Facebook Innovations.
Friendticker location app lets you reward customers for checking. Berlin-based Friendticker, which helps brands create location-based loyalty programs, just went into public beta with its iPhone application (currently only available in France, Spain, Germany, Austria and Switzerland). The app lets businesses reward users with virtual “items” when they check-in at a particular location (a restaurant or retail location, for example). And users can then trade in these rewards for real goods or services. A restaurant chain could, for example, give a customer a “free drinks” item every 5 times they check-in at a restaurant. The item shown in the image to the right is from a company that organizes social media events in Germany; it offers a free T-shirt “item” in exchange for 10 check-ins at its events.
Existing check-in based services like Foursquare and Gowalla mainly allow users to earn badges. Badges are like points earned in a game; they have social rather than tangible value. Friendticker is specifically focused on loyalty rewards.
Tmw press. Tellmewhere Makes Check-ins Make Sense. I am still on the fence when it comes to location-based applications. I can honestly see both sides of the coin. On one side, they can be useful when trying to make plans and connect with others. On the darker side of the coin, there are privacy concerns for many people. I don’t use the services myself, but certainly “get” why others do. I read about Tellmewhere a little while ago, and things clicked inside of my head. THIS makes sense. You can use Tellmewhere to check you in if you wish to.
Tellmewhere uses algorithms to create personalized recommendations for you. The service has been available in Europe for quite awhile now, where it has over 500,000 users. Make sure you check-in with the software center to see what’s new today. The Praized Blog » Blog Archive » TellMeWhere: Europe’s Foursqua. Do Network Effects Span Geographies? Three years ago most western european countries had a local social network that was the most popular social net in the country. Today Facebook is dominant in most of western europe and those local social nets have largely been bypassed. It would seem that Facebook leveraged the size of its network (approaching 500mm people worldwide) to beat its competition in social networking. But what's interesting to me about that is that it also means that it leveraged a network that was larger out of country to beat an incumbent who initially was larger in country. For the sake of this argument, I am assuming network size and network effects was the cause of Facebook's success internationally against local competitors.
I come to this "argument" with a deep respect for the power of networks, particularly online, and so I believe that in fact Facebook was able to leverage the size of its out of market network to compete in market against a local incumbent who had a stronger in market network. Tellmewhere Makes Location-Based Social Networking More Useful. Tellmewhere is a location-based iPhone and Android app that offers its users personalized recommendations for restaurants, bars, grocery stores and other local retailers. The service, which also offers a full set of location-based social networking features, is already very popular in Europe where it has about 500,000 users. With the release of its latest iPhone version, the company is now also trying to expand into the U.S. market. Tellmewhere offers a very solid set of standard location-based social networking tools, but it's the service's ability to give you personalized local recommendations that makes it stand out from the competition.
Personalized Recommendations: Making Check-Ins Useful As Tellmewhere's CEO and co-founder Gilles Barbier told us when we met up during SXSW in Austin, TX last month, the company wants to offer a location-based service and social network that is more useful than most location-based social networks. More Features. Check-Ins are Coupons. Game Mechanics are Bullshit. Show Me The. (shameless plug: May 12 SMASHsummit.com social media marketing conference - get a 20% discount at bottom of this worthless & wildly speculative post) For everyone out there wondering if i'll ever return your phone calls or emails, my apologies... i have a bunch of rather significant not-quite-finished projects on my plate right now, along with the usual deals & events & insanity. Blogging has taken a back seat as well, but i've been meaning to write this post ever since coming back from Austin after an amazing all-night jam session with GaryVee until around 7am at SXSW. since my kids are sick & i'm procrastinating doing my taxes until the last minute, now is as good a time as ever to blast out this stupid little piece of navel-gazing. so have at thee...
Assertion #1: Check-Ins are Coupons. Gimme $5 or go home, loser. (and i don't give a flying FUCK about yr "awesome" LBS game mechanics... it's just meaningless early-adopter BULLshit unless/until u Show Me The Goddamn Money.)