Foursquare. Denialism meets publicity.

By , July 25 2010, 9:22 pm 9 Comments

When I talk to people about Foursquare, Gowalla and geo-location in general I find two things becoming quite apparent quite quickly 1) there’s a delicious denialism that people hold on to quite tightly and 2) people are vastly unaware of the difference between public and publicity.

The denialism is that some people are utter shits (shocking, I know) and the public/publicity thing is for another post but suffice to say that people often blur the two without knowing with potential disastrous effects.

I’m not going to lie.  I’m not a huge convert of Foursquare yet.  I have used it, know about it and read the stats/updates (all are impressive) but to me most users are not recognising the trade-offs they’re making to find friends they could do in other (granted less efficient) ways and get free lattes. I, like countless others, read Leo Hickman’s simple play by play on how he stalked a recruiter online starting with Foursquare.  Two important things there 1) the word “started” (he used the tinterweb to continue the…hunt?) and 2) the simplicity of what he did. Truth be told, it’s much worse than the piece depicts, or at least has the potential to be.  I’m not a paranoia nut (although I like the X-files as much as the next man) but are we really so blind to think people aren’t building on the extensive mounds of data we’ve already given them over the years of countless forms, logins, comments etc with real-time information on our day to day purchases etc?

For all the filters we have/employ/are given we remove them by not understanding the platforms we are using on a daily (some hourly) basis.  Without this, simply put, you are exposing yourself to potential risk. Risk is something that can up things like, um, insurance premiums and potentially be the basis of denied claims etc. Now let’s preface all this with this the very important fact that I for one have not seen the statistics that say being of Foursquare correlates with being robbed but then again I haven’t looked yet. (Anyone out there working on such a thing btw?)

Why are people using it? What’s the psychology of Foursquare? Why do people use it? What do they gain? I had my suspicions but I threw them out to the @themediaisdying crowd (a savvy bunch or pr, media and general social media bods to be sure but none the less more representative than me emailing 20 of my friends). The results ranged wildly:

“I don’t get much out of 4sq because I am a homebody living in Flyoveria. Still, it’s nice to be mayor of my coffee joint!”

“Joined b/c it was a new SM site. Got little out of it so I don’t use it anymore.”

“I joined 4sq to discover places in town I hadn’t been before, for a personal log and for fun competition with friends.”

“joined because everyone was doing it. Looked around and couldn’t figure out what it was for. Gave up.”

“Hate foursquare–it just fills my tweetstream with spam.”

“urban annotation, local knowledge.”

But, before I get 1-2 emails saying “but when you speak at conferences etc you always say embrace the light before the dark side of social media?” I’ll say this. There’s embracing the light and diving on a fire. Also I understand/realise there’s a certain irony that I as a marketer/pr-y/social media-ry type person too is saying all this. Don’t get me wrong I see the opportunities but personally the costs are too great right now.

Fancy a summary? It’s clear we’ve crossed a big line and many of us didn’t even know the line was there. Early adopters aside, this puppy/train is going (gone?) mainstream and I’m not sure how it’s taking us there or what the destination is. Do you? I urge all users of Foursquare and similar sites to go down the following list and, if you get to the end and are happy with your answers continue on checking in like there’s no tomorrow, but if you aren’t happy with your answers have a long hard think before you next check in.

  • Why did you start using it?
  • Are you getting more from it? Or is it getting more from you?
  • Have you checked the settings recently? Ever?
  • Do you know if you autopost to Twitter/Facebook?
  • Are you adding to signal or noise?  Yours or others?
  • Can you live without it for 7 days?

[Thanks to @georgiec and Chris Duncan in the Kindred office for some deep thought on this puppy]

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  • http://wwww.grapevine-consulting.com Darika Ahrens

    Paul, I love ya, but this kind of social media navel gazing feels like a post about Twitter circa 2008.
    Why are people using it? There are other ways to find friends?!

  • http://www.twitter.com/munkyfonkey Paul Armstrong

    LOL! Omphaloskepsis aside… I iz for ze peoplez!

  • Sebastien Vasseur

    Call me paranoid but I just hate the fact that people can see what I do, where I do it and with who on a 24/7 basis. I already worked hard enough on my Twitter and Facebook accounts to make sure not too much of my ‘personal’ info was released out there in the wild, and I’m not even sure I’ve done that properly as it is so complex (especially on FB)…

    I normally try out every popular social network just to see what it looks like, and if I’m hooked, I stay on it. But with Foursquare, I don’t even want to register as I’m worried they’ll take a big batch of data out of me before my first check-in (potentially making it public).

    The thing I get though is how addictive the badge mechanism is. I’ve been using GetGlue (http://getglue.com/) lately, which is kinda like Foursquare but for music, movies and TV shows rather than places. I’m sure I would have already stopped using it if it wasn’t for these badges. It’s childish I know, but it is very addictive. I would love to know how much people would keep using Foursquare if they stopped the badge/mayor thing and did it for the sake of geo-localisation only.

    My gut feeling is “very few”, but hey, I’m paranoid…

  • http://www.claremont.org.uk/claremail Ben Caspersz

    I predict Foursquare will be dead in the water within 2 years.

    Sebastien is right, without the badge mechanism it’s a waste of space – and it’s highly likely this utility will be integrated in to other platforms pretty soon.

    The geezer behind Foursquare is going to regret his recent front-cover of Wired magazine declaring him the new King of social media.

  • http://@emmadilemma1908 emmadilemma

    Give my co-ordinates out to potential stalkers (I’m sure even I could attract a few) and brands, so they can keep even more tabs on me?

    As a consumer I’ve still a long way to go before I sign up to something as ‘public’ as this. But there is a real opportunity for brands to exploit, exploit and then some.

  • http://www.iamluca.co.uk Luca Massaro

    Decent article Paul. It appears the above comments are all against Foursquare and i can understand why.

    However i am an avid user of foursquare for a few reasons. Let me explain.

    If you have a venue or business that relies on part of it’s market having to visit your location, it works well as a promotion tool to create loyal customers.

    For example, i work for Chelsea FC and i am the mayor of both Chelsea FC and Stamford Bridge. This means that a) on match day we could run a significant promotion on foursquare regarding checking in (like Man City did) and b) users will see that i am the Mayor and could help to build my profile.

    It is still a relatively new tool and like you said, the theory of unleashing all privacy with geotagging hasn’t yet caught on.. but it will.

    Yes it is a step up on the invasion of privacy ladder, and most people are using it because it is ‘the next trend’. But that’s how this world works now.

    Facebook was at one point oh so scary. Twitter was at one point useless and was seen as stealing Facebook’s idea of short updates.

    There is room for a Geotagging network and although it may fall flat on its arse.

    The way technology is advancing we always disregard new technology before we embrace it and by using this to build networks and ‘badges’, this is just another addition to the daily ego boosting tool that humans need to find fulfillment in our already unfulfilled lives.

    Sad but true.

  • http://www.twitter.com/munkyfonkey Paul Armstrong

    Thanks Luca – don;t get me wrong – totally see the opps as marketers/pros. The case studies are mounting but as with so much of this stuff it depends on the audience size and basic human psychology/needs. Free stuff and one-upmanship being huge drivers. I agree with you geotagging has a place but like geochaching etc I fear this may be more limited audience than current speculation. I am ready to eat my words – these things blow up and down – only one (cheesy) certainty – there is no certainty.

  • http://blog.mccom.com steve plunkett

    Why did you start using it?
    it’s part of my job to figure out every possible SEO and social signal in the search engines (google, bing, yahoo!, etc.)

    Are you getting more from it? Or is it getting more from you?

    i’ve gotten discounts, gotten free food, and also met some people via checkins.

    Have you checked the settings recently? Ever?

    just re-installed it so, yes.

    Do you know if you autopost to Twitter/Facebook?
    purposefully..

    Are you adding to signal or noise? Yours or others?

    signal.. mine

    Can you live without it for 7 days?

    absolutely.

  • http://www.iamluca.co.uk Luca Massaro

    Cheers for the reply Paul.

    In all fairness, there are two sides to every story and the for argument on this doesn’t significantly outweight the against.

    If i didn’t use it for work purposes it would be relatively usesless to me unless i was homeless and wanted to track the bridges and shop windows ive slept in and under.