Time Magazine reported in May that Foursquare made their list of the top 50 worst inventions. I disagree and believe it hasn’t reached full potential.
Foursquare has taken the lead in showing businesses how to successfully use location-based networking. Many national companies including Starbucks, Gap and Whole Foods markets for example, use Foursquare to offer promotions while obtaining data about their locations, who is checking in, and the habits of those consumers. Foursquare is, for the time being, free for businesses.
Adding a new spin to the mix is Shopkick. Its mobile application offers coupons to users entering member stores. Currently used by Wal-Mart, Target, Best Buy and Macy’s, the difference with Shopkick is that only the store is updated of the user’s location but not his/her friends.
But is anyone buying? When you look at statistics it doesn’t appear these services have gone mainstream. Only four percent of Americans have tried one of them, and only one percent use weekly, according to Forrester Research. Eighty percent are men, and mostly between 19 and 35 years of age.
I believe the popularity of location based services is on the rise, however, because of two
words: Facebook Places. While Foursquare had the initial lead in working with businesses, Facebook has all it takes to crush the competition.
Starting with their 500 million users, Facebook has the might, clout and numbers to make check-ins more relevant and interactive. Most companies already choose to socialize through their business fan page on Facebook. It’s a natural place to start conversations around checking-in.
My two issues with Facebook Places are (1) a user’s check-in will go into his/her news feed and become public; (2) one company fan page may not be able to handle check-in at every location.
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