Checking in just got fun

I know I’m a little late in joining the social media tool Foursquare, but that’s because I didn’t fully understand it until recently. I had always thought of it as shared GPS where everyone in the “foursquare world” knew exactly where you were at all times. A little creepy if you ask me. Then in my COMM 3309 class, one of my peers shared that there are deals that are exclusive for Foursquare users. As a college student there aren’t many things that I enjoy more than staying up all night writing papers. But I do love a good deal. I have accounts with all the major on-line deal sites (Groupon and Living Social) in multiple cities, I use Foursquare for exclusive deals and now I’m a member of Facebook Deals. Sometimes I feel like I’m a coupon cutting mom, but without the mom jeans.

Since one of my majors is business, I am prone to looking at things from a business perspective; and Foursquare is no different. I think it is a great tool in driving new customers to your business. This social media tool, allows exclusive specials that could persuade a new customer to try the service, and hopefully create repeated business. I know that if I was thinking about a place to eat, I would be more inclined to try the restaurant that would give me a 10% discount.

One of the biggest concerns with Foursquare is “who can see my check-ins?” Foursquare’s network is created though friendship requests. Therefore, you have complete control over who can see your check-ins. I’ve only been on Foursquare for a couple of weeks; however, I don’t pay that much attention to where my friends are checking into. I might be more interested if I saw a check-in at a location that I had never heard of before because it might be a place that I would like to try. However, seeing were everyone is at all times isn’t my primary concern. This is due to the point system on the social media application. Every time you check-in, you earn points. Points are used to compete against your friends for the top spot. My competitive side loves this part of the application. If you check-in to a new location, you earn more points. This prompts any user to go to (and try) new places. This is another reason why businesses should have foursquare specials to drive business because foursquare users want to try new places.

Of course, foursquare isn’t the only check-in application available. Here is a list of the other apps:

Gowalla: Gowlla is very similar to Foursquare. This app is focused on building your “passport”. The passport is a collection of stamps that you earn from places that you go. As the website puts is “it’s pretty much like stamping your passport in real life. Only without the jetlag and customs forms.” Like Foursquare, Gowalla allows users to connect and share images with their Facebook and Twitter friends. Users can also view their friend’s locations on a computer and on their phones. From what I learned from the site is that Gowalla uses their references of National Geographic and USA Today to help guide their users in International locations. The application also issues “pins” that are added to their stamps when they complete different achievements. All of a user’s friends on this site can see the each other’s stamps and pins.

Google Latitude: Google is trying to expand their brand by going into the check-in app business too. Google Latitude offers users to see where their friends are on a map in real time. It is also the only app that allows users to control privacy settings for each friend. This could be Google’s solution to fix the “creepy” factor that is associated with checking-in. This app has special features only available for the iPhone and Android, while the other sites offer universal features for most smartphones. What I found unique about Google Latitude is “background updating.” This is a feature that will automatically check users in, even if the app is closed. The only problem I see with this is that many locations are in close together and can the app tell which store you are in? Google Latitude also offers exclusive deals. However, if you only use background updating, then how will you know if you earned a deal?

Facebook: Of course, if it’s a trend in the world of social media, there will be a version of it on Facebook. The popular social media site has the most basic of all the check-in apps. Facebook allows a user to tag friends they are with and it appears on their wall. By having the post appear on a user’s wall, it promotes their friends to post comments for “like” the check-in. However, for this site, there are no deals that can be unlocked, pictures to share, or points/stamps to earn. In my opinion, the app on Facebook is for beginners who don’t know about the other social media sites and apps.

Whrrl: Whrrl was another app that focused on creating societies through check-ins. I will not go into much more detail because Whrrl was bought out by Groupon and the site is being shut down. I wonder if Groupon will use the technology to create a new check-in app.

I think checking-in is an interesting trend. It opens doors for users to try new places that they wouldn’t try otherwise. Also, I think that the database that these sites have on all check-in users would provide vital information to marketing companies about the specific habits of a target market.

Since this technology isn’t widely used yet (I’m the only one out of my closest friends that uses Foursquare) specials are not offered at every business. But if we all started to use this technology, do you think that more companies would be inclined to offer specials?

To all of you who still think that this technology is creepy, think about this: our locations are already being tracked by companies through the GPS capabilities on our phones, so why not use one of these apps and at least have some fun with it? What do you have to lose?