Location-based social services like Foursquare and Gowalla are taking steps to reduce the number of ‘Mayors’ who have gained their status unfairly.  Users of these services are bestowed the honor of Mayor, or other impressive-sounding titles, for having the most visits to a specific venue or business.   For some Mayors, this status entitles them to exclusive privileges like immediate seating at a restaurant.

Many venues, however, are reluctant to offer financial-related rewards like store credit or significant discounts because some Mayors have illegitimately won their mayorship by falsely claiming to check-in to a venue when really they are sitting at home on the couch.  Without the serious financial rewards, usage of location-based services will be hard pressed to grow beyond the early adopters.

To counter this problem, Foursquare has recently released a revoke feature that enables venue owners the ability to take away a users mayorship if they are an employee, or for ‘other reasons.’   It’s these ‘other reasons’ (i.e. false check-ins, or cheating) that pose the biggest challenge to the growth of location-based services.

The revoke feature is a good first step, but may not be the best long-term solution.  Store owners are already pressed for time running their businesses.  Do they really want another thing to do – revoking mayors?    In addition, the act of revoking a customer’s mayorship could put the owner in a contentious situation with that customer.  Imagine the PR problems caused by all the negative YouTube responses from shunned overlords stripped of their status.

A better solution might be one that is more automated and relieves the venue owner from having to get directly involved in the dirty work of revoking their mayors.  One proposed solution is GPS technology.  When the user submits a check-in, their phone sends the GPS coordinates with the check-in data to validate if the user is actually at the location. GPS is limited mostly to outdoor areas; however, GPS signals are hampered indoors, like in malls.

Another approach, as previously pointed out by Devin in his post, “Shopkick A model for stronger substantiation of location,” is to transmit an inaudible noise that is received by the Shopkick app running on the user’s phone.  This is a step closer to fully securing check-ins, but also has limitations.  Aside from annoying every dog that walks by, this approach does not allow means to track if someone has reached a precise point in space.  This may not be a big deal now, but does limit future location-based applications.  I also wonder if the ShopKick technology allows for multiple check-in points at a single venue.  

I do agree with ShopKick’s approach in that I believe the best solution for securing the check-in process  is by placing the check-in validation mechanism, typically hardware, at the physical location.   It needs to be a two part system:  the user brings one part into the venue, like a key of some sort, to match it up with the other part residing at the location.   Check-ins only occur when these two parts meet.  Right now, users can complete the check-in process from anywhere using an app on their phone.  There is no connection to the physical location.

The user needs to ‘do something’ at the location to get credit for their check-in.   One action could be requiring the user to  swipe an RFID tag over an internet-connected RFID reader.   Venue owners could pass out inexpensive RFID tags to their customers.  The customers register their tags online to gain access to VIP services at the venue.  The RFID tag contains a unique ID that is assigned to the user. Later, once Near Field Communications (NFC) gets implemented into all smart-phones, we can remove the RFID tag from the process and the user simply swipes their phone.   It only takes a few seconds to swipe, it’s automated, and the venue owner doesn’t have to do anything.  Most importantly, the check-in process becomes legitimized, which opens the door to more robust location-based mobile services .

Services like Foursquare have the potential to become a viable platform for commerce that can provide venue owners with what they need most – foot traffic.   The investment required to purchase RFID readers and tags is very  small in comparison to the potential payoff.

Social Media (Facebook & Twitter) Replacing Email:
Due to this increased use of social platforms and the changing demographics Gartner predicts that by 2014 20% of business users will be using social networking services for communication instead of emails. The value to marketers is that when positive engagement happens over social media platforms it has a multiplier effect that email does not. Inversely this also applies to negative experiences and is something that marketers have to be prepared for.

Implication: Marketers are working to understand and engage with their customers through these platforms. This includes the role that it has as it relates to CRM and customer service activity.

Social Media Behavior Insights & Marketing:
Given the growth of social media use, specially Facebook with over 500 million global users, consumers are providing a wealth of data that can provide marketers with key insights for product development, marketing messaging optimization and advertising targeting. These opportunities go beyond the traditional demographic targeting of the past as consumers are now publicly sharing their interests, behaviors and social connections.

Implication: Marketers can actively listen to consumer online conversation for key insights; begin to engage users based on their expressed interests and leverage social network platforms and features (such as Facebook Social Plug-in) to scale branded online experiences to the users’ social network.

Mobile Web Becomes a Priority:
Given the current rate of adoption mobile web access is expected to overtake fixed internet access by 2014. This is driven by the mainstream adoption of smartphone devices (such as the iPhone, Android, BlackBerry and Windows), the introduction of “broadband” mobile access (wi fi, 3G+) and affordable mobile data rate plans.

Implication: Marketers need to priorities their mobile web experience with a focus on optimizing the creative, content and context for what they provide to end users.

Location Based Mobile Check In Services:
Given the advent of services such as Facebook Places, Foursquare and Gowalla, marketers are able to begin to directly connect physical customer activity to digital experiences. Though these services customers are able to verify their specific location and share their experiences within their social network

Implication: Marketers can begin to offer incentives for location / retail specific activity, this includes driving initial customer engagements/trial and rewarding loyalty behavior. This activity also provides a platform for a force multiplier given the activity is shared within the network.

Online Video Consumption:
Online video consumption continues to grow with over 85% of the total U.S. Internet audience viewing online video in August of this year. Of this, video ads accounted for over 10% of all videos viewed. Sites such as YouTube and Hulu are offering improved content and advertising opportunities while subscription video services such iTunes, Netflix, Hulu Plus and Amazon are offering consumers a strong alternative to traditional network and cable networks.

Implication: Marketers are beginning to think about how they can create video content that is relevant in the context of the online experience. This goes beyond just leveraging traditional commercial assets to more effectively engage consumers on an ongoing basis.

Sources:

http://www.socialtimes.com/2010/02/facebook-twitter-email/

http://www.gartner.com/it/page.jsp?id=1293114

http://gigaom.com/2010/04/12/mary-meeker-mobile-internet-will-soon-overtake-fixed-internet/

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/comscore-releases-august-2010-us-online-video-rankings-104090133.html

For those unfamiliar with Groupon, it is essentially an email marketing offer that consumers can opt-in to receive a daily email highlighting a product or service, usually from a local company, at a heavily discounted rate (between 35% and 85% off the regular price). I have participated in Groupon a few times, opting to purchase for myself and as a gift. Some examples of products/services include; Massage/salon services, flowers and home décor, and food and drink.

With 218,000+ “likes” on Facebook and offering deals in more than 150 cities across the nation, founder and CEO Andrew Mason has created a way to bring buyers and sellers together to offer an unbeatable deal. Groupon claims that they have “saved consumers more than $300 million dollars to date and has generated millions in revenue for the business it features.” (http://www.crunchbase.com/company/groupon)

from www.compete.com

Don’t tell that to Jessie Burke, a coffeeshop owner in Portland, OR. She almost saw her business go under because of Groupon. According to Burke, Groupon sold customers a $13 credit for the coffeeshop for $6, and then sought to keep the entire $6. Eventually, Groupon and Burke ended up settling on a 50/50 split and each got $3 from each purchase. Groupon’s $3 was nearly pure profit, but the coffeeshop had to use that $3 to cover $13 worth of food and drink. (http://blog.redfin.com/blog/2010/09/groupons_success_disaster.html) With over $1000 groupons sold for the promotion, the Groupons took a financial toll on Burke’s bottom line. The pitch that Groupon sold in was that the amazing deal would attract new customers and then would result in repeat business. According to Burke, that was not the case. “Over the six months that the Groupon is valid, we met many, many wonderful new customers, and were so happy to have them join the Posies family. At the same time we met many, many terrible Groupon customers… customers that didn’t follow the Groupon rules and used multiple Groupons for single transactions, and argued with you about it with disgusted looks on their faces or who tipped based on what they owed.”

On 9/15/10, Groupon Atlanta offered a daily deal for Donna Dawes Photography. The deal was a 1 hour photo shoot, and 8”x10” print, a DVD of the images, and 20% off additional prints for $65 (approx $500 value) WOW! That deal seemed too good to be true, and as it turned out, it most definitely was. In the discussion thread that Groupon offers on the site, a user noticed that upon visiting the website of the photographer, she had been promoting her work with stolen images from other photographers and over-promising to deliver services that would be too difficult for a small company to carry out. Users became suspicious as to how a small photography shop would be able to handle the over 2,000 Groupons and a barrage of comments began flooding the discussion boards. The deal was eventually pulled and customers were refunded their money.

Sentiment before 9/1

Sentiment graph 9/1-9/17

Tag Cloud - Keywords before 9/1

Tag Cloud - Keywords After 9/1

You can see with the graphs and tag clouds on the left that there has been an increase in negative sentiment towards Groupon since the start of September. We can attribute this negativity to the issues seen over the past 2 weeks.

This calls into question whether Groupon should enforce limits when deals like this are unreasonable, which is currently on the onus of the merchant. (http://techcrunch.com/2010/09/16/groupon-photography/) Groupon states that they offer merchants to cap the deal, but when a small business like Posie’s and Donna Dawes Photography are sold in on the opportunity to gain hundreds (if not thousands) of new customers, the temptation can be too great. The question then becomes, “Should Groupon be more diligent about screening out deals offered by small businesses, or should that ultimately be the responsibility of the business owner? We will watch closely as this story continues to evolve. Let us know what you think.

Update: You can read Groupon’s response here: http://groublogpon.com/cities/too-much-of-a-good-thing/

Twitter revealed a re-engineered version of its website today at a press conference. According to Twitter’s blog, the new and improved interface features:

New design:
The site has a cleaner timeline and a rich details pane that instantly adds more impact to individual Tweets while still maintaining the simplicity of the timeline. And, experience infinite scroll — you no longer have to click “more” to view additional Tweets.

Media:
Now, it’s easy to see embedded photos and videos directly on Twitter, thanks to partnerships with DailyBooth, deviantART, Etsy, Flickr, Justin.TV, Kickstarter, Kiva, Photozou, Plixi, Twitgoo, TwitPic, TwitVid, USTREAM, Vimeo, yfrog, and YouTube.

Related content:
When you click a Tweet, the details pane shows additional information related to the author or subject. Depending on the Tweet’s content, you may see: replies, other Tweets by that user, a map of where a geotagged Tweet was sent from, and more.

Mini profiles:
Click a username to see a mini profile without navigating from the page, which provides quick access to account information, including bio and recent Tweets.

These changes will roll out as a preview over the next several weeks starting with a very small percentage of registered accounts today. During the preview, users will be able to switch back and forth so they have time to grow accustomed to the way things work. Eventually, everyone will have the updated version of Twitter.com.

Perhaps it’s because most people truly are good people (that’s another question all together), maybe people just like to look smart, more likely it’s because when you have a passion you want to share that passion.  But the bottom line may be even simpler: because we can!

We can share.  We can share information, knowledge, ideas, and anything else we can think to share.

So skipping ahead quite a bit in the evolution of the internet to today; Facebook and Twitter are the current best examples of this concept of sharing.

So what does all this have to do with SEO?  Search engines have always wanted to give their users (you doing a search) the best possible results.  They’ve always struggled (and are constantly tweaking) to figure out the optimal way to determine the VERY subjective decision of “best”.   What they have figured out is that they certainly aren’t the only one who should decide this answer, and maybe not even the best to decide.  We are.  And since we can’t tell Google directly what we like best – at least not every single one of us can, all at once; Google has figured out a way to get that answer without us telling them.  How?  By learning what we share.  What we find enough value in that we’re willing to risk our reputation as a trusted friend, colleague or family member to say – I like this, you may like it too.  Most of us don’t take this lightly.

What do we link to?  What do we post on Facebook?  What do we Tweet about?  What do we comment about on other’s blogs?  What blogs do we subscribe to?

So have I lost you again?  What does this have to do with SEO?

Everything.

As I sat in session after session on a variety of topics of best practices, tips and guidelines for better search marketing it was ultimately all SEO.  It was all to improve SEO.  Even if most people don’t recognize that.

Why do we work so hard to create great content?  So people will like it.  Why do we want them to like it? So they’ll share it.

Why do we tweet about our products, latest news and sales?  So people will know about it.  What will people do if they find something they like?  They’ll share it.

Why do we update our Facebook status – sometimes entirely too often?  Because we want to share with people.

Why do we do press releases?  So people will know about our latest news.  What do reporters do when they have noteworthy news – they share it – it’s their job.

Why do we do PPC?  So more people will come to our site – the more people that come to our site the more chances someone will share our site with someone else.

Why do we put Like, Tweet, Digg and Share This buttons on every page of our website?  Well, if you don’t know by now I’m done.

So for the last time: What does this have to do with SEO?  I think you’ve figured out.  If everything we do on our websites (even off our websites) is so people will share it and a hugely important factor (although obviously not everything – there is no SEO magic bullet) for search rankings is how popular we are, and that popularity is determined in large part by how often others share us, the math is simple.  It’s all about SEO.

Most times the snippit in a SERP is pulled from the meta description tag of the page when present.  This means the often-overlooked meta description tag has the potential to increase the click through rate of a website’s organic listings in search engines.  While this may not be a startling revelation to some SEO’s, the importance of this tag is too often dismissed by some.  This is likely due to the fact it is widely considered search algorithms to not equate meta descriptions into their rankings.  What this study has validated is that a compelling and informative description tag can drive more traffic to your site by enticing the user to click.  Since click through rates are thought to be a component of search engine algorithms, in a roundabout way the description tag might actually improve your site’s rankings.  An interesting next step for this study would be to analyze when the snippit uses the same keyphrase as the query how does that increase the click through rate?  How does it impact the user’s engagement with the snippit?  The study is translated in English and summarized at Dynamical.biz.

Here’s a list of some things that have changed in the new version of Digg, so you can decide for yourself:

• Added the ability to “follow” your friends as well as brands/publishers
• Connected with Facebook, Twitter and Google so it’s easy for you to find your friends
• Included a suggested user list that makes it easier to find brands/publishers you want to follow
• Added a “My News” stream that shows the stories users you’re following digg
• Put a “Digg It” submission bar at the top of your homepage to make it easy to submit content
• Included new tools to make it easier to share content via Twitter, Facebook and email
• Added some new features, including one that lets you save a story for later

Plus, Digg is also working to improve its content by recruiting big brands, promising to “help publishers drive traffic and revenue, including improved analytics and reporting, additional incoming feed capabilities, and improving the discovery process to ensure all publishers are being found and followed on Digg.”

Read more

So, what’s the verdict? Will you use Digg more? Less? Do you think Digg will be more successful overall?

During our wait, it occurred to me that we needed some kind of app with a cotton candy button. When we press the cotton candy button, we’re prompted to enter our section and seat number. The app would alert the cotton candy guy who is also logged into the same app, but viewing a graphic of the stadium seating chart. When our call for cotton candy comes through, a blip on his radar appears and he can start heading our way. He could even send us a quick message that he’s on his way, maybe even an estimated time of arrival. This way, we won’t get weak and settle for the $1 dollar candy bar instead of the $5 cotton candy.

Of course, such an app could be used for hot dogs and nachos too, and it may even change the way the vendors work together. Who knows, maybe more $5 cotton candy would be sold – bringing in higher revenues for the vending company.

Until then, my son and I will just have to wait for the elusive cotton candy man. What? I could get out of my seat and get my own cotton candy? No, sorry, couldn’t possibly do that. I might miss some exciting Royals action.

First, customers go to 4food.com and select ingredients to make their custom burger. Next, they share their creation on Twitter and Facebook. (Remind anyone else of the Wonder-izer?!) When their friends see their creations, they can’t help but get hungry.  They make their own burger on 4food.com or order their friend’s creation which earns him or her 25 cents off his or her lunch. Smart, right?! And that’s not even the only way customers can rack up serious discounts. 4food also has an in-restaurant leader board “menu” which features the most popular burgers and helps their creators get even closer to those free lunches.

Read more

Image: 4food.com as cited by The New York Times