Web Reviews

Should Your Business Check-in with Foursquare?

Indianapolis, IN - April 4, 2010

“Remember when finding and serving niches was a viable business objective? Niches used to be measured in decades, now they can be measured in weeks.”

– Dave Logan

Technology changes pretty fast. Because of this, most of us are learning to change and adapt pretty quickly as well. The upside of this is that we’re readily adopting new application offerings and integrating them into our lives. Most of you have probably had this experience with things like LinkedIn or Facebook; some of you probably are using Twitter frequently.

But with this ability to quickly adopt comes the ability to abandon. Nobody can keep track of all of these new offerings, nor would you want to, so we find ourselves often shuffling one item into our work habits and shuffling another out. At the Vistage All-City meeting recently, author Dave Logan was discussing his book, “Tribal Leadership” and he made mention of this trend. “Remember when finding and serving niches was a viable business objective?” he asked. “Niches used to be measured in decades, now they can be measured in weeks.” Dave was commenting on our ever-shifting loyalty as customers move on to the “next big thing.”

One of the other interesting trends, at least in the software development world, is the way that product development is being impacted by the people who are using the product. It used to be that engineering would develop a product based on some perceived need, marketing would sell it, and customers would buy it. In some forward-thinking companies, marketing might help drive product development based on user feedback, but the experience was almost wholly internal. Those days are gone.

Now products are often developed by someone either seeing an opportunity or, perhaps just as often, having an idea that they think might be interesting. A product is developed, released, and people use it. Then a very interesting thing happens… the product development cycle responds to the way people are using the product. Engineering might have a few tweaks they’d like to make, items that have been on the drawing board that were always planned to be a part of the release, but much of the innovation comes from how people are using (or want to be using) the product.

All of this is background which brings me to Foursquare. At heart, it’s simply an application that runs on your smartphone that allows you to ‘check in’ at various locations throughout your day. Let’s say you stop at Starbucks in the morning for a cup of coffee… you open the application on your phone, you select the Starbucks, and hit a “check-in” button. If you’re feeling ambitious, you could even write a short message, “Getting my morning pick-me-up.” That’s it. Each time you check-in, you earn points based on a system of Foursquare’s devising, and you can unlock badges for certain aspects of your movements. check-in at several different venues and earn an “Explorer” badge. Visit one location more than anyone else and become “Mayor.”

Now, at least a few of you are asking yourselves why you would want to do that, and who really cares where you are and where you go throughout the day. Good questions. The answer is your friends might (with emphasis on the might), but the businesses that you frequent most certainly do (or should.)

So Foursquare began as a way for friends to check-in wherever they are and notify each other about what they’re up to, much the same way that Twitter was originally intended for friends to tell each other what they’re doing. But like Twitter is dramatically evolving based on how people are actually using it, Foursquare stands at a similar threshold.

The reason is that businesses are now realizing that people– some of their most loyal customers– are checking in at their stores, bars, restaurants, etc. And Foursquare sees an opportunity here: they’re beginning to morph the application into a way for businesses to communicate with these people, both known and unknown. If you check-in at a business enough to become the Mayor, you might earn yourself a special perk. If you simply check in and tell other people about it, you might be rewarded with a discount.

Because the application is location-aware (meaning it knows where you are), business owners can also add tips to help people find things “nearby”. So if you’re standing outside of a coffee shop, you might see that a competitor up the street is offering free pastries with a cup of coffee this morning, and adjust your purchase accordingly. As the owner of a business, you can add these tips to your location to help bring people in the door.

Much of the new development of Foursquare seems to be related to finding ways to better serve both the customers and the business owners using it, and I suspect we’ll see more robust tools to help you track and analyze what’s happening. But if you own a business that relies on walk in traffic, this is a creative way to build that traffic. And as the user base grows (100,000 new people joined in the last 10 days!) you might find it too useful to resist.

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Web Reviews

You Think Your Family is Awkward?

Indianapolis, IN - March 1, 2010

“You'll recognize this behavior as some sort of therapy, something along the lines of 'you can't expect me to be normal, look what my mother made me do.'”

– Jim Cota

This is an article I didn't want to write, for two reasons: First, I know several people regularly to read these articles and depend on me (to some degree) to keep them informed about 'what's happening' online. Second, sharing this guilty pleasure makes me feel a little... well, grimy. Especially in light of the first reason. But it seems to me that we've reached a point in our lives, with this economy, the unemployment rate, and tax day right around the corner, where we could use a good laugh. So I've decided it's time to tell you about Awkward Family Photos.

Now, it's true that there's a certain amount of poking fun at other people going on at Awkward Family Photos (AFP), but unlike other sites (for example, People of Walmart, many of the photos featured on AFP were actually provided by the people in the picture. (Once you've seen a few of them, you'll recognize this behavior as some sort of therapy, something along the lines of "you can't expect me to be normal, look what my mother made me do.")

Now, a quick word about People of Walmart. I can't keep you from wasting a good part of your day there, but you should be forewarned that to truly appreciate it requires some amount of pleasure at the expense of your fellow man. And woman. And, in some cases, gender isn't quite clear. On the other hand, it should be noted that the people featured here site dressed themselves and left their homes to go shopping. So, in some ways, I think they can be held accountable.

Awkward Family Photos, on the other hand, features the unfortunate result of people with some amount of creativity coupled with the desire to create something unique with their family mementoes, mostly with disastrously awkward results. There are photos of people stacked like lemmings, fanned out like flowers, or in groupings that are neither well thought out or appropriate for the occasion. The use of of the word 'inappropriate' related to a family picture may strike you as odd, but after spending no more than 45 seconds looking through the collection, you'll completely understand.

The site is really just a blog, with periodic postings of photos that are sent in, and sometimes with a headline or brief caption. Often, the photos stand alone and need neither, but every once in a while the sheer brilliance of the caption takes something simply awkward and makes it pure genius. Again, this is something that just needs to be experienced to be fully understood. But, as an example, see this gem of a photo titled "Eye Contact"

The site features a list of Most Popular, a regular "add your own caption" contest, and a relatively new cringe-inducing feature called "Behind the Awkwardness," where someone who is featured in the photo will attempt to explain what was going on in the minds of the participants. For example, regarding a photo of two boys in hockey gear kneeling in front of their shirtless, pregnant mother, one of the boys explains, "This is a photo of my mom, my brother, myself, and my soon to be born younger brother. A family friend talked mom into having us all pose for this photo. It went on to win some sort of award in a Newport, RI photo show. It also hung in our house while I was growing up, which made for some awkward moments when friends came over."

Occasionally, the site branches out into other awkward family moments, the most infamous being the Thanksgiving Letter offering one poor family members complete instructions on what to bring to 'help' with the annual feast. After reading it, you'll find yourself even more thankful for your own family, regardless of how disfunctional they may be. Still, the true heart of the site is the photos. I encourage you, whether you need a good laugh or an uncomfortable chuckle, to swing by and take a look.