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How Companies Are Using Data From Foursquare
wjousts writes: Technology Review reports on how businesses use data from all those Foursquare check-ins. "Merchants can analyze various metrics over time, including how many check-ins are recorded each day, who the most recent and most frequent visitors are, how visitors who check in break down by gender, and what time of day the most people check in; businesses with multiple locations can aggregate statistics to fit their needs. Foursquare provides the same platform 'for Joe's coffee shop and Starbucks,' says Eric Friedman, Foursquare's director of business development, but companies use the tools and data in different ways, depending on their specific objectives. "
I dont see how any of these metrics are actually useful in business decisions. What percentage of people actually check in, and of those that do, I bet they actually share quite a bit in common.
Your hair look like poop, Bob! - Wanker.
That's odd.
All I've seen of Foursquare is that a limited number of people ever check in from any place that I've spot checked.
Some of us cheat it anyways. There's a workaround for checking in places that you aren't physically at. So I check in at arbitrary places, preferably at or very close to government facilities that makes the tinfoil hat crowd go nuts. So, following my "trail" shows me being anywhere but where I actually am.
I'm fond of companies tracking us and selling that information. I'm happier when I've seeded their data with so much false information that it's virtually impossible to guess which is right.
And it's not that I'm one of the folks wearing a tinfoil hat too tight. I just like privacy. I don't think the government is following me. They already know where to find me. :) It's pesky people like private investigators working for someone trying to make easy money through bogus lawsuits. Go ahead, follow the trail. It's good for dealing with crazy ex-girlfriends too. :)
Serious? Seriousness is well above my pay grade.
This kind of thing is vulnerable to liars. You think anyone is going to check in at McDonald's? Or XXX-movie mart? What about the movies when the person is supposed to be at work?
The whole thing is a sham that will promote businesses where people would want others to think they are, instead of businesses where people REALLY are.
CHECKING IN AT THE WHOREHOUSE!
The dangers of knowledge trigger emotional distress in human beings.
As a user I could see some real interesting uses for the data.
It would be nice if you could see which clubs and restaurants are getting the most check ins. You would know the hot spots. Even better would be knowing when they are getting the check ins. Maybe you could see when that restaurant you want to try has the least check ins so you get the wait the least amount of time.
Age data would be cool as well. If a place is loaded with people that are younger or older then you are you may want to avoid that as well.
That is where foursquare I think is falling down a bit. Discovery tools.
See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
Really, the future trend in marketing will be VRM, not CRM.
Over the past 3 months I have seen a dramatic drop off of Foursquare use. I have about 60 friends that all use it and it has went from a furious competition to only about 4 that actually still use it. In fact I have not checked into anyplace for over a week. It's too much of a bother. Plus any rewards for using it are near invisible. Most of the time you check in AFTER you have ordered so you see the special you now cant use.
They need a major revamping like cache all my places so I dont have to wait for 2 minutes for it to find my location and then pull the location list.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
I think the biggest question is economic class. Sure, this works for Starbucks because Starbucks is a higher end retailer who's users are tech savvy. But this does nothing for Family Dollar who's users are all over the gambit. This means, then, that you can only poll a certain section of the populous, whereas, using instore data makes more since for most businesses which captures 100% of data, rather than a subset (bothers to check in) or a subset (uses Foursquare) or a subset (owns a smartphone).
The other problem is time is automatically skewed. People running to the store late night to pick up toilet paper are unlikely to check in, especially on a weekday. But those trying out a new steakhouse on a Saturday afternoon are more likely to check in. So the time data is naturally skewed to recreational times.
While I applaud this as a way to see when advertising deals on social networks may best impact your business, this by no means will help you determine if you need to make sure your toilet paper is fully stocked at 3am.
I8-D
You hit the nail on the head!
Consultants looooove these kinds of metrics because they can spend a half-hour with a customer bombing them with intelligent-looking numbers and then go have lunch. At no point during this exchange will anything business related have transpired, apart from the consultant's bill.
The dangers of knowledge trigger emotional distress in human beings.
can we all agree that we hate anyone that checks in at their house and/or workplace?
i have two criteria for checkins - either restaurants/bars/clubs or unique stuff (landmarks and stuff) - anything else and i just don't see the use.
Not too much different than credit card data... except you don't always spend money when you check in somewhere with Foursquare. So it's like the spam of data harvesting... I bet the hit rate for usable information is really really weak.
M
Browse at 1. You'll thank me later.
What's foursquare?
Foursquare is a silly game. The number of people who use it are so trivial, that it really doesn't provide any useful data. On top of that, only the most techie geek people use it. Most people do not walk around with pants computers out when they're walking into restaurants/retail establishments.
I don't respond to AC's.
There is an uncomfortable line between getting people to spend money that they were going to spend anyway on your product rather than somebody else's and getting people to spend money they don't have. Unfortunately, I don't think most businesses care about that distinction. In fact, it seems like most consumers don't care either.
It is not dying, it just reached IPO time.
Rethinking email
printed paid content - and /. falls for it.
Given how inaccurate I've found FourSquare to be (I can be standing 6 feet from a store, and it can't find it... and when I search by name, I find oodles of variations of the name because people can't spell. Maybe it's Tonys, maybe it's Tony's, maybe it's Tony's Pizza, maybe it's Tony's Pizzeria, maybe it's Tonys Pizza Place, etc...) I don't see how the data collected could ever be very useful...
...if your target metric is trendoid self-absorbed hipsters.
No kidding... shortly after I first heard about FourSquare and realised that it *hadn't* actually been made up by The Onion, the first thing I thought was "that's... *very* Nathan Barley".
Pecantically, it's more like a slightly smarter version of Nathan Barley from the early-2000s grew up a bit (without becoming any more likeable) and decided to make some money by exploiting today's early-twentysomething, wannabe narcissistic tossers, i.e. the Nathan Barley: The Next Generations.
Barf.
"Slashdot - News and Chat Sites Deviant". (Click "homepage" link above for details).
I've come close to quitting several times, it just feels kind of pointless usually - but then last night I checked in someplace and a friend I hadn't seen in nearly a year also checked in. Realizing we were both there we hung out and had an awesome night, our girlfriends had never met and they both seemed to really hit it off, and we invited each other to some upcoming events we mutually share interests in but one or the other of us hadn't known of. Considering how crowded the place was I doubt we would of run into each other had it not been for foursquare. It was a cool experience and has made me reconsider the utility of foursquare.