We have been a little obsessed with the possibilities of location-based social networks and gaming platforms lately so we decided to check ourselves instead of checking in. We hope you enjoy this tongue-in-cheek look at the LBS space. As always, if you have questions about how to activate with this stuff, drop us a tweet (@schneidermike or @EricLeist), leave us a comment, or contact us here.

(left to right) Mike Schneider, Leighann Farrelly, Phil Thomas Di Giulio and Wayne Sutton (photo by @leximaven)

Our own Mike Schneider moderated this week’s MITX panel discussion titled “To Check-In or Not To Check-In? The Opportunities of Location Based Social Networking.” The panel consisted of Pegshot co-founder Phil Thomas Di Giulio, Yelp Boston Marketing Director Leighann Farrelly, and Wayne Sutton, Business Development & Marketing Strategist for TriOut.

We’ve aggregated some of the key insights and tweets from the panel discussion. Enjoy!

Key insights:

• Businesses should take an active role in promoting check-ins and brand engagement on location-based services.
• Each LBS has a different spin. Pegshot puts content first and location second. Triout puts community first, then location. Whrrl puts check-ins first and then integrates a post-checkin experience. Yelp puts food and reviews first and check-ins further down on the priority list. These subtle nuances help to differentiate each service.
• Businesses will have to figure out how to treat data from LBS platforms. That data currently only represents a fraction of a customer base. Marketers need to devise ways of proving the value on these new platforms.
• Check-ins are a means to an end. Businesses and LBS services will have to work together to drive measurable action from those check-ins.

From the Twitterverse:

Are you using an LBS? How are you seeing marketers use these new platforms? Want to talk more about location-based services and some of the goodies we’re working on at a&g? Drop us a tweet (@schneidermike or @EricLeist), leave us a comment, or contact us here.

Last week, I was at the Microsoft NERD (New England Research and Development) center listening to Dennis Crowley explain foursquare’s vision for location based social networking. For the uninitiated, foursquare uses the GPS on your smartphone to allow you to “check in” to locations and leave tips for your friends while competing for digital rewards such as badges or titles such as “Mayor”. Dennis, foursquare’s co-founder and CEO, is an impressive guy, and despite all the recent hype foursquare is an impressive network. It’s growing at a faster rate than Twitter did in its first year, expecting to be able to announce one million users in the next few weeks.

To use Dennis’s phrase, foursquare has “broken out of the tech nerd ghetto”, and is now just as likely to be mentioned by the New York Times as TechCrunch. By partnering with brands such BravoTV, Pepsi and SPIN, foursquare (and its main competitor, Gowalla) is on the cusp of becoming a serious contender for inclusion in any social media plan.

After Dennis’ presentation I stopped by one of our client’s restaurants. Checking in on foursquare I looked up the Mayor. Out of curiosity I checked out several dozen other locations of the same client’s stores. Not surprisingly, several dozen Mayors were in place. Now, needless to say, there’s a lot you can learn from your Mayors. By definition, they are fans and usually advocates. Many will tell you what they think about your location. You can see which of your competitors they visited, and how often. You can see where else they have the title of Mayor. You can even see what their friends look like. If this isn’t enough context Facebook and Twitter links provide even more insight. Need to build a persona of your social advocates? Once foursquare scales this will be a great resource!

Geo-tagging is more prevalent than you think. It’s time to meet your Mayors.

This year major brands had huge presences at SXSW Interactive. Three put themselves out there in a big way, but one of them went the extra mile to entangle themselves in the very fabric of SXSW this year. Very few people came away from this year’s conference without a Chevrolet story or experience. They understood that the people at the conference were a channel for them and they gave social media influencers like Joe Jaffe, CC Chapman, Shira Lazar compelling content for their followers. AOL sponsored. Pepsi sponsored and dipped their toe in, but Chevrolet really test drove earned media. AOL and Pepsi both had giant experiences, but fell short.

The AOL seed booth was good looking, but AOL offered nothing in terms of substance. Nobody was in the booth. No one cared about their slushes or their workstations. They essentially brought their own version of last year’s Pepsi experience and it was a flop.

Pepsi came with a new version of their Zeitgeist on 6 giant screens. They sponsored content hosted by Shira Lazar with big personalities like Dennis Crowley of FourSquare, LL Cool J and even Chris Barger of Chevy. Still they missed the target though as their Refresh Project was practically buried in a kiosk with little fanfare. They had owned media and, in this marketer’s opinion, did not effectively use earned to get eyeballs, registrations of activation.

Chevrolet however tested. And when I say they tested, they tried nearly every vehicle in the earned media fleet.

Partnered with Gowalla
Immediately Chevrolet recognized that Gowalla would be this year’s killer app (FourSquare was the maiming app). They created unique experiences for people checking into Gowalla including rides from the airport for random people checking in at the airport (including a&g’s SVP Director of Strategy, Graham Nelson and me) and giveaways of limited edition Hot Wheels.



Tangent: Gowalla also gave away random VIP badges to their shindig at The Belmont, but that’s another blog post

Rod Begbie from GroovyMother.com’s VIP Badge.



Test Drive of the Volt
Chevy invited social medialites like Campfire’s CC Chapman and Gowalla CEO Josh Williams to test drive the new Volt as well as other cars in the Fleet. Impressions were captured and posted to their YouTube channel.

CC Chapman on the Chevy Volt

Williams on the Chevy Volt

Sponsored Charging
Chevy also did their research. They knew that the big problem with SXSW 2009 was a lack of places to power up. They created the Chevy Volt Charging station and also had Volt branded powerstrips (COOL ones) throughout the hallways. It was tough to find one unoccupied, but each had about 10 outlets so you could easily share and meet the person who was plugged in.

Sponsored gatherings
Chevrolet had a party at Lance Armstrong’s Bike Shop. They also brought a group of people they met at the show (and who participated in and evangelized about their experiences) to the famous Salt Lick. Since Salt Lick is a tad off the SXSW beaten path, they took the opportunity to create additional content. Jason Falls, Jodie Gersh and I participated (video has yet to be published).






More Marketing Activities
This wasn’t the end. They had QR codes on all of the vehicles. They participated in and created video content everywhere.

Scratched the Surface
In one of my conversations with Chris Barger, Director, Global Communications Technology for General Motors, I talked to him about allen & gerritsen’s philosophy on paid / owned / earned media and how the things that Chevrolet did at SXSW are a piece of an even grander puzzle. They created awareness and engagement for Chevrolet. They changed the way that some people think about how Chevy innovates. At the end of the day, however, we do not know how many cars it sold, or if it did sell cars. The lost opportunity was to drive people (see what I did there?) to a community. The content is fragmented between earned media properties like Gowalla, Facebook, Flickr, Twitter and YouTube. Chevrolet needs to curate the conversation in their own gallery. They need to drive interested parties to their site so that they can analyze the impact of their hard work and innovation. Aggregation of earned media activity streams combined with value added content in a measurable environment is the ideal. And, it is highly achievable. Hopefully, Chris and I can have another round of beers and discuss this further. This time, the beer is on me.

Thanks to Twitter and Facebook, the crowd has a really good idea about what you do during a given day.  iPhone and Android’s onboard GPS has given way to location based social networks like BrightKite, Foursquare and Gowalla,  which allow you to tell your friends where you are and how often you go there. Location based applications are the next frontier, and in fact are predicted to be next year’s big thing, offering unlimited possibility for communication by geography and, of course, advertising.

My last two sessions at SXSW 2009 featured players in location based social networking. I remember being fascinated by how they approached it primarily because Gregory Ng and I concepted our own in 2007 (prior owning an iPhone and iPhone’s “reliable” GPS).

Applications

Each of the location based apps have the ability to figure out where a person is located.  The user “checks in” to locations, signifying their arrival.  In addition, the user is able to send messages to let people know what they are doing.

BrightKite allows you to post a status update and a picture.



Foursquare gives you points for creating and “checking in” to a location. It also has has a leaderboard to see how you rank against your friends and your city.



Gowalla’s check-ins are similar in that you can post a note, but the app also has quirky little items that you find and leave for others. For instance, I currently have an espresso, a silk robe and a tour bus in my inventory. I am never going to drop that tour bus. That is awesome. You can either exchange items for items left by others, or drop an item to become a “Founder” of a spot. I cannot say that I fully understand the purpose, although Gowalla says that they use the items as proxies for how important a particular place is.



Each application relies on the users to create locations at spots and rewards them for doing so.

Integrations

Each of the services works with Twitter and Facebook, allowing you to connect with friends from those networks and to post notifications. Some might call this oversharing (particularly if you are friends with people on Twitter, Facebook and the Location based network).

Foursquare has recently also announced an API that is will make it even more appealing to the community.

The secret to extension of social applications is the ability to integrate it into a grander scheme. With integration with Twitter and Facebook already functional, the API combined with its game-like addictiveness will give it an advantage over all other LBSNs. BrightKite also has an API, but adoption has been much slower because people simply do not have a lot of incentive to use the platform even though it is probably the best in terms of geo-location. BrightKite needs to evolve and add incentives for use in order to stand up against its competitors and survive.

Advertising Features

Foursquare appears to be the leader in advertising and monetization. I’ve started to see some “nearby special” bannerettes pop up when I am about to check in to a place. Foursquare allows locations to give special deals to mayors. A mayor is the person who has checked into a place the most. This creates a little bit of competition between loyal customers. There’s a great opportunity to generate social buzz and loyalty by being an early adopter.

Who Wins?

The winner is the one who makes money. There are a couple of ways for an organization to do so. One is to be acquired by another organization who is interested in your compelling technology.  The other way is to actually have a business model that makes money. Obviously it is desirable to have both going for you. The winner will also have a very compelling API which will allow them to scale and proliferate rapidly. FourSquare’s looks to be based largely on Twitter’s which has been wildly successful. Foursquare has already begun selling ads that are based on where a person is physically. I have noticed ads when I go to check into a place. They say something like Deal Nearby and offer you a click path to that location with an easy back to your original location. Brightkite has some banner ads that display after you check in to a location. I have not noticed similar features on Gowalla yet.

Behavioral Data and Analytics

The real win here is that location data can be linked to conversations on both the application’s platform and on associated Twitter (and soon perhaps Facebook) streams.  You can get a clear picture of how a person behaves by where they go, how often they go there, where their friends go, how often they meet their friends and what they talk about when they are there - or after they go there. An analytics offering segmented by demographics and interests would be very valuable to marketers.  They would also pay to see analysis of popular places so that they know where to place their ads.

We know where they go and we know what they’re thinking.

Now we just need to get them to buy something.

Given the amount of information we have, I am sure we can find something appropriate to sell.