Social Media and Web Marketing Coaching

One of my fascinations with the latest version of the IPhone was an app called “Foursquare“.  I constantly see updates on Twitter about someone checking in at a location around town, maybe a restaurant or coffee shop, using this app.

Ok, so how does Foursquare work?  The idea is that the app helps you explore your own city or a new place you might be checking out, using the internal GPS system.  You can let your friends know where you are by “checking in“. Each time you check in,  you earn points. Ultimately, the idea is if you earn a certain amount of points or checkins, it can add up to badgets or free food/perks and becoming a mayor of certain bars/restaurants. (I’m still not clear on what advantages a mayor has, please email me if you know.)

On the flip side, if you own a bar or restaurant, Foursquare wants to help you to connect with your customers buy rewarding points.  As a restaurant, for example, you could offer a free appetizer or drink after someone’s 3rd checkin and any other kind of promotion you can think of. I’ve only noticed a few places around Portland giving discounts so I’m not sure if it’s a working model.

I’ve noticed how easy it is to check in to any place if you are in the vicinity. When I first used the app to do a “checkin”, it searched for the nearby businesses in the vicnity of around a few miles. There’s nothing preventing me from checking in to all of these businesses except my honesty.  Cheating, to me, seems like it could be a potential issue -  here’s an interesting article about how one guy learned to hack his way through Foursquare http://techcrunch.com/2010/02/16/foursquare-cheating/

What does the future hold for Foursquare - it sounds like they’ve made an interesting deal with Zagat  (http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/02/09/foursquare-inks-a-deal-with-zagat/) which hopefully will launch into a better situation and could provide some groundwork on taking their business to the next level.

Wow, it’s the end of a decade! What does the future hold? I read somewhere that in just the last 3 years technology has advanced more compared to just the last 15 years. Whoa, that’s a huge amount of data and knowledge! Here’s my predictions of social media in 2010:

1. Mobile gets bigger -  Smart phones and apps will become more stable and allow folks to connect to their social media accounts while they are traveling or away from the computer.

2. Consolidation -  Mashups of different accounts, we saw Twitter and LinkedIn come together, I can only imagine seeing more of that kind of relationship.

3. More video - There will be a bigger push for viral video as businesses want to share and excite new customers with new products. How many of the videos that  become popular is anyone’s guess.

4. Location based Social Networks - Have you heard of Foursquare? Maybe not yet, but with GPS as a common function of Smart Phones, folks can now let others know where to find them, whether it’s out for a drink or at the gym.

5. Reputation Management - Want to know what your customers are saying about you? More tools will help businesses track all data around the good/bad reviews they receive on different platforms.