Twitter recently did an overhaul of its appearance and more recently announced a new image gallery of its own. LinkedIn, a network of over 120 million professional connections, undertook an IPO and continues to grow in importance in the human capital space. Yelp hasn't changed much but continues to be very useful when looking for a place to eat.
Foursquare is not only designed for fun but can provide real value. After three check-ins at a wine bar in Manhattan, I was entitled to a free cocktail. The Mayor of a location is often entitled to discounts or free goods. Starbucks was the first company to offer a nationwide discount program to Mayors in its stores.
Foursquare offers businesses the opportunity to attract customers through discounts, co-marketing and a collection of special programs. Earlier this year there was a major tie-in with the Super Bowl. More recently Foursquare partnered with AMEX building loyalty for both services and the participating merchants. Zagat has also leveraged Foursquare by recognizing Mayors since they clearly know the restaurants they frequent and can be used as opinion leaders to enhance the credibility of reviews.
Foursquare just announced a news service tie-in taking the service in yet another direction. Reporters from the NBC affiliate in Philadelphia will check-in and report breaking news from the location while their followers will learn about the story even before it hits a web site or other means of distribution. Yet another innovative use of a social media network to enhance subscriber value and increase station viewers.
Look me up on and "friend" me on Foursquare. You will (almost) always know where I am, and it will explain all the references to Dunkin Donuts you see in my columns and comments from friends.
By the way, Dunkin, as Mayor of a local store, shouldn't I get a free Coolatta or something?
Captain Joe
Follow me on Twitter @JPuglisiLLC
Capitalism has found the business plan for community: BIG. That gives Foursquare the ability to sell information in large enough numbers that Starbucks would feel it profitable to give Foursquare Mayors a discount. Meanwhile, users get a sense of "community" on the front end.
ReplyDeleteHowever, there is always the revelation / privacy balance in everything you do online. In front of an audience of millions, most people will not reveal their private pain.
I see two psychological trends.
1. Social networks make miraculous connections, and then people transfer to more private ways of communication -- email, the phone, etc.
2. People post details of their lives that make them look like everything is fine and dandy. The game is to talk intelligently and reveal nothing. The "cocktail-reception identity" speaks, en masse.
A friend of mine for 15 years took me off her list because I am working seriously on my blog, and I post articles that interest me. "I am going through a sea change. I am adjusting to a new way of life owing to illness. I don't need advertisements of what's going on in your life. It's a distraction," she said.
I understood and wondered...
"Have we become emotionally attached to our own noise?"
"Have we become Mary Kay representatives, except the cosmetics we are selling are ourselves?"
Capitalism has found the business plan for community: BIG. That gives Foursquare the ability to sell information in large enough numbers that Starbucks would feel it profitable to give their Mayors a discount. Meanwhile, users get a sense of "community" on the front end.
ReplyDeleteHowever, there is always the revelation / privacy balance in everything you do online. In front of an audience of millions, most people will not reveal their private pain.
I see two psychological trends.
1. Social networks make miraculous connections, and then people transfer to more private ways of communication -- email, the phone, etc.
2. People post details of their lives that make them look like everything is fine and dandy. The game is to talk intelligently and reveal nothing. The "cocktail-reception identity" speaks, en masse.
A friend of mine for 15 years took me off her list because I am working seriously on my blog, and I post articles that interest me. "I am going through a sea change. I am adjusting to a new way of life owing to illness. I don't need advertisements of what's going on in your life. It's a distraction," she said.
I understood and wondered...
"Have we become emotionally attached to our own noise?"
"Have we become Mary Kay representatives, except the cosmetics we are selling are ourselves?"
Facebook, Twitters, blogs even, sure take a lot of time and increasingly so if one takes to it. I have always been an Internet Animal and took to community building and hoarding already before that could be done on-line.
ReplyDeleteAs such I have adopted all these nice new ways of connecting to people, trying to make it work for my small business now, more and more.
But at the same time it is posing an ever increasing burden on my very limited time - limited in that I need to do a lot of things within 24 hours, and limited in that I am not the youngest anymore. That in turn means a reduction in productivity, of sorts.
So I am at crossroads, wondering if I should continue with these sparkling nice internet 'toys', or just give up and be productive again instead?
But then, how would my customers know I am here ?????
Thanks for the feedback. I saw a great line yesterday; "If you are using a free service you are not the customer, you are the product." Much of the value of these social networks is the content the people themselves contribute. Lack of time or interest will quickly turn your attention elsewhere.
ReplyDeleteAs a postscript to my affinity to Foursquare, this short article appeared this morning : http://www.businessinsider.com/foursquare-facebook-2011-8 Looks like I picked the right horse in this race.