FIRE BRIGADE TO THE RESCUE…? Foursquare. Geolocati-on or off?

By , January 21 2010, 11:43 pm 6 Comments

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Geolocation services were mostly a negatively portrayed Hollywood George Orwellian type scenario for many a year until recentlythat is when things got a little more real and we all started oversharing like demons.  During this transition the ability of phones, apps and services have been quietly upping the ante, Foursquare being the most recent to hit the headlines.  Used by (surprisingly?) few people (around 200,000 per TechCrunch) the much-touted service encourages people to share where they are and offer tips on their city for rewards and status.  Sounds simple?  Well it is.  Does that make it right?  Not so much.  What some call “updates”, others call “spam” and whilst the former always have the option of unfollowing and defriending it would be great if there was a middle ground. So I put it to the always-impeccably-thoughtful-when-sharing Fire Brigade…who it turns out were pretty split on it. 

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“Geo-location apps like foursquare and Gowalla could go awry, saying ‘I’m working from the café this afternoon’ is potentially like saying ‘great time to loot my house’.  Rewarding customers for frequent visits to a physical place of business has merit, as does analyzing a public’s location-based preferences and behaviors.“  
 - Ryan Zuk / Freelance


“Google Latitude is actually more interesting because it allows you to see exactly where your friends are by GPS.  [Although] keep your eye on Twitter, with geo-location now being an inbuilt feature there is no reason why Twitter won’t develop it’s own functionality.”  
- Rhys Howell / Social Medium

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“I am a Foursquare addict.  I also see the potential for clients and have started to include it in pitches where appropriate. Becoming a friend to your customers in this way can only help to keep them loyal.
- Beth Carroll / Ash Communications

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“The key for many of these tools is in integration. Many are experiencing information overload when it comes to social media – too many applications, too many updates and too many unwanted messages.  I wouldn’t be surprised if we see some mergers and acquisitions in this space in 2010…”
- Danny Whatmough / Wildfire  

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“Aside from the obvious use of retail coupons, there may be ways of capturing the tool for events, for example- perhaps conference organizers, sponsors or even attending companies can use Foursquare to organize more impromptu meetups- or even in the spirit of the game, engineer some kind of scavenger hunt.”

- Doug Haslam / Shift Communications   

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  • http://doyouhaveapencil.wordpress.com Jessica Payne

    Before everyone goes TweetDeck crazy and syncs FS to their Twitter and FB statuses, think twice. Unlike FB and Twitter, which most of us use for work and play, FS screams too much “play” to me at the moment. Do we want our colleagues or clients to know we’re the mayor of the local McDonalds? Another tip? Make your FS ID different than at least your Twitter name. It’s one thing for baddies to know where you’ve been or are, but even worse for them to know where you hang out regularly. But still use FS. Blackberry app just came out today, so we’ll see usage spike dramatically, especially in the US and UK.

  • http://reputationreputationreputation.blogspot.com/ Jonathan Welsh

    Geo apps seem to have great potential but for at the moment I can’t help but loathe the idea of being ‘Mayor’ of the toilets in the local Beefeater. I do think geo mapping could be good for event management and cascading information but at the moment, let’s face it, its time hasn’t really arrived.

  • http://www.punchcomms.com Pete Goold

    Potentially interesting but practically dreary. I don’t think the main issue here is about giving away too much information, it’s actually who really benefits – or indeed cares…

  • http://www.darbyDarnit.com Petri Darby

    There are only a few people who I would want to know where they are, and Salma Hayek isn’t using geolocation services. I would likely use them more to figure out how to avoid certain people. Then again, I might monitor who is visiting my favorite nearby eateries, then ask them to pick me up some lunch. And confirm that certain reporters really are at their desks 24/7 instead of ever being available to actually meet for personal introductions.

  • http://www.hoffman.com Kristin Bleier

    When it comes to GeoApps like FourSquare I am still torn. While I do use it, I don’t find myself as religious about it as I am when leveraging Facebook and Twitter. Not sure it will ever be the “next big thing” such as Twitter..

  • http://www.twitter.com/ejcallow Ed Callow

    “Do we want our colleagues or clients to know we’re the mayor of the local McDonalds?”
    Too right Jessica. One of the things that I liked when Facebook first came out was that it looked quite professional. The UI was clean, simple, almost Google-ish. It is a tool that both professionals and unprofessionals can use in their own ways.
    I admit to never having actually used Foursquare myself, but it just seems to have brought too much of the funny, and not quite enough of the broad-strokes user-friendly.