The world already knows “what’s happening” and “what’s on your mind”, now online social networking has a new question for you: “where are you?”.
The latest craze: With the increasing popularity of smart phones and mobile internet capabilities enabling more people to be connected online on-the-go, location-based social networking services like Foursquare have taken off worldwide. www.foursquare.com
With the increasing popularity of smart phones and mobile internet capabilities enabling more people to be connected online on-the-go, location-based social networking has become a booming trend worldwide. Services such as Facebook Places, Foursquare and the Indonesian-based Yahoo!Koprol use the GPS capabilities of the smart phone to pinpoint users’ real-time location on a map at the point of connecting online.
By “checking-in” to certain venues such as cafés, bars, bookshops or parks, users of these location-based services can let friends know of their whereabouts, as well as participate in online games such as gaining points and badges for trying new places or for frequenting their favorite venues.
Location-based services can also act as a virtual city guide, with user-generated reviews helping others to navigate their city, discover new places, or meet people with similar interests and tastes.
Co-director of the Internet Special Projects Group at Charles Sturt University Geoff Fellows says that these online services provide information that may not be available in print.
“Location-based services are useful for those who like the adventure of wandering around a large city and finding those out-of-the-way places the ordinary tourist might miss. Yes, they could use a printed guide but these become out-of-date quickly. Online location-based services can keep information about places current.”
Of course, it’s not only users who benefit from online reviews and recommendations of venues.
Businesses are increasingly becoming aware of the advantages of online viral marketing, and are cashing in on the location-based social networking trend.
Foursquare has been particularly successful in the US as a marketing tool for venues such as bars and cafés, through encouraging businesses to offer discounts and freebies to Foursquare users who regularly “check-in” to a certain venue. While Foursquare has been slower to take off in Indonesia, the local equivalent Koprol was acquired by Yahoo! earlier this year, and holds strong ties with big regional brands such as Black Canyon Coffee, Blitzmegaplex and Celebrity Fitness.
Foursquare users in Jakarta complain that not enough businesses have taken the initiative to offer special deals through the online service to make using the application worthwhile. In this case, both users and businesses are losing out on a golden opportunity.
Wahidin Wong, founder and creative director of the Beegamax Creative marketing group says that online social networking is an effective marketing tool because it opens a two-way conversation between customers and brands.
“Nowadays, your brand is no longer what you say it is, but what they [customers] say it is. People join the conversation to share their opinion within these channels, which will have an impact on your brand value.”
The relationship between customers and brands may reveal a little about why users feel compelled to “check-in” to venues in the first place. One Jakarta Foursquare user jokes that he “checks in” to venues in order to boast to his friends about where he’s been.
“I forward my updates or ‘check-ins’ to Twitter, so my friends can know all the cool places I’ve visited,” he laughs.
Another user says that he uses the application because it’s simple to navigate, and connects directly with Facebook and Twitter to update his status.
With a personal profile and list of friends on each platform, not to mention a reputation to keep, online social networking can become a time-consuming task of personal image management. When users engage with brands through social networking sites, by “checking-in” to, “liking” or “following” a brand, they are also engaged in a shorthand process of branding themselves.
A brief visit to the Yahoo!Koprol homepage reveals that Indonesia’s social media-savvy urbanites are finding something to share about themselves and their location every couple of seconds, whether they are hungry, bored, in love or simply lonely.
Sharing feelings and experiences online may ease the sense that we are all alone in this world, but it rarely gives away any useful information. However, adding a specific location to your posts turns your soft data into hard data, adding another dimension entirely to issues of privacy online.
Early observers to pick up on this fact formed the spoof site pleaserobme.com, pointing out that advertising your whereabouts online is potentially dangerous for your home security.
“The danger is publicly telling people where you are,” the site claims. “This is because it leaves one place you’re definitely not... home.”
The now disabled site once streamed updates from services such as Foursquare and Twitter of users revealing their location away from home, facetiously suggesting that their houses can now be robbed.
Sharing your specific location online among friends, friends of friends, or within a wider network is also potentially dangerous for personal security. Even if you do not disclose your precise whereabouts publicly every time you “check-in”, patterns may be discernable from your previously disclosed habits and routines. Stalking, harassment and other types of predatory behavior may be facilitated through these new location-aware technologies.
Linking your location-based service account to your Facebook and Twitter accounts may seem like a good idea for saving time in individually updating your status on each site, but this can have privacy implications too.
While on Foursquare you may only be sharing that you just became the Mayor of Starbucks Tangerang, a quick link through to your Facebook account may also reveal the name of your wife, how many children you have, and perhaps even your phone number and date of birth.
One Foursquare user claims that he chose not to link his account to Facebook for this reason.
“Only my Foursquare friends can see my full profile or my complete whereabouts,” he says. “And only my Twitter friends can know my location updates. I also have the option to integrate Foursquare with Facebook, but I chose not to because Facebook sometimes changes our privacy settings.”
Issues of privacy and security will always come up when we reveal personal information online. But ultimately, like all online social networking sites, location-based services should be reasonably harmless when approached with a good knowledge of privacy issues, the right security settings, and a good measure of common sense.
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