prospective customers who happen to be “nearby”.
How do you think this will play out? Will there be a “winner” or Will everyone win because of broader adoption? 360 Digital Influence Blog
It seems we at interesting point in time in location based content. One one hand you have the early pioneers of this new land Foursquare and Gowalla (I will leave Mytown on its own because of the amazing gaming experience) who are consistently gaining new users. But what happens to Foursquare and the likes when people start tapping into the API for Twitters geo location data and when Facebook checkin gains critical mass ?
On one hand the openness of API’s means all platforms can technically benefit because there is more geo tagged content. For example if Foursquare pulled in places data which was actually tagged via a tweet it would only enhance the experience consumers have while trying to oust their others as the “Mayor”.
The flip side is that the critical mass of Twitter and Facebook could mean doom for the little guys.Kind of like when the big box retailer moves into to small town America.
The advantage I see Facebook having in this space is the amount of behavioral data it collects both implicit and explicitly. This could translate into highly targeted content and very relevant offers. If there was a way to opt in for specials or useful content delivered to my mobile device from my favorite brands I would do it. The challenge with the current models is that they are only location based and not preference. This may feel like spam to some.
Assuming the start ups can extend their platforms and keep a fun gaming experience with a proper balance of rewards extending beyond a badge there is plenty of shelf space available.
Only time will tell how this will shake out but either way location based content and marketing has made great progress. It is proving to be a unique way for brands to engage and reward their most loyal customers with special offers based on frequency or prospective customers who happen to be “nearby”.
How do you think this will play out? Will there be a “winner” or Will everyone win because of broader adoption? 360 Digital Influence Blog
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Edelman Digital: Check-In Or Watch Your Reputation Check-Out
Guide to location-based services, such as Foursquare and Gowalla, for PR and marketing professionals.
I checked in on Foursquare as I arrived at a networking event the other day and I was greeted with a free drink if I showed my phone to the bartender. My excitement grew when Foursquare notified me that the restaurant across the street had a two-for-one dinner deal. I grabbed some colleagues to go with me. When we finished, I noticed that the bar across the street offered a free appetizer. So, we trouped across the street determined to follow our Foursquare adventure to its end even if we were already full. When we finished we had consumed drinks, dinner and appetizers all for less than $10 each.
As my experience shows, people are willing to give their location if they know they’ll get something for it. JiWire’s Insights report found that 53 percent of people are willing to show their location to get more relevant ads. Nielsen reports that 24 percent of Americans have a smartphone and we know that most of the new models have GPS. Foursquare has rapidly grown to 500,000 users and 275,000 check-ins in one day. Mashable reports that the other location-based check-in game, Gowalla, has about 100,000 customers. Additionally, nearly every user-generated review service is adding location to its mobile app because of its benefits to customers and the hope to attract higher advertising rates.
As a PR or marketing professional it is about time to add location-based services to your marketing mix and reputation management programs. Your customers are already mentioning your brand in these services and their comments are showing up in search results. It isn’t hard to understand that like other social media, location-based services need active engagement and monitoring. Chuck Reynolds daftly details the impact of these services on local search and search engine visibility in this blog post.
Although not sanctioned by the company, there was even a Foursquare Day last month on April 16 (4/16) that fans put together. I know you have a lot to monitor already in the fragmented social media fracas, so here are some tools that can make it easy to keep an eye on public comments on Foursquare and Gowalla. Both Check-In Mania and FourWhere allow you to search for your business and view the shouts and recommendations people leave.
I love to see the updates and advice from my friends as they check-in throughout their day. It helps me find better restaurants and gets me to try new businesses. As a PR person, I’ve seen it create real-time buzz around an event and drive longer-term search engine results. It’s time to check-in on your brand’s reputation before your customers check-out.Please view @ Edelman Digital
I checked in on Foursquare as I arrived at a networking event the other day and I was greeted with a free drink if I showed my phone to the bartender. My excitement grew when Foursquare notified me that the restaurant across the street had a two-for-one dinner deal. I grabbed some colleagues to go with me. When we finished, I noticed that the bar across the street offered a free appetizer. So, we trouped across the street determined to follow our Foursquare adventure to its end even if we were already full. When we finished we had consumed drinks, dinner and appetizers all for less than $10 each.
As my experience shows, people are willing to give their location if they know they’ll get something for it. JiWire’s Insights report found that 53 percent of people are willing to show their location to get more relevant ads. Nielsen reports that 24 percent of Americans have a smartphone and we know that most of the new models have GPS. Foursquare has rapidly grown to 500,000 users and 275,000 check-ins in one day. Mashable reports that the other location-based check-in game, Gowalla, has about 100,000 customers. Additionally, nearly every user-generated review service is adding location to its mobile app because of its benefits to customers and the hope to attract higher advertising rates.
As a PR or marketing professional it is about time to add location-based services to your marketing mix and reputation management programs. Your customers are already mentioning your brand in these services and their comments are showing up in search results. It isn’t hard to understand that like other social media, location-based services need active engagement and monitoring. Chuck Reynolds daftly details the impact of these services on local search and search engine visibility in this blog post.
Although not sanctioned by the company, there was even a Foursquare Day last month on April 16 (4/16) that fans put together. I know you have a lot to monitor already in the fragmented social media fracas, so here are some tools that can make it easy to keep an eye on public comments on Foursquare and Gowalla. Both Check-In Mania and FourWhere allow you to search for your business and view the shouts and recommendations people leave.
I love to see the updates and advice from my friends as they check-in throughout their day. It helps me find better restaurants and gets me to try new businesses. As a PR person, I’ve seen it create real-time buzz around an event and drive longer-term search engine results. It’s time to check-in on your brand’s reputation before your customers check-out.Please view @ Edelman Digital
Friday, May 7, 2010
Andy Beal's Marketing Pilgrim: McDonald’s Is McReady to McUse Facebook Location Service
Last month speculation swirled about the upcoming location services that Facebook was working on getting to market. With the interest in Foursquare, Gowalla and MyTown gaining more and more momentum there isn’t a better time for Facebook to come in and put their giant footprint on this developing landscape.
AdAge reports that McDonald’s is already working with the social networking behemoth around this service and will be front and center when Facebook delivers the anticipated functionality.
Facebook is preparing to launch location-based status updates for its users. But the social network is also planning to offer it to marketers, including McDonald’s.
As early as this month, the social-networking site will give users the ability to post their location within a status update. McDonald’s, through digital agency Tribal DDB, Chicago, is building an app with Facebook would allow users to check in at one of its restaurants and have a featured product appear in the post, such as an Angus Quarter Pounder, say executives close to the deal.
Apparently one of the benefits of telling people where you are is also a way of letting them know that your diet is over for the foreseeable future. I think I have my first comment ready for a friend of mine on Facebook that reports their location there and, in effect, advertises for the hamburger king. It’ll read something like “I know the location of the nearest EMS vehicle so when your heart stops it should be able to get to ya pretty quickly!”
OK, so that was a bit overboard but you get the picture. Brands will have to consider just what the up AND downsides are of letting their followers tell about their engagement with the brand. People on social networks are just as adept at making fun of what people do as they are of giving an affirming “atta boy!” to their efforts (at least my friends are ;-) ).
So what might this deal look like?
Facebook is not directly charging McDonald’s to build the app; Facebook generally does not charge developers to build on its platform. But executives with knowledge say it was negotiated as part of a bigger media buy on Facebook, and McDonald’s will be the first marketer to take advantage of the service.
Facebook is taking its usual ‘high road’ approach and acting as if they would never do anything to make money other than get paid by advertisers for their advertising platform.
Yesterday, Kevin Colleran, director-national sales at Facebook, was asked about such a capability at Resource Interactive’s iCitizen Conference in Columbus, Ohio. “We’re still trying to figure out what our strategy is,” Mr. Colleran said. “When we launch, whatever our product in that space, we will figure it out.”
He also underscored that Facebook wouldn’t attempt to monetize geolocation capabilities in the near term. “We never launch a functionality with the intent of monetizing it,” he said. “The best case in point would be [advertisers] are frustrated. We will not allow them to buy an ad on mobile.”
Huh? What flavor Kool-Aid is being served at the Facebook mess hall these days?
Mr. Colleran noted that Facebook has the world’s largest mobile application, with more than 100 million users each day. “We don’t make a single dime off it,” he said. “And that is our intent.” Facebook, he said, is profitable because of the advertising on Facebook.com alone.
Ok, so maybe the real story here isn’t that Facebook is on the verge of rolling out geolocation options for its service but more that they are not looking to monetize anything about Facebook other than through its advertising offers. Maybe this kind of spin was cooked up by the same team that tells the world that Facebook is very concerned about user privacy. It’s just not very believable.
So are you excited to let your friends in Facebook know where you are at every minute of the day and then let brands piggy back on your activities for their benefit? Maybe next we’ll get brand clothing to wear at the brand places so we can then take brand pictures of ourselves using the brand’s stuff then posting it on branded Facebook updates.
Sounds brand grand! Andy Beal's Marketing Pilgrim
AdAge reports that McDonald’s is already working with the social networking behemoth around this service and will be front and center when Facebook delivers the anticipated functionality.
Facebook is preparing to launch location-based status updates for its users. But the social network is also planning to offer it to marketers, including McDonald’s.
As early as this month, the social-networking site will give users the ability to post their location within a status update. McDonald’s, through digital agency Tribal DDB, Chicago, is building an app with Facebook would allow users to check in at one of its restaurants and have a featured product appear in the post, such as an Angus Quarter Pounder, say executives close to the deal.
Apparently one of the benefits of telling people where you are is also a way of letting them know that your diet is over for the foreseeable future. I think I have my first comment ready for a friend of mine on Facebook that reports their location there and, in effect, advertises for the hamburger king. It’ll read something like “I know the location of the nearest EMS vehicle so when your heart stops it should be able to get to ya pretty quickly!”
OK, so that was a bit overboard but you get the picture. Brands will have to consider just what the up AND downsides are of letting their followers tell about their engagement with the brand. People on social networks are just as adept at making fun of what people do as they are of giving an affirming “atta boy!” to their efforts (at least my friends are ;-) ).
So what might this deal look like?
Facebook is not directly charging McDonald’s to build the app; Facebook generally does not charge developers to build on its platform. But executives with knowledge say it was negotiated as part of a bigger media buy on Facebook, and McDonald’s will be the first marketer to take advantage of the service.
Facebook is taking its usual ‘high road’ approach and acting as if they would never do anything to make money other than get paid by advertisers for their advertising platform.
Yesterday, Kevin Colleran, director-national sales at Facebook, was asked about such a capability at Resource Interactive’s iCitizen Conference in Columbus, Ohio. “We’re still trying to figure out what our strategy is,” Mr. Colleran said. “When we launch, whatever our product in that space, we will figure it out.”
He also underscored that Facebook wouldn’t attempt to monetize geolocation capabilities in the near term. “We never launch a functionality with the intent of monetizing it,” he said. “The best case in point would be [advertisers] are frustrated. We will not allow them to buy an ad on mobile.”
Huh? What flavor Kool-Aid is being served at the Facebook mess hall these days?
Mr. Colleran noted that Facebook has the world’s largest mobile application, with more than 100 million users each day. “We don’t make a single dime off it,” he said. “And that is our intent.” Facebook, he said, is profitable because of the advertising on Facebook.com alone.
Ok, so maybe the real story here isn’t that Facebook is on the verge of rolling out geolocation options for its service but more that they are not looking to monetize anything about Facebook other than through its advertising offers. Maybe this kind of spin was cooked up by the same team that tells the world that Facebook is very concerned about user privacy. It’s just not very believable.
So are you excited to let your friends in Facebook know where you are at every minute of the day and then let brands piggy back on your activities for their benefit? Maybe next we’ll get brand clothing to wear at the brand places so we can then take brand pictures of ourselves using the brand’s stuff then posting it on branded Facebook updates.
Sounds brand grand! Andy Beal's Marketing Pilgrim
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