Is Geolocation Really the Next Big Thing for Nonprofits?

Maggie McGary
September 15, 2010
3 comments

I honestly am not trying to be self-serving by rehashing a post from my own blog, but I was shocked how much traction my post about Foursquare Fatigue got over the weekend and had some additional thoughts as a result of all the comments and tweets.

I wrote how my enthusiasm for Foursquare has definitely waned, and wondered if anyone else was thinking Foursquare may have jumped the shark. I’m the first to admit my blog usually doesn’t get a ton of traffic or tweets of posts. So I was shocked when, on a Sunday afternoon, I happened to do a Twitter search to see if anyone had retweeted it and saw dozens of results. Mostly because Social Media Today picked up the post, of course, but I also had several comments on my own post.

The two things I found most interesting about the flurry of activity were the sheer number of tweets — several hundred — as well as the comments that brought up something I hadn’t really thought of before. Namely, that of those who enthusiastically disagreed with my “has Foursquare jumped the shark?” question, most of them lived in big cities where Foursquare is popular and very actively used. Those who live in the suburbs — like me — agreed with my assertions that Foursquare is quickly losing any luster it may have originally had.

So, making a huge generalization that Foursquare is mainly popular in big cities or among younger bar-hopping crowds, is it still a tool that associations and nonprofits should be considering as a “next big thing”? Or is it a tool that’s best suited to restaurants, bars and other brick & mortar establishments? I found it interesting that on a recent post about Foursquare’s new insights feature for businesses on Foursquare Indy’s site, they include the statement

“One caveat, though free, foursquare is focusing on businesses like bars, restaurants, businesses and other venues of significance. Don’t waste your time or foursquare’s trying to register a corporate office, home, etc.”

What do you think–are we wasting our and/or Foursquare’s time adding our convention venues or offices?

tiburon

Tagged as: Foursquare

Comments have been disabled for this post.
Sort: Newest | Oldest
Maddie Grant

This is a great post and WOW on all the comments on the SMT and on your post! I believe I left a comment over there originally but I also wanted to respond here as I've been thinking more about it. Personally I feel that Foursquare just doesn't provide enough value right now. In other words it has totally jumped the shark for me!

To explain a little more why I say that, I should preface by saying
a) I don't care about discounts, and
b) I don't care about winning badges (not enough to work at getting them. It was fun when it was easy).

So if you remove those two reasons for using the app, then I would want to use it for social reasons - but it's TOTALLY NOT SOCIAL. You can't chat with your friends when you check in somewhere! I don't understand that. If I go out, and want to know if anyone I know is where I am or nearby, I can see them using the "nearby" tab but I can't connect except by leaving the app. ???

By contrast, much as I detest Facebook, the very first time I used FB Places and checked in at the Westin in LA, I had a ton of friends comment immediately. It felt totally different. It felt like I was connected to PEOPLE, not just to some random place.

From a privacy point of view, too, I trust my friends on FB enough to tell them where I am. On Foursquare, I have connected with lots of random people over time since it was the complete deadzone when I started using it - so now there's a huge creepiness factor. I also have turned off notifications from just about everyone, as they were just spam-like with very few people (including me) sending out actual messages with their checkins. Maybe it's like the "Twitter's about what you had for lunch" myth coming back to bite me in the butt in some weird karmic way, but I do feel like Foursquare is just proof of not only how boring we all are (I mean, you're at CVS? really? wow.) but also how much we consume, consume, consume, all the time. We're either shopping or eating or leaving a carbon footprint at some airport 98% of the time, then with 1% being somewhere interesting and 1% being on a boat, so I'm now jealous. I know I've gone off on one but I find it all horribly depressing!

And since we're talking about associations, specifically, I wonder whether any association will have enough of a critical mass of members on Foursquare to do anything useful with it - if we're talking about using it around a conference, a lot of orgs are looking into event apps, so that's a whole other reason why there seems to be ne overarching reason to add Foursquare to that mix.

OK, I'm done now. Sorry :)

share
  • spam
  • offensive
  • disagree
  • off topic
 Like
Lynn Morton

Maggie,

I think I've said this before on my blog, but if not, I've been thinking about it for a very long time... I don't think Foursquare will have the same impact for associations as it does for brick & mortar places (museums, theatres, etc. are good examples of places that could capitalize on Foursquare).

I'm a complete social marketing junkie at times, but I also don't believe that every tool is right for every situation. There are ways to adapt an modify what you are doing if the tool is the right tool, but that's the question that people are missing from the equation. Instead of saying "I have such and such goal and this tool will help achieve that," people are jumping the shark and saying that "We need to be on Foursquare" without a second thought to WHY.

So though I'm a Foursquare addict and will shout from the rooftops how much I love it, it doesn't mean that it is right for every organization. I will say that it can help connect people at events, so if you use it in concert with a tool like Twitter, your event attendees can have a very positive Foursquare experience.

~Lynn

share
  • spam
  • offensive
  • disagree
  • off topic
 Like

Previous post:

Next post: