Are you location-aware?

Internet traffic to FourSquare has increased by 400% since October 2009. Akanksha Goel, founder, Socialize

Socialize founder Akanksha Goel explains why location-based networking is the missing ingredient to your marketing mix

With the blithering hyperbole surrounding social media in the region over the past year, marketers now want to look beyond just Facebook, Twitter and ask ‘what’s next?’ Many have come forward with predictions of the biggest trends following social networking and microblogging. Sometimes they’re right and sometimes they’re wrong. And sometimes the only way for us to notice trends and change is to be a part of them. In social media it is becoming clear that the big thing for 2010 is location aware networks.

Did you know your guests can now ‘check-in’ to your hotel or even one of your outlets virtually? And that you can track your guests by seeing where else they have ‘checked into’ during their stay? This is now possible with FourSquare, a new type of social networking tool that has re-invented terms like ‘check-in’ and given people an opportunity to be ‘mayors’.

In a nutshell, Foursquare is a location-based network based on the new ‘where are you?’ rather than the old ‘what’s on your mind?’. With the creation of FourSquare, you can now inform your friends of your location by merely clicking ‘check in’ on your mobile device or laptop. This will update your status on the network, telling people where you are. FourSquare is a great tool that lets you share where you are and add tips and reviews of cafés, shops, restaurants, bars, and theatres. From a business perspective it can offer invaluable insight into who visits your business, how often, where else they go and what they think about it.

I’m a self-confessed ardent user of FourSquare, but the hype about location-based networks is mounting and for good reason.

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Here are three ways that location-based social networks, like FourSquare, can help you drive innovation in marketing:

1. FourSquare generates repeat business. People will keep coming to your hotel, bar or restaurant to become the ‘mayor’ of it. They will also compete to stay mayor and, as a result, customer loyalty is buoyant.
2. Location-based networks inform people that your business is in the same proximity as them at the moment they come into the vicinity, which makes you more discoverable and accessible.
3. Various opportunities are presented to give suggestions, discounts or even receive reviews. For example, a new guest at your hotel could find a few tips on which restaurant in your hotel to eat at or what to order there.

For years now, Facebook and Twitter have been taking the lead, making people’s daily lives interactive and less monotonous. And now with location-based social networking, even the two giant social networks are starting to add optional geo-tags to status updates.

According to the US research firm, Hitwise, internet traffic to FourSquare has increased by 400% since October 2009; and that doesn’t even count all of the users who access the service via third party mobile applications.

In Dubai, hotels such as the Crowne Plaza and InterContinental Dubai Festival City have joined the wave of businesses utilising FourSquare, and now have intensive interactions with their guests through this medium.This is a clear example of businesses reaping the rewards of FourSquare’s meteoric growth by offering limited promotions to people who are “checked-in” the area.

InterContinental DFC has been in the marketing forefront for a while now. The hotel’s online marketing executive Rob Singleton says: “The potential of FourSquare for hotel marketing is palpable from the successes it has seen with bars and restaurants in the US. Presently, FourSquare is in its infancy in the Middle East, however, we have seen a rise in its use in the past few months, so the trend would suggest this could continue to grow. Geo-social networking is the evolutionary next step. In my view, it could become a valuable tool in encouraging loyalty amongst patrons of our outlets”.

The fact that FourSquare is linked to social networking sites which are already used by hoteliers is an advantage noted by Marwa Sayed Afify, marketing and communications manager at Crowne Plaza Dubai.

“It’s a new era of the word of mouth tool that provides last minute information as well as an open channel of communication between yourself and your guests which has an incredibly effective impact, especially since it is linked to two of the major social hubs, Facebook and Twitter,” says Afify.

“It’s a bit tricky being that exposed though, because if only one customer who has had a bad experience at your hotel or restaurant went there, it’s double the damage! Thus, ensuring that every and each guest experience is a positive one has always been a big priority in our industry,” she adds.

FourSquare might take the lead in America, and potentially in Dubai, but it is not the only option out there; the most popular location-based social network in Saudi Arabia is Gowalla.com, for example. Indeed, location-based networking is not as new as you might think, although the history of it is somewhat shaky. Location features were incorporated into mobile phones as early as 2000, but earlier social networks built around the technology, such as Dodgeball, failed to gain a foothold.

Dodgeball, which relied on text message blasts to update users on their friends’ activities, was founded by Crowley and then sold in 2005 to Google, which eventually shut it down.

FourSquare and Gowalla stand a stronger chance of long-term success because, from the hospitality industry point of view, it’s free of charge, effective and although it might take some effort, the only downside is exposure to criticism. But if your standards are lofty enough and you need an innovative, low-budget marketing scheme, promoting your business in the virtual world of mayors and rewards may be another string to your bow.