Last night, Facebook introduced their location-tagging feature called Places (see the ‘serendipitous’ promo video above). Unfortunately, the icon leading me to new adventures wasn’t awake yesterday after I updated the Facebook app on my iPhone. Nevertheless, I am going ‘Places’ now. Since I started penning this entry I have checked into 4 locations, all of which I added on my own. This was a clear reminder to me of the infancy of the feature, but I know that will change over the course of the next few weeks. The early adopters will unify and embrace while Facebook cautiously migrates changes into the service. They don’t need any more sneers for intrusiveness and unwarranted self-promotion just yet.
So what does this all mean for Foursquare? They have been on the upper end of the seesaw for a little while and it looks like the advantage will shift. Foursquare denies that this unveiling by Facebook will dethrone them because of the links that still feed the Social Media King. At this point, the gaming and competitive realm that Foursquare offers does leave me contemplating the advantages to their service.
My time on Foursquare has been unmemorable, except on two occasions. The first was during my travels overseas and trying to get Foursquare to sync up in Beijing a few months ago, more specifically sporadic check-ins with claim to one Mayorship in Xi’an. Of course, while I was there I noticed various people who I had zero connection with whatsoever. This same experience exists here as I watch unfamiliar names and faces make requests to be friends or alert me that we are in a venue at the same time.
My second memorable experience was the back and forth competition with a friend and a ‘Mayor’. The duel for the top spot at UH’s Melcher Hall seemed realistic since we are at the Hall during the week more than we are at home. Nonetheless, we hardly knew each other beyond the check-ins and Tweets nearby feature.
The major edge that Places has on Foursquare is intimacy. I appreciate that Places allows you to be in touch with relevant people, your friends and family. It is intuitive like the rest of the features on the iPhone app and it won’t surprise me to see Places become more robust as a feature while Foursquare disintegrates. The promo video boasts Places as an online catalog that you can return to and reflect on and I think it will expand its reach to a wider audience on Facebook as it introduces its own version of ‘badges’ and ‘mayorship’.
For small businesses the location-based services allow them to hyper-target geographically. This also means the businesses can engage in real-time conversation with their customers and offer precise advertising to locations or dates (see 5 Location-Based Apps for Your Small Business). With Places, you must verify ownership, which gives you the ability to merge your Facebook page with your Places page. This is great because what Foursquare does not give you, besides responses on inquiries / requests to own your venue, is more than 2 million users. 20% of Foursquare users are pushing their check-ins to Facebook anyways. With Facebook’s 500 million plus users, it gives small businesses a better chance as Pages strengthens its footprint and engages its massive user-base.
Places is incorporated as part of the Facebook app menu and provides an easy path to participation. It is another feature that simplifies social exchanges. I agree with Wade Roush:
“…when a feature like location turns up at Facebook, that’s the very definition of going mainstream. Soon, tens of millions and eventually hundreds of millions of mobile device users will be able to check in everywhere they go, and it won’t take game mechanics to entice them to do so—just the desire to keep in touch with their friends.”
It’s only a matter of time before Facebook reveals how potent its geo-tagging will be. User traction will pick-up and customer loyalty models will shift to the new kid on the block. So long Foursquare, we’re going ‘Places’.
