Facebook "friends" Gowalla to bolster location features

It's no secret that Facebook, despite its social media prowess, has struggled in the location-based social networking. It's Facebook Places feature has been underwhelming to say the least, and is far from a Foursquare-killer.

In what appears to be an effort to possibly grow that location-based service, Facebook announced today that it bought out Gowalla. Facebook has already said that the Gowalla management team will be integrated into Facebook's staff, and the service will be shut down in January.

Seeing as how Gowalla is was the third biggest player in the location-based game, it's safe to say that it is now a two-horse race between Facebook and Foursquare.

However, Gowalla made it clear that Facebook didn't buy any user data, and that existing users will be able to export their information before the shutdown.

It will be interesting to see what direction both companies go now that they are dominating the market, given that the social media buzz hasn't been surrounding location-based marketing for some time now.

Foursquare 3.0 Checks In

In what has become a South by Southwest tradition, Foursquare has released the third version of their location-based platform in time for the hugely popular festival.

The timing of the release was a smart move, because Foursquare was really able to hit the ground running in 2009 because of the heavy adoption and integration with SXSW.

Here's the basic breakdown of what you need to know about Foursquare 3.0:

• Exploring your options: Replacing the 'Tips' tab, a new 'Explore' tab offers recommendations to users, broken down into 5 categories: Food, coffee, nightlife, shops, and arts/entertainment. This seems to be the focal point of the upgrade because it will allow users to use Foursquare outside of the initial checkin.
• Making checkins pay off: Foursquare has partnered with American Express to make it easier to be rewarded for checking in to certain places. Basically, you register your AmEx card and then get access to automatic savings specials when the card is swiped at supported locations. The caveat here is that this is definitely experimental and will only run from this Friday to Tuesday the 15th.
• Feeling special: Lastly, Foursquare has retooled their merchant specials by segmenting and categorizing them in an effort to make it easier for merchants to get involved with the specials features. The different types of specials are:
• Flash Specials - the first person or group of people to checkin after a certain time get a discount or reward.
• Friends Specials - Checking in with a smaller group Foursquare friends gets you the deal
• Swarm Specials - Large group checkins get special discounts and rewards.
• Newbie Specials - The first time you check in at a certain venue gets you a discount.
• Mayor Specials - The classic Foursquare special where being the mayor of a place gets you a discount.

Overall, these seem like strong improvements, although Foursquare is still combating Facebook Places and generally low adoption rates for location-based services as a whole. However, I do like that Foursquare is looking beyond the checkin to get more merchants involved and attempt to establish Foursquare as more than just the service you use to check in to places to get badges.

What If Foursquare Check-ins Determined Oscar Winners?

Now that Oscar night has come and gone, the tidal wave of movie-related articles from around the blogosphere should start to subside. Of course, that will be after everyone posts their Academy Awards reactions to the online masses.

And while I'm glad that there were no surprise winners (longtime front-runners The King's Speech, Black Swan, and The Social Network deservedly took home a lot of the Oscar gold), I found an interesting infographic on TechCrunch this morning.

The infographic shows the movies with the most check-ins during their opening weekend, as well as the movies with the most check-ins by males, females and couples. This begs the question:

What if Foursquare check-ins determined Oscar winners?

Simply put: it would be different. Very different.

The top three checked-in movies last year for males were:

• Iron Man 2
• Kick-Ass
• Inception

For females, the top three checked-in movies last year were:

• Twilight: Eclipse
• Harry Potter
• Sex and the City 2

And lastly, the top three checked-in movies last year for couples were:

• The Social Network
• The King's Speech
• Gulliver's Travels

Notice anything peculiar about that list? Aside from the surprisingly stereotypical gender skew, only 1/3 of the movies on that list won any Oscars at all. And whether these results are do to the age demographic using Foursquare or statistical anomaly, this list is exactly why the have professionals choose the best movies of the year.

32% of Local Businesses Use Facebook Places

Due to its low price point (free), Facebook is obviously a route that many small, local businesses have wanted to pursue in a still-recovering economy.

But Facebook-adoption rates among those local businesses is actually much higher than I would've guessed, with a recent MerchantCircle report showing that 70% of local businesses are using the world's largest social network.

While 70% may not seem like a completely overwhelming number given how prevalent Facebook is nowadays, it's still a 20% increase from last year. That's a significant jump, and a sign of where small business marketing priorities are.

Another interesting stat from the report is that 32% of local businesses are utilizing the Facebook Places check-in feature, while 9% use Foursquare. At first glance, this appears to be simply Facebook Places outpacing Foursquare. However, I see two takeaways here:

1. Facebook's stature and popularity are paving the way for new users to enter the location-based arena, making Facebook Places a desirable option for location-based marketing.
2. Marketing and business interest in location-based marketing is much larger than general consumer interest. All of the statistics I've seen on location-based networking point to an adoption rate right around 5-8%, which is less than the usage rate by local businesses and much less than their use of Facebook Places.

All in all, this is great news for location-based networking as a whole. If the numbers in this report are correct, about 40% of local businesses are utilized location-based services. So although the general population isn't using it as much, that number could grow.

Foursquare's Nip/Tuck

Not content to stop at just adding new badges, Foursquare continues to roll out updates. This time, they've cleaned up their website with what they themselves called "a little nip and tuck."

The emphasis of the update centers on friend management. The home page now features a Twitter-style stream of your friends' recent checkins and accomplishments. There's also a big "Find Friends" button at the top of the page.

This "Find Friends" feature is perhaps the biggest update to the website, and the most needed. This feature allows you to pull contacts from Gmail, Facebook and Twitter to add as Foursquare friends. Location-based networks like this are much more fun with more friends and a larger network, so streamlining the process of adding friends should bolster users' networks and foster more frequent use.

Managing your network is also a lot easier on the website now, because you can see which friends you have in common with other friends or potential friends. This alleviates the hesitation of adding Foursquare friends you don't know at all.

This is a good move by Foursquare because before this, there hasn't been much use for the website with so much focus on its mobile utility. Also, a more popular website opens up more monetization and advertising options should Foursquare choose to go down that road.

So although these updates are in their early stages, the overall opinion of this little location-based facelift seems to be very positive. Hopefully, this streamlined and improved friend management platform will give the Foursquare website a much-needed identity and purpose.

Switching Teams: Why Facebook Places Might be Worth a Second Look

Without a doubt, the office favorite here at Axiom is Foursquare. If any of us use Facebook Places, it's rare and infrequent--in opposition to some staffers' obsessions with checking in daily on Foursquare. First Facebook took MySpace, then it took our beloved chatting services MSN & AOL, and now we're about to witness its first real attempt to take down our favorite location-based social network.

So what did Facebook Places do to make us take a closer look? They combined it with our nation's newest obsession: local deals. Simply titled "Deals," the service will provide four different special offers available only through Facebook Places. Individual Deals will offer a single deal just for you, while Friend Deals will allow you and a buddy to be in on the savings. Loyalty Deals will be similar to Foursquare Mayorships for frequent customers, and Charity Deals will allow you to donate to a particular cause.

And of course, in true Facebook fashion, every time you cash in on a deal it pops up on your newsfeed.

What does this all boil down to? Where Foursquare held the monopoly in the location-based marketing arena, they now have a direct deals competitor with a social networking giant. Sure, Facebook doesn't have the bragging rights that can only come from a legit Foursquare Mayorship, but with brands like Chipotle and GAP already signing onto Facebook Deals, there might be reason to switch.

Virtually Fired

Some of you may remember this summer’s run-in with Axiom’s own Foursquare Cheater. Some unknown user had checked into the Axiom offices often enough to steal the mayorship from an employee.

It just so happens this employee is very competitive and did not appreciate the virtual lies.

After a few emails to Foursquare urging them to reconsider their security system, we finally learn that they’ve granted businesses the authority to fire fake mayors. According to Foursquare representatives: 

Yesterday we gave verified business owners the ability to oust a Mayor if they have reason to believe the Mayorship was not gained through legitimate check-ins. If a Mayor is flagged by a business owner, they’ll be removed from office immediately and the next user in line will take over as Mayor.

That’s right. Businesses can now go all Donald Trump over cheaters, given they’re paying enough attention to know who’s legitimate and who isn’t. Even though this hardly matters for an office such as Axiom, I imagine it will cause quite a stir amongst bars and restaurants that are offering mayoral perks. But what happens if a newly-fired mayor was let go by mistake? What if the next in line causes a fuss over the legitimacy of a mayorship? Will businesses need to listen to this back-and-fourth rivalry to ensure their mayors are authentic?

Even though I was able to earn the Axiom mayorship back by old school check-ins, I don’t know if firing mayors is helping or hurting the issue. Nothing says 'don’t patronize my business' more than virtually getting fired.

Foursquare Adds a Dose of Duper with New Swarm Badges

When I first signed up for Foursquare, my sole mission was to unlock the once-elusive Super Swarm Badge. I still remember hitting refresh over and over as I watched the number of other people checking in slowly grow until at last it peaked at 253 people.

But the pride I felt for that 250-person accomplishment dwindled with each subsequent check in at a baseball game (with 300 other people), concert (400 other people) or music festival (with over 600 people checking in).

Every one of those massive check ins made my just-barely-qualifying 253 person check in seem downright puny, and I longed for Foursquare to add some new Swarm badges.

Finally, my location-based prayers have been answered with the introduction of Super Duper and Epic Swarm Badges. The Super Duper Swarm Badge is for groups of 500 users checking in at the same place and the Epic Swarm Badge is for when 1,000 or more users get together.

With a user base just hitting 4 million and growing fast, it seemed it would only be a matter of time before we saw larger Swarm Badges.

Now I just need a ticket to SXSW and I'll be all set, because you can be sure Foursquare is anxious to make a big return to the event that launched it to the forefront of location-based social networking.

McDonald's Supersizes Results, But Leaves A Bad Taste In Our Mouths

Creativity is nice, but the true measure of a campaign is results. And when McDonald's boasted ridiculously-good numbers from their Foursquare campaign back in April, marketing and social media professionals perked up their collective ears.

However, McDonald's claims are based on one wildly inaccurate premise. I'll lay out what happened, and I'm sure you'll see where things take a hard left turn.

The promotion: Foursquare users who checked-in at McDonald's on 4/16 were entered for a chance to win McDonald's gift cards.

The results: McDonald's reported a 33% increase in foot traffic because of this promotion.

The problem: McDonald's head of social media stated that they considered Foursquare check-ins the same as in-store foot traffic. Right there is that hard left turn I alluded to three paragraphs ago.

Anyone who has any experience in either marketing or social media is probably shaking their head, and understandably so. Check-ins are about as similar to foot traffic as spam accounts are to actual friends or followers.

The fundamental flaw here is that users don't have to be in McDonald's to check-in, meaning there was probably a large, if not huge, percentage of that so-called spike in foot traffic who were nowhere near a McDonald's (trust me, we have experience with this kind of dilemma here at Axiom). It's entirely possible that someone could have been eating at Burger King while checking-in to McDonald's trying to win a gift card.

So, intentional or not, this a clear case of misreporting on McDonald's part. And while it's not an egregious, prison-worthy offense, McDonald's has set themselves up for criticism and have taken a hit to their social media credibility.

But who knows, maybe McDonald's was trying to unlock some "Social Media Blunder" badge I don't know about.

Time for a Pep-Talk, Foursquare

Listen Foursquare, I know you've been keeping an eye on the launch of Facebook Places and you probably haven't liked the headlines you've seen, with everyone out there is saying your days are numbered. But you need to take a deep breath...and exhale. Good, now let's talk this out.

First off, remember that you're top dog in the location-based arena, and it's because of your success that Facebook is taking location-based sharing seriously as a social networking medium (and even paying homage to you with their Facebook Places logo). So my advice? Stay positive, look in the mirror, and give yourself a Jessica-style pep talk.

Sure, Facebook Places has 500 million users at their disposal. And yeah, they've done a solid job of integrating the new service into their site. I know you've tried to avoid competing directly with Facebook, but the sleeping giant has woken up and yes, it will give you some tough competition.

But you do have a few things going for you. I like how you partnered with Facebook right out of the gate. Do I think dedicated Foursquare users will use it? Probably not, but it's smart to have the option.

More importantly, even though Facebook will introduce geolocation to a wider audience, the early adopters and the truly engaged users have already established loyalty with an existing location-based network, which for most people is you.

So remember Foursquare, just because Facebook is checking in to the location-based networking doesn't necessarily mean you'll be surrendering you're mayorship on that market anytime soon.

Check-in Cheaters

Cheaters. They existed in elementary school, and since we’re still playing Foursquare, they exist now. I came into work this morning with this not-so-lovely email from Foursquare.

Let me explain why this is so confusing. There are only about a dozen of us who work at Axiom on a daily basis. We have some out-of-staters, some who work from home and some who are simply not here every day.

My Foursquare competitors are limited to the three people in my office who have Foursquare and use it on a daily basis –  Principal Mike Ferrara, Project Manager Stephanie Lopato and Intern Steve Retka. I took the mayorship from Stephanie early on, and Steve and Mike are still new so they don’t have the ability to catch up.

So imagine my surprise when I lost my mayorship to Matt. Who’s Matt? There’s no Matt that works here. We don’t have a client named Matt. I see every single person that walks into our office everyday, so it’s not as though someone has the ability to come to our office 27 times in the past 60 days without someone noticing. For the record, Matt has 102 mayorships. Something tells me we’re not the only victims of his ambitions.

My question is this. Why does he check into Axiom when he’s clearly not here? Why does he want the mayorship? What’s the motivation to lie about checking into a venue that has no perks for their mayors? And the big question: Why doesn’t Foursquare have a “report” option for us to alert them of cheaters?

Before I wrote this blog post I began some initial topic brainstorming via Twitter. While some provided some helpful ideas on how to confront the cheater, my favorite response was from an old college friend of mine.

Talk about food for thought. Am I the only one who cares this much about the integrity of the game? If you’re wondering, yes I am “that girl” who will pull out the Scrabble Dictionary if you lay down a questionable word.

Am I missing the fun of Foursquare by following the rules, or am I justified in my wanting to reprimand the cheater?

Yelp-ing You Find Deals

Despite being relatively young, Foursquare has quickly surpassed competing location-based networks like Gowalla and Yelp.

Neither one seems content to go down without a fight, however. Yelp especially has tried to evolve, including the introduction of badges and a ruling system similiar to Foursquare mayorships. And yesterday, Yelp announced they are testing a deal-a-day coupon feature similiar to Groupon.

I really like this move, seeing as how Yelp is already well-established as a location-based network. That means that branching out into a deal-a-day service seems like a smart fit, because they can offer more localized deals without running into as many of the logistical problems that a startup company would.

Innovation is key in this type of social media market, and Yelp is the first of the three big location-based networks to adopt this sort of hybrid location/coupon method.

More importantly, this not only provides competition for Groupon, but could do wonders to help it compete with Gowalla and Foursquare for the location-based crown.

3 Takeaways From Today's Java Meet Up 612

This morning Sara and I went to the Java Meet Up 612 (@jmu612) in Minneapolis for a discussion about social gaming's impact on marketing, with guest speakers Christopher Lower and Mark Hurlburt.

It was a great discussion, with a few eye opening statistics and points made. And since I enjoyed it so much, I thought I'd share some of them here.

53% of adults, 81% of people ages 18-29, and 97% of teens are self-described gamers.

The numbers here don't lie. If you've wondered whether or not gaming is a viable marketing tool, the sheer number of people who utilize it shows its potential.

The average gamer is a 29 year old woman.

That's who you would get if you were to combine the average demographics for gamers. This stat surprised me the most, because I assumed the average gamer would be younger and likely a male.

This just goes to show that gamers who grew up with gaming have continued playing into adulthood. Also, the fact that the demographic has shifted to women illustrates the impact of social gaming.

90% of Foursquare tips, comments and reviews are positive.

This one was obviously more specific than the other stats, but Foursquare is the hottest trend in social gaming right now and needed to be addressed. There's all sorts of reasons why that number may be as high as it is, but it definitely sheds light on the possible applications of Foursquare in marketing.

There was a lot of other great insight and stats offered at the Java Meet Up 612 today, way more than I can cover in one post. I'd highly suggest going to the next one, as well as checking out their @jmu612 Twitter Feed.

Clinging To Those Mayorships

We all know about Foursquare's meteoric rise to fame, but here's something that was a bit a shock. According to Compete.com, the number of unique visitors in May dropped by 400,000.

Now I'm sure those numbers will vary between different web analytics services, not to mention the fact that it doesn't take into account actual users or registrations.

But Foursquare might be feeling the pressure, especially looking at their latest move.

The location-based social network sent out window clings to businesses to display in their storefronts, reminding people to check in. The most prominent franchise set to display these window clings is the Whole Foods grocery chain.

I can't say whether or not this latest promotion is a reaction to their drop in numbers, but the timing makes sense. Now we'll just have to wait and see how well this offline move helps the online startup.

Follow the Leader (or Mayor)

Over the weekend, Yelp announced that they would be adding the ability to earn badges and "rule" a location if you check into it more than anyone else.

Sound familiar? Well it should, because it seems that Yelp is borrowing heavily from their main competitor: Foursquare.

Some people will view these latest changes by Yelp as competitive, while others will just look at it as copycat tactics.

But what I see is the idea of "badges" and "mayorship/ruling" becoming not only an integral part of location-based social networking, but that Foursquare will be the monitored more and more by current location-based services and future startups as well.

We saw this same thing in 2006.

That was when Facebook was launched globally, utilizing a few major social media concepts like "friending" and "status updates" that the general public really seemed to connect with.

The meteoric rise of Facebook that followed caused every other struggling social network to start copying what Facebook was doing in hopes of achieving that same level of success.

Just like that, Facebook became the gold standard of friend-based social networking.

Fast-forward to 2010, and Yelp's transparent attempt to surpass their biggest rival could actually solidify Foursquare as the top location-based social network, giving it that same gold standard status Facebook acheived in 2006.

Bueller...Bueller...Bueller...

If you read the title of this post with a deadpan tone, then you know exactly what movie I'm talking about.

Ferris Bueller's Day Off was an awesome movie about a kid and his friends who ditch school and spend the day in Chicago seeing the sights and having a blast.

Seriously, what kid didn't want to be Ferris Bueller?

Well even though the movie came out in 1986, fans can still experience their own day off Ferris-style in Chicago.

Chicago's Tourism Department, called Explore Chicago, has put together a really cool promotion that lets Foursquare users to earn a badge for reliving the events in Ferris Bueller's Day Off by checking in at designated spots listed on the Explore Chicago website.

If a user checks in to all of the listed locations, they'll earn Explore Chicago's On Location Foursquare Badge.

The only other prerequisite is that the user follows Explore Chicago on Foursquare, which is a smart move that should increase their Foursquare traffic and following.

Maybe it's just because I'm such a big fan of the movie, but I think this is a very clever promotion that users will actually want to participate in. And if the badge isn't incentive enough, there's always the bragging rights of being more Ferris Bueller-y than your friends.

Helping Frenimies Connect

At the core of social media, the goal has always been to connect. MySpace began as a way for emerging bands to connect with fans, Facebook connected college classmates and Twitter connects, well, everyone.

It was only a matter of time before someone realized that all this connecting might have us too close to those we’d rather not be so close with. Meet the anti-social media platform Avoidr.

It’s exactly what you think it is. According to the site, it utilizes Foursquare to “keep your friends close and your enemies at that bar down the street.” Which raises the question as to why your enemies would be connected with you on Foursquare in the first place, but for those who friend anyone and everyone—you know who you are—this might actually be a useful tool.

So how does it work? Link it up with your Foursquare account and decide exactly who you don’t want to run into. For this test I singled out my coworker, @slopato. Specifically, I called her a phony.

The site should let me know where she checked in so I know to avoid it, but so far the only message I’ve seen is something along the lines of, “All clear! You've got the run of the town.”

Has the site been working for you or is giving you a false sense of security like I’m getting? Or if you haven’t tried it yet, do you think there’s a need for this type of platform? Do you feel the need to connect with your frenimies?

Workplace Mayors - Winners or Losers?

Yesterday Foursquare mayorship surfaced as part of our office “social media updates” also known as “guess what just happened.” The blog post looked at who held mayorship at large magazines. For example, outreach editor Zach Seward is holding on to Wall Street Journal mayorship, while Condé Nast’s mayorship lies with Shaun Gough, art director.

Which got us thinking, how much value is there in being mayor of your workplace? Potentially, Kaitlin and Shaun could use their mayorships to demonstrate their social media engagement or to simply brag to their friends.

And that begs the question: What do workplace mayorships mean to you? Are you proud to be mayor of your office or is it just another mayorship? Have you entered a competitive winner-takes-all battle with your coworkers or do you have a mayor-by-default since only one of you is using the program?

And lastly - Would you ever consider putting a mayorship on your resume?

Zuckerberg Checks In To Foursquare Headquarters

With Foursquare racing past the 40 millionth check-in mark a few days ago, it's time to state the obvious: Geolocation is here to stay awhile.

And when you're as hot of a commodity as Foursquare is, you're likely to have a few suitors looking to buy you out.

So, it wasn't much of a surprise that Facebook was possibly looking to add Foursquare into its online empire. We knew Facebook was looking to add some sort of geolocation feature to its site, and on Sunday appeared to have started the programming process to make it happen.

And the latest news suggests that this possible Facebook-Foursquare union is more likely than originally thought.

Over the weekend, Mark Zuckerberg met with Foursquare CEO Dennis Crowley, although what that meeting consisted of or led to is unknown.

I myself would like to see Foursquare avoid Facebook's Internet takeover.

Unfortunately, the truth is Foursquare probably won't survive on its own, so if they're looking to sell, Facebook has the money and the influence to make it happen.

Clash of the Titans

Having studied journalism in-depth throughout college, I've practically grown up reading articles from both The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times, and both publications have become news media icons.

But for the last few months, the long-standing rivalry between these journalistic giants has really been heating up. And while some think that both newspapers should stop bickering and focus on surviving in an increasingly-paperless world, I believe this feud could actually help both sides stay afloat.

Back in late 2009, when the feud was simply a war of words, all newspapers (WSJ and NYT included) were sweating the massive industry-wide losses and questions about the future of newspapers as a viable business option.

This led to the WSJ and NYT to escalating their efforts to beat the other into submission, and the latest moves to expand social media integration could prove extremely valuable to both papers.

Both papers have taken big steps to one-up each other with their social media use, with competing Facebook pages and Twitter feeds. But the NYT upped the ante in February, when they partnered with Foursquare during the Winter Olympics in Vancouver.

And over the weekend, the WSJ retaliated with a Foursquare partnership of their own, allowing users to access restaurant reviews and earn 3 new badges through the popular location-based servce.

And although many critics say these social media developments are nothing more than a case of anything-you-can-do-I-can-do-better, they are also making both publications stronger in the long run.

So could these battling heavyweights knock each other out in their fight to be on top? Of course, but there's also the chance that this clash of newspaper titans could force both sides to continue to evolve and innovate.