Foursquare

Foursquare: Carrots Are the Killer App

By Mark Evans in Social Media 2 Comments Tags: , , ,

Last weekend, I went to the Old Spaghetti Factory in downtown Toronto for dinner. It’s a large family-oriented restaurant that’s been around forever. For the most part, little has changed at the Old Spaghetti Factory. The decor and menu are exactly as they were a decade ago, although the prices have obviously climbed.

There are some signs of change, mostly notably the large, flat-screen televisions in the bar and, if you look closely, the use of social media. I say “closely” because as you wait in the lobby for a table, there’s a small sign slapped on the host’s dais that suggests you check in on Foursquare to get a deal.

Not being a regular Foursquare user, the opportunity to get a deal was impossible to resist so I whipped out the iPhone and checked in. Unfortunately, the deal had either ended or it wasn’t part of the database so I never got the much-anticipated discount. (Note: It turned out the restaurant dumped Foursquare for Facebook. The head of marketing suggested Foursquare will disappear soon, although I don’t share his bearish view.)

I did, however, gain some valuable insight into Foursquare’s value proposition – at least the value it holds for me and likely many other people. It’s all about the discount or the coupon. If Foursquare has a “killer app”, it’s not the strange joy of becoming the mayor of someplace you patronage far too often, or the even more bizarre pride in earning badges, which reminds me of my days long ago as a Cub (aka mini-Boy Scout).

The “killer app” for Foursquare is the deal. Give me a good deal and I’ll use Foursquare, even if means having to check in (but don’t expect me to pepper my Twitter stream with updates on my whereabouts). In the world of social media and the increasing need for brands to provide something to get something, the “carrot” rules. Consumers want carrots so they will happily do things such as check in, “Like” or “follow” to get one.

Foursquare has the potential to be a carrot machine that brands could use to attract and reward consumers and, as important, differentiate themselves from the competition who may not be offering carrots on Foursquare or not as many carrots. If a brand offers lots of carrots, consumers will check in.

In my humble opinion, Foursquare should focus on carrots, not badges or mayors. Badges and mayors are fun and entertaining but they’re candy that comes and goes quickly. Carrots, meanwhile, have staying power because everyone likes a deal and we’re willing to make an effort to get one.

Is Foursquare Interesting or DOA?

By Mark Evans in Social Media 1 Comment Tags: , , , ,

I have a love-hate relationship with Foursquare.

On one hand, I think it’s given location-based services a bad name with its goofy badges, the silly “Mayor of” feature, and the lack of traction when it comes to creating a platform that businesses can leverage. On the other hand, Foursquare now has 6.5 million users, two million check-ins/day and 420 million check-ins since its launch.

So the challenge and question is what to make of Foursquare. Is an interesting enough service to include as part of a social media strategic plan? Or is a niche service with limited appeal as a marketing and sales vehicle? My sense is its remains the latter even though many companies would love to use Foursquare if there were better services to meet their needs and goals.

The biggest problem for Foursquare is many companies don’t consider it a serious part of the social media landscape. Second, there’s still little clarity in terms of how to leverage Foursquare aside from offering coupons to people who check-in. This means companies are looking for substance or ideas before committing to Foursquare, which has to compete with blogs, Twitter, Facebook and YouTube within a social media strategic plan

Perhaps Foursquare’s efforts have been focused on growth, which is impressive in the scheme of things but no where near the expectations it was the next Twitter when it launched in 2008. Foursquare was going to take the world by storm, and provide social media users with a real way to leverage location-based services.

To date, Foursquare is a niche service in a market that many still believe has huge potential. The idea of being able to deliver the right service or content at the right time at the right place is the “Holy Grail”. This explains why there is still optimism about the LBS market and, as important, the entry of new players such as Facebook Places.

While still in beta and, unfortunately, not in Canada, an intriguing new LBS start-up is Bizzy.com, which combines LBS with personalized recommendation for places to eat, shop and play based on places that you like. Bizzy matches this information against other people with similar interests to generate recommendations about other places you might like. Having not used the service after discovering nothing was available for Canadian cities, it is impossible to declare whether Bizzy is the real deal but what is interesting is the idea it generates insight and ideas based on information you provide – as opposed to simply having to check-in to places you visit.

My take is 2011 will be an exciting year for LBS but it is possible Foursquare won’t come along for the ride. With the ubiquity of smartphones and the growing popularity of tablet computers, there is a growing population looking for better, more interesting and more useful LBS services. If a start-up can create a service that does a good job of meeting demand, the LBS world could be their oyster.

More: Mashable has a short post on how Foursquare has now been translated into five more languages.

Is Foursquare the New Friendster?

By Mark Evans in Social Media 4 Comments Tags: , , ,

I’ve never been excited about or, for that matter, into Foursquare.

The benefits of broadcasting my location to the world have never been compelling – not even the coupons that have become Foursquare’s “killer app”. This whole idea of location-based, real-time couponing has been around for more than a decade, and it still hasn’t stuck.

Yet, everyone still talks about Foursquare in glowing terms. They talk about how it has so much potential and how it could launch new features that will make location-based services appealing to the mainstream. Heck, it’s one of the finalists in several categories in the Crunchies awards.

To me, it’s just blah, blah, blah. The problem is no one has the balls to declare that Foursquare is never going to live up to a fraction of the hype it has attracted. It’s a niche service that will soon be supplanted by Facebook or a start-up that will crack the location-based services opportunity in a different way that will make Foursquare look like a “Model T”.

Think of Foursquare as Friendster, which dominated the social networking market before Facebook and MySpace appeared on the scene. Friendster attracted a lot of attention, including an acquisition offer from Google. before disappearing from the scene (other than a few markets in Asia).

Like Friendster, Foursquare is getting a lot of attention for being a first-mover but Foursquare’s inability to seize this advantage is becoming its Achilles Heel. This is why all the talk about Foursquare’s potential is frustrating – talk is talk but walk is walk. If Foursquare can’t create a compelling service soon, it’s doomed to remain a niche service as other players launch with more interesting services.

Aside from the lack of chatter among Foursquare, look at the numbers from Compete.com that show Foursquare’s traffic is declining. As a mobile service, maybe many people are using its iPhone application but seeing your traffic erode has to be troubling.

Nevertheless, there are still many people excited about Foursquare and what it could be. I think this excitement is misplaced; it’s not Foursquare that should be getting them stoked but the potential of a location-based service that delivers a variety of tangible, interesting and useful benefits.

To me, Foursquare is Friendster. What’s going to get me excited is the Facebook of the location-based service market.

The Downsides and Dangers of Geo-Location

By Mark Evans in Social Media 2 Comments Tags: , , ,

A couple of weeks ago, I did a lengthy interview with a reporter doing a story on geo-location. The angle was how geo-location services was the next, big thing but it was easy to tell my answers weren’t what she was seeking because my focus was how people need to be aware of the negatives of broadcasting your location.

Perhaps it’s my personal approach or my demographics but the idea of broadcasting my location has never captured my imagination. I just don’t see enough benefits to surrender one of the few remaining bastions of personal privacy. When I hear “check-in”, it conjures up images of George Orwell’s “1984″.

It does make me wonder whether I’m on the outside looking in given the tremendous willingness to share anything and everything via social media services. Foursquare may have two million users but you have to ask who are these people and why are they so enthusiastic about telling the world where they are.

Sure, Foursquare awards badges so there is a gaming element, and the tips can offer some information about different locations. But is there really an upside to broadcasting your location so friends and family can possibly meet you at that spot. Isn’t that what phone calls, e-mail or text-messaging accomplishes?

While geo-location has tremendous potential, Foursquare is simply a small, initial step that could be looked back upon with “Well, it seemed like a good idea at the time”. It could be that broadcasting your location is the wrong use of the technology.

The right services may be those in which you provide your location on a when-needed base to get information at the right time and place. For example, Yelp’s iPhone app is a great way to find nearby restaurants, stores, etc. so I have no problem telling Yelp where I’m located when required.

This explains why I rarely use Foursquare, although I do feel some obligation given part of my consulting business is social media strategy. It is hard to provide clients with advice either way without knowing what the services offers. While I’m active on social media and share a lot of information, it’s mostly professional, and rarely about who I’m meeting or where I’m located because it’s something that needs to be shared.

Meanwhile, there are many people in my digital circles who are enthusiastic Foursquare users. They broadcast their locations on a regular basis so I know only know what they’re doing and thinking but where they are located. To be honest, it feels like too much information.

The inspiration for this post was a blog post by Ari Herzog on why he deleted his Foursquare account. He talks about a couple of people who had some troubling experiences with Foursquare after recognizing people they didn’t know had lots of information about them.

Herzog’s decision may be drastic or an anomaly but it doesn’t surprise me. My sense is the geo-location pendulum swung way to far in one direction because of the novelty, and that it’s now going to swing back when more people start to realize there is a downside to broadcasting your location.

Using these services isn’t like sharing links about interesting blog posts or newspaper articles, which may provide people with a sense of your interests or thoughts; geo-location provides information about your location, personal habits and activities. They can provide a detailed snapshot of how you’re living your life – something you may want to think twice about.

Forget Foursquare, Yelp’s Where It’s At

By Mark Evans in Social Media 1 Comment Tags: , , ,

As you might have discovered in previous posts, I’m not a big Foursquare fan.

My lack of enthusiasm has much to do with the fact it doesn’t seem to provided much value other than the “thrill” of getting badges. TThat’s not enough to go through the trouble of broadcasting my location. Granted, Foursquare appears to be getting better as it makes deals with content players and corporate partners but I still don’t see enough “meat”.

A service that has a lot more appeal while offering many of the same features as Foursquare is Yelp. Until recently, I hadn’t been much of a Yelp user but the more I user it, the more value delivers. For example, I’m visiting New York this weekend and despite doing some research, I’m unprepared when it comes to knowing where to go and what to eat.

This is where Yelp comes into play, particularly when using the iPhone app. By using the search or nearby features, Yelp makes it easy to find places to eat, visit, drink, have coffee, banks, etc. There’s also reviews from users, and, get this, the ability to check in when visiting places.

The biggest challenge facing Foursquare is it needs to move into places where there’s already strong competition. The fact Foursquare has built its foothold on being able the check-in may not be enough of a differentiator to fend off players such as Yelp, Facebook and Google that are moving into the location-based market.

Foursquare’s growing popularity has always been puzzling to me because the original value proposition was so one-dimensional. And despite Foursquare’s continued growth, the reality is it still doesn’t have the traction that everyone expected when it burst onto the scene.

To me Foursquare feels like a lot like Friendster, which had its day in the sun before becoming a second-tier social network.

Silicon Valley and the Emperor with No Clothes

By Mark Evans in Social Media, Venture Capital 2 Comments Tags: , ,

One of the things that really struck me about Facebook’s launch of a new location-based service is not that it really, really looks and smells a lot like Foursquare but how it has put the spotlight on the tremendous amount of hype that has surrounded Foursquare and how Silicon Valley does such an amazing job of supporting and fuelling this hype.

For months, the buzz has been Foursquare is going to be the next Twitter. While Foursquare really only had one feature (the ability to check in and broadcast your location), it was only a matter of time before other features were added to make it a lot more useful. Then, it would experience hockey stick-like growth.

Silicon Valley played a key role in pumping the Foursquare story, highlighted by the recent infusion of $20-million of venture capital (less the cash that Foursquare’s founders were strangely allowed to keep for themselves).

The deal was Silicon Valley’s way of propping up the hype even though there were already lots of questions about whether Foursquare could become more than a one-trick pony. And while Foursquare does have two million registers users, the real question to ask is how many of them are active users.

I would hazard to guess there is a lot of people who use the service infrequently or not at all. In my world, Foursquare is nowhere to be seen, and this is a crowd that embraces pretty much everything.

Not to throw stones at Silicon Valley but the reality is it plays multiple roles. There is the financing that comes from the venture capitalists and a huge talent pool to support the ecosystem.

But Silicon Valley is also into the selling and hyping its creations. There’s a giant marketing machine built into Silicon Valley’s DNA that does a terrific job of selling people on dreams and aspirations, including start-ups that may or not be able to attract enough users to become viable.

In many ways, this is a key part of Silicon Valley’s success. It is a place where eternal optimism rules. There is no room for negativity or having small dreams. In Silicon Valley, you aim for the stars even if the rest of the world may not buy into the stories you’re telling.

Foursquare is a perfect example of this ecosystem. It is a jewel that Silicon Valley is desperately hoping will turn into the mother lode.

Unfortunately, Facebook has probably exposed Foursquare for what it is: an interesting start-up that captured the imagination of investors, the media, bloggers and people on the bleeding edge but it will never be able to become anything more than it is right now.

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