Foursquare Places: 5 Reasons Foursquare Shouldn't Worry...

Given that its been a week since Facebook's launch of their geo-located functionality, 'Facebook Places', in the U.S., I thought I would give a quick overview of my thoughts on what it means for other networks and the UK market. As there is already an amazing depth of articles describing what 'Places' is and where it is taking Facebook, such as this great one by Mindshare's Ciaran Norris, I' m going to focus directly on what this means for geo-location's first primary network, Foursquare.

Foursquare has linked itself inextricably to marketer conversation about the possibilities of geo-location or LBSN (Location Based Social Networking) during this year, managing to distance itself from competitors such as Gowalla. With a growing user base surpassing 3 million, Foursquare holds the most promise outside of a Facebook based solution for advertisers, putting it at odds with the social behemoth. Despite this, all indications over the last week have shown that 'Facebook Places' may prove to be a blessing in disguise for Foursquare and here are 5 reasons why:

1.) The geo-located market needed growing....

Recent data has shown that only 4% of UK internet users have tried location based services in social networking & only 1 % use it regularly. While Foursquare may be growing, both in the US & UK, its largest day of sign-ups came during the launch of Facebook Places. Foursquare could have arguably grown its network size on its own, but Facebook can easily introduce features & terminology into the common social networking vernacular in a way that Foursquare cannot currently.

*Includes a random daily sample of 20,000 venues within London's Zone 1-2

If we look at a random sample of Foursquare check-ins at businesses around London over the last few months, we see that, on average, growth is occuring. The average Central London venue featured 20 total check-ins in June and has grown to 70 currently. Considering this includes the mass of 1-2 checkin locations within the city, as well as high check-in locations such as Waterloo station,  Foursquare exhibits a steady, but continuous ability to grow its user base. However, combining quickly with the 500 million+ Facebook user base, means that steady growth can become exponential, as long as the network's position relative to Facebook is correct.

2.) Facebook Places isn't everywhere yet, so positioning is still possible...

Foursquare and others must figure out how they fit into the Facebook location equation and the US only launch offers a preview before expansion globally. As user adoption grows in the US and subsequently, worldwide, Foursquare and others need to figure out the distance they place their networks from Facebook and what image they adopt, as a linked feature, a partner or the opposition. Positioning wise, one advantage that Foursquare has is.....

3.) Facebook can't do everything...

Facebook is undeniably large in operational scope, user base & the power of their brand. The organization revolutionized the way users network online and has become a default repository for content. Between open graph advancements, increasing content warehousing and becoming a de fecto web portal through FBML & FBJS, Facebook can only benefit from the addition of user's geolocation data.

However, Facebook's size & history can play to Foursquare's advantage, as their previous successes and failures will temper the way users interact with 'Places'. Privacy issues and integration considerations require that Facebook may have to answer questions that Foursquare won't when interacting with users. Facebook seems to have recognized this as 'Places' takes an attitude where....

4.) API integration and partnership are encouraged..

While Facebook's size and network effects are generally credited for their continued success, one casually overlooked strength is their readiness to allow others to develop for Facebook. Facebook apps have been credited as taking developers which would have previously developed Facebook competitors and transformed them into Facebook developers, creating new draws and content for the network.

Foursquare's possible position relative to Facebook seems to utilize this model, as Facebook have allowed for API integration into the 'Places' feature. Users can check-in through Facebook places to Foursquare & vice versa, giving Foursquare access to a huge user base and allowing Facebook access to existing badges, incentives & partnerships.

Zynga's  mix of moving external content easily into Facebook's UI could be an inspiration for greater Facebook integration

If Foursquare adopts a model similar to app maker Zynga (creator of "classics" such as Mafia Wars & Farmville), then a powerful symbiotic relationship can be formed.  Given the way that Facebook apps allow for rich content integration, the Foursquare user experience, with its badges, distinctive graphics & specials can further ingratiate itself into Facebook. A closer relationship benefits both parties as....
5.) Foursquare's current sponsorship and brand cache translates easily to Facebook...

Facebook places provides an interesting opportunity for brands to engage on the network. Facebook can link check-ins to fan pages (possibly down to each location of a large brand), rich content & branded apps.  With these opportunities, one could worry about how Foursquare would fit into a close partnership, but its branding and existing partnerships give it an advantage Facebook doesn't have.

Foursquare's World Cup Explorer badge is just one example of how brands can leverage interaction during events...

Foursquare's first mover position as a geo-location front runner and its network of bottom up venue specials means that it possesses a cache Facebook simply cannot create. Foursquare's campaigns with CNN for the World Cup & Domino's are just two examples of how the brand is already leveraging their network to allow user interaction on the go. Through these campaigns, Foursquare has shown why unique elements within their network can facilitate this type of interaction. By creating greater rich media integration (either through a Flash based application or simply greater visibility upon check-in on places), Foursquare can become the arbiter of one of the main 'gaming' elements to checking in, in a way Facebook cannot.

Recommendation in the age of collaboration...

Recommendation has and always will be one of the most powerful drivers for product purchase. The power of friends & family singing your brand's praises will always resonate more than a basic advertiser's message. In the age of social media however, the way we communicate has fundamentally grown, and subsequently, so has the way we recommend products to others. The consumer of today has communication options that have expanded not only his social circle past geographic and cultural limitations, but allowed brands to create a conversation with the consumer that previously didn't exist. With all of this communication expansion, what has digital & social networking really meant for recommendation?


 With so many social media choices, what does it mean for how people recommend?

The requirements for an effective recommendation are relatively basic. It requires an informative statement about something, given credence by the trust level of the reviewer and the perceived relevance of the information. As trust grows, so does the power of the recommendation. Alternatively, the more relevant the recommendation seems, either through timeliness or quality, the more powerful it becomes. So as consumers communicate over greater distances, faster speeds and with a higher number of casual acquaintances, what happens to the power of recommendation?

Product recommendations from our friends and family automatically gain power from existing trust and Facebook, as the social network du jour, is well positioned to exploit that. Through the 'like' feature we can easily share what products and brands we care for, slowly building a recommendation network amongst our contacts. The simultaneous distribution of friends' recommendations through news feeds, means that opinions about brands and products can be shared quickly and clearly, from both internal and external Facebook sources (thanks to open graph & FBML) and leading to content inside & outside of the network. However, though Facebook is well positioned to communicate peer recommendations, a high level of trust still relies on a close knit network. Recommendations from general acquaintances or those unknown outside of the network still lack the power given to closer 'friends'.

 

Aardvark's Social Search in Action...

Outside of traditional social networking, recommendation needs to rely on other sources to build trust. While Facebook uses existing ties, social search engines & sites, such as Aardvark or Yahoo Answers, rely on the wisdom of crowds and perceived authority as trust arbiters. Aardvark , acquired by Google earlier this year, seeks to answer questions based on a hybrid model, pairing user answers through existing social networks and based on topics that an individual has claimed expertise. Sites such as Yahoo Answers or review sites such as Qype, utilize a voting or user hierarchy model to attempt to signal which individuals are the most trustworthy. By considering a user's grade and his recommendation relative to others, individuals can begin to judge the quality of information, without the trust found in traditional relationships.

 

Badges & check-ins help to identify expertise

Alternatively, incentive based networks such as Foursquare or Get Glue use a mix of existing ties and accomplishment markers to signal trustworthiness. Through gaining badges based on accomplishments, users are able to signal that actions or qualifications have been completed, meaning they may be more trustworthy sources of related information. Requiring action may be a more effective way than asking an individual to show expertise, but it also involves a clear signaling system and direct links between signals and knowledge. Conversely, recommendations through action (such as Foursquare check-ins or tips at a specific venue) also have the capacity to prove more trustworthy than other sources, given the increased effort required.

So what do these differing online recommendation networks mean for advertisers and brands?

Regardless of network type, brands must make themselves available to users. Building trust through interaction and making content easily available to experience, recommend and widely share, can help brands to create and facilitate user to user communications. Be it creating a heavily produced piece of digital content for a large brand or simply curating the venue page or website for a small establishment, the ease of use with which a consumer can find, interact with or share content can aid with gaining effective recommendation.

The Top London Ad Agencies by Foursquare Check-in (06.08.2010)

I decided to do something a bit different than the normal top 30 infographic with the Foursquare check-in data. While the infographic may still come out at some point, I thought it might be easier and more useful to try out Tableau public and visualize the data as a dashboard. First attempt is below, though I may modify it for more functionality as time goes on.

Powered by Tableau

Outdoor Advertising Takes Us One Step Further to Living in a Sci-fi Movie...

Movies always seem to utilize outdoor advertising in some bombastic ways whenever they need a 'dystopian' future-scape. From 'Blade Runner', 'Idiocracy' & 'Robocop' to 'AI', 'Back to the Future', 'Minority Report' & 'They Live', outdoor advertising plays a role in conveying an emphasis on the conspicuous consumption & promotional opportunities of the future. However, this week, 2 stories in the mainstream press seem to have emphasized how close we are to having at least the capability, if not the consumer comfort with, some of sci-fi's outdoor advertising channels.

Something tells me these might be kinda noticeable....(via source)

First, the city of Miami has fast tracked approval for two 'skyscraper' sized digital LED screens within the city. The digital ad platforms would come in at a total height of 50 stories, with the first 100 feet being supplied by a parking deck. While event type installations are nothing new within outdoor advertising, this seems, given the mock-up, to take attention grabbing dynamic content to a new level. While sights such as Picadilly Circus neon signs barely go above 5 stories, the 22 story advertising installations would bring us a step further to the ever present advertising in films like Blade Runner (now if we only had a zepplin...). So, film associations aside, will something this big work? The panels come in a line of large, historic outdoor installations, so they may follow other examples and become part of the skyline. However, they must strike a pretty hard balance between being bombastic & noticeable without being a horrible eyesore.Either way, the creative opportunities for advertisers seem pretty varied (someone planning a monster movie campaign is salivating already).



Secondly, in smaller scale, but customizable advertising, the Telegraph (and my Daily Links section) featured a story about the advancement of consumer customized, digital advertising panels (ala Minority Report, as shown above). Technology such as this has been in development for some time, with previous installations tracking approximations of age and gender from a web cam monitoring consumers. Currently however, IBM has spoken of taking the tech a step further, utilizing RF-ID to obtain user information for a more granular customization.

 Whether consumers accept something like this or see it as an invasion of privacy depends on the implementation of the technology over the next few years. Consumer attitudes are a long way from accepting a very tangible and public representation of what advertisers know about them and the technology to do more than approximate characteristics is far off from being widely accepted. If advertisers, technology providers and media owners can slowly progress the general consumer attitude to a more accepting view of data customization through RF-ID or another wireless solution, then something like this may have a chance of occurring. Alternatively, high costs, privacy concerns and lack of a standardized information system may limit this technology to webcam based approximation.

Media, Advertising & Data Visualization: Its actually been with us all along...

Data Visualization seems to be one of the keywords of the moment within advertising and media, fueled by the industry's admirable intellectual hunger for greater efficiencies & the 'next big thing'. However, as with all manner of zeitgeist within business, the concept seems to have become popular before its been fully quantified. We can take the amazing work of David McCandless and his book 'Information is Beautiful', the commentary from blogs such as 'Flowing data' or the insightful work of Edward Tufte and say this is all exciting 'data visualization', but what else does the term entail and what does it mean for marketing communications?

The undeniable fact is that data is being generated at an exponential rate, fueled by the huge amount of available producers of data. Experts such as Google's Marissa Mayer have been quick to point out that the devices we carry today have become 'ubiquitous nano-sensors', producing an increasing amount of information about the environment around them and the behaviour of those interacting with the device. Coupling data producers with the ability to disseminate large scale data sets efficiently means that an 'explosion' of data is already occurring. Given this, we can assume 'data visualization' is the important step of showing this data, but is it really that simple?

This is an interesting data visualization....(via Fast Company)

As the data available grows, synthesizing data into useful information becomes even more important than it already is. There can be no visualization without an understanding of what you're trying to illustrate and understanding hinges on the ability to filter and arbitrate a cacophony of data sources. Therefore, the first steps in any kind of visualization are what they have always been: aggregating useful data sets, interrogating the data into useful information and then preparing to convey this insights to others. Whether these steps qualify as 'data visualization' or the pre-requisites to such is semantic, because without a proper 'story' to convey, any visualization loses its meaning. So, if effective data visualization entails the entire process of understanding, shaping and conveying data towards a useful vehicle for information, what does it mean to marketers?

This is also a data visualization, even though it lacks the aesthetic complexity of the last example..

'Data visualization' as we define it above isn't a new thing in marketing or specifically, marketing communications. As an industry, we've been awash in data for years, limited only by our interest and ability to shape such into useful information. Data sources found in market research, targeting, channel effectiveness predictions, campaign analytics, sales data and others have required the process mentioned within 'data visualization' since before the digital revolution to yield towards marketing objectives effectively. Whether an agency or client side, the process of aggregating, filtering, synthesizing and conveying is integral to business, whether it is done implicitly or explicitly. So if 'data visualization' is something we've done for years, why should it matter so much now? Is the current push towards a 'data driven' or 'data is beautiful' industry philosophy just hype?

Simply put, the amount of hype around the concept is at normal levels for something within advertising & media. However, the current push towards 'data visualization' is actually a confluence of the advancement of technology, increasing analytical interest and the advertising/media industry's progression. Even though we are, as an industry, innately data visualizers and story tellers, the requirements and capacity to do so effectively have increased. Though the amount of data available requires a greater understanding of how to use it, it also generates new opportunities to deliver approachable insights.

The 'data visualization' concept in the industry now isn't a shiny new toy, but an increasing remit to wield current concepts and abilities in a new manner. Creating clearer, more approachable stories with data is the heart of data visualization, be it with a static graphic or an interactive widget. The concept may entail amazing looking productions based on data, but at its core, data visualization is marrying data handling skills with the creativity to convey insight in the most effective manner, be it flashy or plain.

Daily Links for 02.08.2010

Facebook and Amazon Team Up to Make Gift Shopping Easier | Fast Company

I may be in the minority for alot of the privacy vs. marketing issues given my inherent bias, but I quite like the idea of collaborative shopping and auto suggestions. Now, that being said, I like the ability to share product interests and items across the network more than suggestions (which entail the possibilities of a retailer having a mass of data on me), but I realize the two are somewhat linked. The Facebook/Amazon feature should really have some traction on birthday and anniversary suggestions, though I imagine it will probably have to overcome quite a few hurdles on the privacy front first. TG SEO » Study Says Location-Based Social Network Users are Small but Mighty I think reach vs. 'depth of engagement' is a rather hot topic when it comes to usefulness of metrics for measuring digital marketing effectiveness. The basic instinct is to fall on the side of reach, but as creative examples within marketing communications have shown, with content and a target market that match the chosen channels, reach can be bounced as the defacto metric for all marketing choices. This isn't to say that reaching an effective amount of users isn't important, but as shown in the article, knowing the demographics of a user base can go a long way towards selling emerging networks/channels for marketing communications.

Minority Report-style advertising billboards to target consumers Tailored advertising content is already a given in digital channels, but somehow, it becomes a little creepier when it manifests in outdoor advertising. Given that there exists tangible evidence of what marketers know about you, right in front of you while on the go, it seems like any customization mechanisms need to be as subtle as possible. That's why when you look at the two methods used to tailor ads (facial recognition vs. a RFID carrying data), it seems like the less detail & extra parts involved, the better (at least for now). I'd assume in the near future, tailoring an outdoor digital ad to approximate age and sex of passers by may be more palatable than having individual level messaging.

A Guide to Old Media Tumblrs A brilliant & snarky guide from Gawker on 'old media' discovering 'new media' darling Tumblr. I quite like Tumblr, even though my actual Tumblr has been consistenly neglected for the last 2 years. While I tend to prefer a full hosted blog set-up, I can definitely see the attractiveness of Tumblr given its ease of use and cool functionality. That aside, the principles that come from all forms of mar comms online still hold true on services such as Tumblr. Consistent and interesting content and activity has to give users a reason to visit. Given the state of some of the pages (such as Rolling Stone's), it looks like some media outlets are getting this a little more than others.