Social Media For Suits

May 25th, 2010

The Business Of Geo-Location

Take a look at the image above. I’ve recreated it after seeing a similar picture in a copy of the Metro newspaper. It illustrated that people care about what is close to them. People like to do business with those who they can walk up to and shake hands with, people we can learn something about and share experiences. For that to happen, we either need to be close to those people, or communicate with them frequently using phone calls or emails, or do something else. That ‘something else’, is now becoming available to us in the form of geolocation software.

My phone is asking me to submit my location information for practically every application I use. And because of this I’ve started to spend some time exploring the use of geolocation services such as Foursquare, GoWalla, and Scvngr. After a few weeks playing with them, I can see the benefits of including it in your business strategy immediately.

How do these services work?

The premise of Foursquare for example, install the application on to your phone (currently only iPhone or Android operating systems) create a free account with the service, and document (or geo-tag) the locations you visit. Each time users ‘check-in’, points are awarded to that persons score. The more locations you visit, the more points you gain. Fail to attend a meeting or a date, or just not ‘check-in’ at that location on your phone, and you miss out on the points gained.

Similarly, GoWalla, encourages people to ‘check-in’, which gives status ‘points’ in the form of collected graphical items or badges. Illustrating the users commitment to playing the game.

Scvngr differs from Foursquare and GoWalla, by not only including a points based system like the others, but setting challenges for people to complete along the way. Encouraging people to say something and/or take a photo to gain extra points.

All the above services operate on a points based game theory, but aren’t strict enough to be used competitively, for example, I am technically able to ‘check-in’ to a location without actually visiting. However just because the game play isn’t perfect, it shouldn’t be ignored. The addictive inclusive nature, encourages interaction and dialogue across departments and offices… and may just be the key that you need to invigorate tired staff, at no extra cost.

How exactly can this work for your business?

If you operate a retail outlet, or a service centre for the public, you have the opportunity to learn more about your regulars from an unobtrusive distance, learning their habits, their frequency of visits, likes and dislikes. Who they are friends with and what they like about your business. You will gain the ability to reward them directly for their efforts. Starbucks have introduced discounts for Foursquare ‘mayors’ and FaceBook is working with MacDonalds to introduce checking in and showing featured food items in their posts. Examples such as these offers up a wealth of consumer engagement opportunities for businesses. But what about if you operate a call centre or distribution warehouse? What opportunities are available to you?

Apart from new and existing employees being able document their daily activities in a fun competitive way, they will also be encouraged to mix internally across departments, as well figure out uses that no-one has yet imagined. Checking in takes no time at all to complete, and creates a sense of value and comrardery often lacking in many workspaces. Creating an environment for new employees on their first working day with the use of geolocation services, becomes an internal viral method of inclusion, rather than plonking them down on a desk and hoping that they ‘make friends’ quickly.

Now think about if you knew everything about your customers—all of them, what they were eating, where they were visiting, what they were saying about various topics when they aren’t in your presence. Your employees, clients and customers, new or old, would be able to have a more personalised dialogue with your company and the people within it. If you are already thinking geolocation could improve your working environment, and want to begin, it is available to you today, now, for free, with little to no time/cost to your current operations.

You don’t even need to purchase anything, as so many mobile services are including them naturally in their applications. Want to test my theory? Print out a few A4 signs saying ‘Have you checked-in today?’ and put them up around the office wait a few minutes, your staff will do the rest. It’s that simple.

What is the catch?

Well, that depends on your business and your clients. These services, by their very nature gets to know the location not just of your offices externally, but internally as well, and potentially if users choose, sharing photos with some degree of short form commentary as well. Your business will literally be ‘mapped’.

What happens to that ‘public’ shared data?

Well, clearly the company application that you choose to utilise or promote your workplace, gets to see the popularity of whatever locations are mapped. That data may be sold on in future to local businesses who wish to know where people are gathering and what they are talking about. So effectively, depending on your business nature, you could be the direct beneficiary of encouraging geolocation activities on your premises. This aside, I think the benefits of building a strong, happy, healthy, communicative workforce are worth it alone, and as with all social media related activities, this will begin to happen with or without you, so why not be included right from the start?

Now take a look back up at that simple diagram above, if after reading all this, you still do not agree with me, then please disregard everything I’ve just said. You’re clearly not ready for geolocation in your business operations.

Though maybe your competitors are.

Author: Mark Mapstone