Everyone knows that Twitter is today’s social media darling. Twitter allows you to share links, news or status updates to your friends. This immediacy and the sharing of information to your network is the heart of social media. But with Twitter peaking everyone is wondering what the next big social media push will be and how it will affect business. Foursquare and Gowalla are making that push and businesses should be keen on trying these services out. Some businesses are already offering special deals for active users of these services. Why is this a good idea? Geotargeted marketing not only allows businesses to target an audience in the same city, but it also allows business to target an audience to the square-foot. But what do Foursquare and Gowalla do? Rather than explaining their functions, consider the following story:
You and your friends are waiting in line at a restaurant. Bored, you take out your iPhone and turn on your Foursquare or Gowalla app. Before you check into the restaurant, you notice a wings place listed near by. Curious, you take a look at that location’s profile since Gowalla and Foursquare lets locations have their own profile page. Then you notice a tip left by the owner: “Tired of waiting? Next 10 people to walk in get free wings tonight.” It was posted just two minutes ago. Awesome! You and your party leave the never ending line and get the free wings.
Foursquare and Gowalla are location-based social networking sites. They require smart phones, (iPhone, Blackberry or Android) installed with their apps to work effectively. Foursquare and Gowalla are meant to be played like a game and players earn rewrds for checking into locations. Both Foursquare and Gowalla allow Twitter and Facebook integration so whenever you check in, you can Tweet it and post to Facebook at the same time.
So how exactly is it social media? These services rely on your willingness to share your location with your network. You can add comments about places like, “Great pizza and beer here”. Finally, because it’s you sharing these locations with your comments, your network trusts what you have to say. Here’s a little review on what else these services offer:
Foursquare
Foursquare allows users to “check-in” at locations using their iPhone, blackberry, or Android device and provide a status update. The more times a user checks in at a location, the more badges he or she can unlock. The user can even be crowned “mayor” of a location if he or she checks in at that location the most. However, you can be kicked out of “mayorship” if another user checks in more than you!
Foursquare’s Cool Factor
Foursquare gets pretty competitive. It acts like a real life video game where players compete to be crowned mayor of locations. You’ll find population heavy places, like Union Station, fluctuate in mayorship because of the sheer number of people checking in daily.
Another cool factor for Foursquare is you can add “tips” for people when you check into a place. For example, at Union Station, user FitMusician added the tip: “If the ticket lines are long (esp @ end of month when everyone is buying a monthly pass) there is another lesser known ticket counter in the Great Hall across from the VIA train ticket counter.”
Gowalla
Similar to Foursquare, Gowalla requires users to check in using their iPhone and earn credits. The more they check in, the more credits they earn. Gowalla lets users create “trips” and if others go on one of these trips, they’re tasked to check-in at various predesignated locations. And of course, completing an entire trip nets you a reward.
Gowalla’s Cool Factor
If you can’t find your location when you try to check-in, you can make it yourself. The location you create has to fall under one of Gowalla’s categories. Upon creation of the location, it is assigned a passport icon and you can add a little description for the location. I added Amalgam Design and wrote: “AmalgamDesign HQ. A full service design and marketing firm catering to small businesses. Website design, corporate identity, ad campaigns, and online marketing. Helping small businesses to think big.”
Perhaps the coolest thing about Gowalla is you can leave virtual items for other players to pick up! If you create a spot, and drop an item, you become its “founder”. It’s like a real life scavenger hunt and it gets pretty addicting.
So what?
That’s what everyone said about Twitter during its infancy. The reason why it exploded the way it did was because it fostered direct communication between an average user/consumer and a brand (be it celebrity, product or service). Imagine the possibilities when this direct communication with a brand is paired with the location of the user are at the time.
On January 6th 2010, Kevin Rose (founder of Digg now turned Angel Investor) posted a 7-minute vlog on his thoughts on Foursquare and Gowalla. In his video log, he shared a story where his buddy got free pizza and beer because the owner of the pizza place noticed they were checked in on Gowalla. He goes on to share that he invested in both companies. By the way, Kevin Rose invested in Twitter in May 2008. This was before CNN started using pushing Twitter heavily and before everyone started noticing Twitter as a powerful marketing tool.
How can businesses utilize this?
Businesses that have responded to Foursquare have been giving special deals to the mayor of their location. At the same time, Foursquare recognizes this and lets their users know which businesses offer specials for their mayor. This gives an incentive for users to compete for mayorship by checking in often, which in turn brings customers to the business. Genius.
Who will win; which is the most fun?
It’s tough to say which service will be the leader in location based social networking. Both Foursquare and Gowalla have a competitive nature to them. In terms of accessibility to its service, Foursquare has apps for all three mobile platforms (iPhone, Blackberry and Android) while Gowalla only supports the iPhone. Mashable seems to think that Foursquare is going to make a big splash as well.
In my opinion, Foursquare is the most fun you can have with location based social media. The sheer competitive nature of kicking another player out of mayorship grants satisfaction. It makes me want to check into every place I visit: be it a subway station, a coffee shop, my work – everywhere.
