Julia Slaughter

Posts Tagged ‘Social Networking’

last month I started this project – I was investigating location based social networking. I noticed that posts from Whrrl and FourSquare were sneaking into my Facebook feed. Then I noticed that Twitter was giving me the option to enable locations in my tweets. What is all of this? Do I even care? Well, then they started talking about them on AppSlappy and so I decided to cannon ball into Location Based Social Networking – I downloaded the four major players in the location based app game right now.

So let’s get this show on the road…

The first question you are probably asking yourself (because it’s what I asked myself) is why do I even care about this? Most of the location based networks (and subsequent apps) have tackled this from the standpoint that they are making real life some sort of game and frankly I don’t care about the game aspect of this stuff at all. I’m not interested in collecting GoWalla’s virtual items. The benefit that I envisioned is meeting my friend Nancy at Happy Hour and “checking in,” and some friends in the area noticing and joining us. (Maybe they saw it on Facebook or maybe they are notified through the App and they think – “hey that sounds like a good idea, let’s go!”) Or finding some place worth checking out that’s off the beaten path when I’m out of town.

I have to admit, so far it hasn’t quite worked the way I planned – I blame the fact that I live in the South, all this polite Southern upbringing. Nancy and I went to Happy Hour and instead of joining us there when my friends saw my check in, my friends “commented” on the check in that they wished I had invited them. I told them they were invited by the virtue that it was published online, so maybe I will get them trained. It takes time for people to adapt to new technology and I know that for the most part, I am an early adapter.

The benefit to me of being an early adapter is that I feel like I’m helping to build my local network. I make it a point to take pictures and make recommendations so that people that come and visit this area can venture away from the beaten path with a little less fear because they aren’t jumping totally off into the unknown. They can see my comments and I often provide pictures. Though I admit that I feel a little lonely when I check in and over and over again I see that I am the first person to check in there!

If you own a business, you absolutely should care about these things, and now is the time to get involved so that you can be a trendsetter, not chasing after it later. (It’s also a good idea to keep track of what your customers are saying about you.) I visited a friends salon and while I was there I checked in with all four services to help “put him on the map.” Businesses, particularly service oriented businesses, that aren’t paying attention the feedback they are getting on the web are taking a huge gamble! Even though Location Based Social Networks are just getting off the ground, ignoring them hoping that they’ll go away is just a bad idea.

There are privacy concerns with location based products, but like ANY information you put on the Internet – you have to be smart about it! With the App that I settled on, my home address is completely 100% private. My first and last name are not on my account. Yes, I did link it to my Facebook BUT I only add real life friends to Facebook. (Seriously I have “denied” requests from acquaintances and ex-boyfriends because I don’t think they need to have that kind of access to my life.)

Okay so we’ve covered the why, now we need to get the bottom of which one?