According to a Forrester of study US Online adults, only 4% have ever used location based applications. The report has some very interesting data [although the definition of Location Based Social Networks is mired in ambiguity. Content based location networks like Yelp and Where seem to be excluded.]. The predominantly male audience is talked about as an influencer, but also as a “drop in the bucket” compared to the effectiveness of the audience that interacts with SMS, mobile search and display media on WAP sites.

Two things bother me. First, Forrester is late to the party and just knocked over my lamp and let my out my cat. Second is the recommendation in the report called Location Based Social Networks Show a Hint of Mobile Engagement, which you can buy here.

“Forrester recommends that bold, male-targeted marketers start testing but that most marketers should wait until they can get a bigger bang for their buck, when adoption rates increase and established players emerge from the fray.”

– quoted from the report abstract.

Conversations and Engagement, Not Impressions and CTR

Since when is social media all about impressions? As someone who constantly encourages clients and prospects to think about the quality of their social media audience before the quantity, I find this recommendation to be rooted in paid media type thinking. This is earned media. We need to switch lenses and look at the audience again.

A Smaller, Yet More Engaged Audience of Influencers

The good news is that while the audience is small compare to Facebook users or Google users, it is growing very rapidly. This audience is also willing to activate. We know that they will fill their social graphs with checkins, offers, badges and other surprises. Their mean household income is $25,500 more than the average US online household, so in theory they have more spending power (assuming they are not concentrated in higher cost of living areas). They rely on their phones for information. They are 24% more likely to look to their phone before they make a purchase, 24% more likely to want to receive a relevant (text) message from a business, 23% more likely to use their phone to participate in a sweepstakes or contest and 22% more likely to text for a coupon or discount. In other words, these people are a marketer’s dream.

This is cutting edge stuff with a ton of potential. We have only seen small pockets of fully integrated campaigns (like USA Today) that uses paid media to drive people to a LBS app to spurn adoption and engage with the brand. Most of the growth is organic, through PR and events. It is still very new stuff and the fact that there are so many large and small vendors in the space is a detriment to more widespread adoption because there is still no de facto standard for checkins, although I think Foursquare has a shot at being it if they keep up their pace and continue to innovate and appeal to and keep the interest of people who are always hungry for more.

I understand that Forrester is a group of analysts and that they need to use their data to make what they feel is the best recommendation for their clientele, but given how smart they are, I would think there would be some suggestions on how to further the industry in the report. They themselves begin the article by calling the industry “nascent”, which is a perfect word, but what about loyalty (their example is Starbucks and a “startup LBSN”, what?)? White labeling opportunities? Contextual recommendations? Usefulness of checkin data? Where’s the future?

The thinking of these platforms is very “What’s next?”. Forrester’s, in this instance, “What’s now?”. My recommendation is to test into these platforms, collect and analyze data on your influencers and engage heavily with those who are engaging with you.

The speedy evolution of location based social networking and the flexibility of Foursquare have given birth to a new kind of social loyalty. Tasti DLite is one of the first companies to use the Foursquare API to create a program that is integrated with the customer’s social graph as well as their location. 
 

 
Here is how it works in a nutshell. If you join the Tasti DLite Tasti Treat Card loyalty program you get a loyalty card. Subsequently, every time you buy something you get a point for each dollar you spend. Fifty points gets you something for free. A customer can hook their card up to their Facebook, Twitter and Foursquare accounts and get bonus points for allowing the brand to access their social personas.
 
A customer can allow Tasti DLite to post to their Facebook or Twitter accounts to announce what they are doing and allow it to check them in on Foursquare. Each of these is then tallied as a bonus points which helps them reach 50 points faster. So the customer gets a passive Foursquare check in and can let their friends know that they are getting a deal at Tasti DLite.
 
The big question however is: “What will social media look like if every brand starts doing this? Could it become a Michael Bay movie?”
 

What do you think?

If you have not yet read about Whrrl’s interesting post check in experience yet, now would be a good time. If you have or you just want to march to the beat of a different drum, read on.

Whrrl has 3 primary goals, none of which they can accomplish without you:

1. creating community

2. causing people to do things

3. spreading ideas in a viral fashion.

But that said, they need you to be a very opinionated and direct version of you.

At Internet Week NY, I had a conversation with Gary Vaynerchuk about selling wine. He said, and I am paraphrasing, people would come into the store and ask for a recommendation on wine, let’s say Pinot Noir. I could point them to a bunch of good bottles in their price range and they may or may not buy one, but if I grab the bottle and say “Here. Try this one.” That’s usually pretty effective.

This conversation that stuck with me because I have long believed that people like to be told what to do. Convenience trumps trust until trust is broken, so if you can make things easy for them and you give them an experience that is valuable, they will trust you and look to you for more advice, products or services. So what does this have to do with Whrrl? Whrrl cannot talk on its own. It needs you to tell people what to do!

Pick places you are passionate about and start adding recommendations. Start your recommendations with an action verb. Whrrl is about helping people “get out of their social rut”. These folks are barely dragging their asses out of bed in the morning. You have to give them a reason to live! OK. It’s not like that, but they are asking you for ideas. Which of these makes you want to act?

Location: Lustre Pearl – Austin Texas

Cool place to have a drink.

OR

Play outdoor table tennis in the back near the camp fire.

So go to your favorite spots in the Whrrl application and start adding recommendations.  If your recommendations are good, people will click “Want”. Want adds them to their list of ideas. Think of it like a bucket list. “Did it” takes it off the list and tells the person who made the recommendation that the person completed the recommendation. They can then decide if they “recommend it” to give even more influence points. If your ideas are enticing, people will want / do / recommend them. This will level you up in society, your community, and you will eventually be recognized as an expert. Isn’t that all you ever wanted?

The check in is the least interesting part of the location based phenomenon. Look no further than Brightkite to see that an uninteresting post check in experience is a recipe for disaster. It is a shame really as Brightkite is not only beautiful, but the founders are smart technologists who got most of the idea right. It is fun to check in to see what is going to happen next, but as you provide more information including recommendations, photos and even purchases, you should see more in return. You are not only advocating, but if you are sharing what you are doing with your social graph, you are also providing free impressions.*  We know what happens if the post check in experience is a dud, but what about the other extreme?
 

 

Get Out of Your Social Rut

Whrrl is about getting you out of your “social rut”. The behaviors that you share with Whrrl factor heavily into what happens within the experience. Yes. Whrrl allows you to check in and you can see where your friends are just like on Foursquare and Gowalla, but it takes things to a different level.

The goals of Whrrl are to:

• Create communities
• Encourage people to act by giving them good ideas
• Viral spread

Using your check in behavior, Whrrl puts you into groups that they call societies. These societies are part of their segmentation model and keep the conversations on task. Often times when people join forums or groups, they begin by discussing a particular topic. Developer forums contain code discussion, parenting groups discuss everything from adoption to potty training, but as people become familiar with one another. But bonds form and conversations veer into other areas. Sure, it’s the sign of a good community when people feel comfortable with evolving their relationships, but it also makes it tough for newcomers to break into groups and it can change the original purpose of the community.

Whrrl Leverages Context

A: You check in to places.
B: Whrrl learns as you check in and places you in societies. Societies are groups of people with one common passion. Brands can sponsor societies, for example Red Bull has a society.

C: The people in the societies are also checking in to places. They are also making recommendations based on things that they like at the places they go. These become ideas.

D: You can make a list of things you want to do by clicking Want on recommendations that you find interesting. This also validates the person who made the recommendation and gives them influence points which levels them up in societies. Presumably, the people with the highest levels in societies know the most about that topic. You can add your own recommendations and help people find fun things to do and gain influence points. Who knows, you might make new friends in the process.

A Lot To Get Your Head Around

You had no idea it did all of that, did you? I did not either because, as I explained to Jeff Holden and team, there is a lot to do in Whrrl and much of it isn’t evident to anyone who is not willing to discover it on their own. I talked to some heavy social media users about Whrrl and gave them overviews of the tool. Many of them had no idea that Whrrl could do so many things. Part of the confusion is that Whrrl does not seem to want to stick with convention. Beyond use of the standard term “check in”, Whrrl has made attempts to introduce its own terms like “societies”. The big problem is that societies are crucial to the understanding of what Whrrl can do for you so if you do not understand what a society is or why you are being placed into them from the start, Whrrl seems confusing. Whrrl has some good explanations of what it can do for you, but they are pretty well hidden inside of the tool.

When you blaze a new trail, it can be tough to get people to go your way. There are a lot of ways to go once you get into Whrrl. I have covered about 80% of the functionality. There are some cool offer based features and a whole system that notifies you when things happen. Have you tried Whrrl? What is your impression? Is it your LBS of choice? If not, why not?
 
 
* Here is an example where tasty D lite rewards its customers for linking their social graph to their loyalty program.

Eat Drink and Be Social was an event by Dialogue Consulting. Thank you Tyson Goodridge for asking me to moderate Dennis Crowley, co-founder of Foursquare and CEO of Foodspotting, Alexa Andrzejewski.

Big thanks to Joselin Mane of BostonTweetUp.com for capturing and editing the video. Follow BostonTweetUp to find out about tweetups and events around Boston.

I used to do a lot of development, data warehouse and business intelligence work for a pharmaceuticals giant. During this time I learned a great deal about clinical trials, supply chain, HIPA, good development process, business intelligence and most importantly – the value of a day.

A Pharmaceuticals Analogy

For those of you who have never given big pharma much thought, consider that each time a company discovers a compound that they think will be useful to treat something, the clock starts ticking. In a nutshell, they need to patent the compound before anyone else does, run clinical trials to ensure that the compound will not kill anyone, document the effectiveness and the side effects, run results and literally truckloads of paperwork through the FDA, get the paperwork reviewed and approved and then they can market the drug. [Pharmaceuticals pros know that it is far more complicated than my summary!]

The problem is that patents on the compounds are not infinite and the company needs to get their meds into play for as long as possible before their exclusivity runs out and the generics come in with cheaper versions of the same thing. Insurance companies like to pay the cut rates for the generics. Therefore, a single day can cost a pharma company millions of dollars. This is why the industry is so cutthroat, fast paced and on edge.

I am looking at location based similarly from a “cost of a day” perspective. Foursquare and Gowalla and to a lesser exent Whrrl have enormous potential and also a set of hard problems. Dennis Crowley is on the cover of every magazine and out speaking everywhere to promote the product and that is working. I am not criticizing this nor do I want to spoil his amazing ride,* I just want to remind him and his counterparts of an ever looming threat.

The Giant is Going to Awaken

Facebook has been talking about getting into the location game soon. I thought it would happen at SXSW and I was wrong. It probably would have happened at D8 except that Mark Zuckerberg and company are a tad distracted right now by issues of privacy. I think that Crowley and fellow location based rock star, Josh Williams need to look at this as a stay of execution.

• Facebook has somewhere between 400 and 500 million active users.
• All other LBS combined have around 1/100th of Facebook’s user base
• Facebook has penetrated the main stream who largely still is either scared of or has no idea what a Gosquare is
• We do not have a clear picture of all of the services available on Foursquare, Gowalla, Whrrl, Brightkite, etc.
• Automation of services / self serve models do not yet exist or are as slow as molasses
• Business development teams are spread quite thin
• Case studies with ROI are few and far between

What’s going to happen

Here’s what I see happening. Facebook is going to get through this privacy thing. National Quit Facebook Day was a bust because people have no place else like Facebook to go. They have already made privacy easier to manage and now people seem to get that their data is not their own. Blogs like this one have documented what people are asking for in a Facebook alternative and identified the fact that they are going to have to pay for the bandwidth. Rumblings of Facebook entering the location game have been going on for months. Their developers are working on it as we speak and I would bet it is ready to roll out within hours of Zuckerberg saying “Go!” (pending Apple allowing an application update).

I am sure that Facebook will have all of the features that we like about LBS. They will probably have check ins and specials that are activated by check ins or by loyalty. They will probably have something like a scavenger hunt that unlocks a prize. They will have an element of randomness with their PCP (post checkin page) where you can unlock achievements (badges / pins) or win prizes. (I am supposing all the aforementioned. Do not treat as fact.)

The Top Priority

The thing that the big 3 need to solve before Facebook gets into the game is ease of activation. They need to clearly state how to validate that a location belongs to the business owner and make this a speedy process. They need to tell marketers and brands exactly how to activate. We need to know what are the exact services they provide, what is the lead time and how much they cost. And they need to do this soon because there is really only two good, clean business case on LBS right now, by AJ Vaynerchuk and company at Vaynermedia and another by the Fleishman Hilliard team for Cheverolet.

Facebook will treat this like a revenue stream. Their LBS version 1 will go online with a method of business activation, tiered levels of service and a pricing model. They have the benefit of seeing where Gowalla and Foursquare are succeeding and where they are failing, plus they have the mainstream users on their site who do not need to be convinced to use a new app and build up a new social graph, rather they can just use the one they already have.

There goes the neighborhood

With Facebook on the scene, the openness of data is compromised. The current tools are reasonably open via the API or at least via data providers like SimpleGeo. Facebook’s data is harder to aggregate and will be less accessible. Facebook will be the ones enjoying an increased ability to target their user base and marketers will benefit because they will be able to take advantage of this new data stream as long as they want to use Facebook to do so.

So move quick Big 3! Fix your funnel. Make it clear how to activate. The value of a day for you, like big pharma, is extraordinary.

*I like Crowley. He’s dynamic, smart, confident, funny and a good sport. He has never given me shit for coining the #failsquare hashtag and he is fantastic at answering the hard questions in a public forum.

We already know that people love to share information with family, friends and stalkers, the biggest proof point is Facebook with more users than there are Americans.

Evolution from Information to Intelligence

The tools, which initially were just focused on spreading pictures, messages and videos are evolving into data streams that can be useful for businesses and not just for advertising. User experience designers live at the intersection of data and creativity. Their designs are increasingly exposing more hierarchical, semantic data. In other words, they are becoming more readable by programs and algorithms and that makes them more useful overall. The challenge of data architects and a user experience designers is to strike a balance between flexibility and overall usefulness.

Business Intelligence tools have many important distinctions. Two of these are that they allow business users to answer questions that are relevant to their goals and they allow them to explore the data to answer the questions  by answering the initial questions. We used to use terms like cubes, hierarchies and slicing and dicing, but it’s better to just do these things without making users need to think about the functionality.

Foodspotting as a Unique Social Network

In FoodSpotting I can follow people, dishes and places because of a well managed taxonomy. That’s right. You can follow content just like people! This allows me to:

• keep track of foods my friends like
• make new friends and learn about new places via dishes that I like
• learn about dishes that inspire people in places that I like or want to try

Foodspotting as a Business Intelligence Tool

Questions can be answered like:

• Who likes my restaurant?
• What do they like about my restauraunt?
• What are the most popular dishes at my restaurant?
• Where else do the people who like my restaurant like to go?
• What dishes do they like at the other places?
• Who likes my competitor?
• What dishes do they like at my competitor?
• Do they like my restaurant too?
• How is my dish different from other versions on the dish?

Furthermore, most users are freely sharing their twitter accounts via Foodspotting. So now you can engage them and find out what it is that struck them about your dish and maybe even offer them an entree, side or (frosty, malt) beverage for their trouble. There’s your collision of business intelligence and social media. Now, about that beer…

What else can I do with Foodspotting?

I caught this article on Mark Zuckerberg’s privacy settings via Julia Roy. And while Zuckerberg may be both cavalier and pompous, so is the community. Look at their sense of entitlement. Please let this serve as a friendly reminder: Facebook is free.

Facebook is Free

The community is complaining about free software, free software that is doing what it says it is going to do. Facebook tells you that they can use your persona to target you and that developers can use it to build applications to serve you. That’s the point. That is how they make money. And let me remind you again, you have not paid a dime for Facebook. The terms of use clearly outline the default privacy. Yes, they change them a lot without asking -WHICH IS TOTALLY SLIMY- but they are pretty good about telling you they changed them. It really is your responsibility to read what you’ve accepted and you do not until someone who has posts something on your wall telling you what they have read. And If you think what they are doing is sleazy, then leave, but first you may want to consider what you would be leaving for.

Do People Want a Facebook Alternative?

Maybe. People say they want more control of their data, but I am not convinced that even Diaspora, the open source, privacy aware, alleged Facebook killer is what people are asking for. This is just based on their video, but it sounds like it is just another version of Facebook, except more righteous and secure.

Ilya from Diaspora says: “No longer will you be at the whims of these large corporate networks who want to tell you that sharing and privacy are mutually exclusive because it will be your node.” Someone has to pay for that. What’s the catch? There’s only $175,121 in kickstarter donations to date thus far. When it collapses under the weight of a lack of revenue model, people will be running back to their free Facebook accounts.

Here is what I think the screaming community means to ask for:

A write once, use anywhere (portable) “digital locker” that carries standard profile information, your content, your locations, your connections and your fully customizable security policy.

There are a host of problems that need to be solved. First major problem is that a W3C-like standard needs to be implemented for the digital locker class and the associated API. Developers need to have something to develop against and a standard convention will make it easy for new developers to understand the possibilities while existing applications bring themselves up to speed.

Money and attention seem to have opened the eyes of Diaspora even wider because they have, according to their blog, decided to implement some new standards like OStatus. But it’s probably just scratching the surface of what they really need to do.

The biggest problem here is that the complainers will need to manage their own security models. There will be default models that can be chosen to pass to any application that you sign up for, but I would bet most people won’t take the time to create and manage security on an application by application basis. It’s not easy.

Also, somebody has to pay for the space you are using. Will it be you?

• Are you willing to leave Facebook for a pay option?
• What has Facebook done to violate the Terms of Use?
• Are you willing to spend the time managing security policies between apps and other people’s digital lockers in your own digital locker?

Loren Feldman of 1938media and I were chatting about Facebook’s arrogance and the irresponsible way that they handle your privacy. Facebook clearly has their own agenda and wants to advance their cause at the expense of their user community. Every time they release something new it is greeted with shock, surprise and a lot of bitching from their base.

AOL does not have the aforementioned annoyances, but they aren’t perfect either. They have a whole host of other [very fixable] problems.

Feldman is spot on about using their ICQ dollars to do campaigns that showcase their thoughts on privacy and frankly what they have to offer. Check out his video on what AOL needs to do to kick Facebook’s ass. Yes, the solutions to their problems come mostly through marketing and redesign. The infrastructure is there, but so is the ick.

 
 

 
 

AOL has The Ick

What ick? The portal ick. AOL is not known as a social networking space. It is a portal and it has the ick of a portal in its design. AOL is PACKED full of awesome stuff, but it’s as hard to find stuff there as it is to find soccer on ESPN.com. The best social media sites make their functionality easy enough for a drunk monkey to find.

AOL gets the aforementioned first point for sure. They know that in order to beat Facebook or at least steal market share that they need to have the same functionality without the privacy problems and flat-out lack of attention to the voice of the customer. AOL developers are smart and their systems are sound, but the second point, the point about the drunk monkey, this is where they struggle.

Privacy

They also get something that Facebook clearly does not get. Users want to be protected. They want to feel safe and secure when they go online. Most AOL help includes both help with problems and quickly addresses privacy issues. It’s transparent. It’s up front because it’s not an issue. For example from the AOL lifestream beta help, the 5th question starts a whole section on privacy:

• Who can see my AOL Lifestream?
• How do I manage my privacy settings?
• Who can comment or like my posts?
• How do I keep my updates from showing up in search results?
• etc

What they Need to Gain Share

AOL needs to fork their experience into 2 different, separate entry points. Keep the portal experience for people who like portals. Portals are just content aggregators. They try to be everything on one page and they are really confusing, but at least you can customize them. Let the user choose the default experience, but give them a social network type experience as well. The components are all there. There are status updates, games, AOL is the king of chat, buddies, there is content and now they have an activity stream called lifestream.aol.com. Lifestream is a really good start, but they need to find a way to elegantly incorporate the other stuff into it to win. The portal has ways to use Twitter, Facebook, AIM and some other stuff without leaving. That needs to be a part of the lifestream. Content Strategists and UX people can solve this stuff easily. I know just the people.

 
 

 
 

This should be a separate post, but the lifestream has a bunch of things that Buzz is lacking, most notably the ability to filter content based on channel and type. How novel!

So here’s what they need: 1) Design changes that incorporate stuff they already have into the lifestream platforms. 2) A kick ass marketing program – that educates people on what AOL has- because a lot of people only remember “You’ve Got Mail” and those shlocky CDs in the mail. Focusing on privacy and the fact that leaving Facebook doesn’t lose you anything are AOLs keys to (re)gaining significant share. The game companies follow suit and the next thing you know we are complaining about Farmville on AOL – or are we? It is already pretty easy to filter the stuff we don’t want out of the lifestream.

What else am I missing?

The Gowalla iPad app is beautiful. The experience on the iPad is fluid and gorgeous and is a cool showcase for the devices capabilities. The biggest difference is the appearance of the icons on the map. It shows you the Gowalla identified locations in the area. You can click on the icons and get information on activity and see photos. It’s beautiful.

Next Release

Of course I cannot help but make suggestions. I am sure this stuff is on the road map, but here goes:
I want search. I just got it in the iPhone app and I cannot live without it any longer. That said, I do not want to use it to simply find a nearby point of interest. I want Gowalla to allow me to set a location as my location regardless of whether I am there or not. This way I can explore places with Gowalla prior to going to the location. It would also be very cool if I could toggle some indicators on the icons such as number of unique visitors, checkins and photos. This takes Gowalla from checkin tool to a business intelligence tool which could then evolve. I can imagine being able to overlay check ins by segment like application use and check in type (for example: people who check in to restaurants).

What would you like to see in the Gowalla iPad application?