In the past few years, location-based social networking has really taken off, namely SXSW-fueled Foursquare. I first began using location services back in the days of Brightkite, through which I’d post a shortened URL to Twitter. It worked great for a while, but I became bummed out with the limited interactivity of Brightkite and began to slack off on my checkins.

And then came Foursquare.

I’d heard about Foursquare well before I signed up for an account. I held off, mainly because I didn’t want to deal with the unnecessary hassle of integrating yet another site into my online presence. However, the buzz eventually became too large to ignore, so I broke down and set up an account.

The Good

As a user, you’re constantly engaged with badges, mayorships, and points.  At some places, the checkin race for mayor can be quite competitive, leading to Foursquare’s true value for businesses: customer loyalty. I’ll occasionally drop by a Starbucks when I might otherwise not, simply for the sake of protecting my mayorship. Recognizing this value, Starbucks has teamed up with the Austin startup to provide a badge for checking in at 5 different locations. Hopefully this will lead to a special offer (discounts provided by venues rewarding frequent checkins and/or mayorships).

It’s also helpful to be able to see when others are checked in at the same place – a refreshing way to meet new people. The ability to view a record and trends of everywhere you’ve been is also interesting; there’s a site called CheckoutCheckins that authenticates with Foursquare, allowing you to view a heat map of your history.

The Not-So-Good

Unfortunately, once most of the basic badges are unlocked (Newbie to Super User), it can be difficult to gain some of the more obscure ones, so most of the gaming element shifts to mayorships. Also, opponents claim privacy as a major issue, especially with the recent launch of PleaseRobMe. However, that’s dependent on people knowing where you live – users just need to be responsible in their friending and accepting, as well as in the pushing of checkins to other sites. You control the data that’s put out there. I won’t accept a request from anyone that:

1. I haven’t met in person.
2. I don’t have any idea of who they are.
3. Isn’t local.

It’s nothing personal, I just don’t see the value in having hundreds of friends that I either haven’t met or don’t have a chance of meeting. You can’t treat Foursquare like other social networks; you need to be mindful of everyone that will be seeing checkin data, which, within the site, only friends can view. And don’t add your house.

Overall

There’s definitely ups and downs, but Foursquare is still an exciting platform to be on. It’s tough to put my finger on the single element that keeps me hooked: a combination between the competitive nature and connectivity between friends. The platform’s certainly not for everyone, but if you’re the New Dork type, I recommend giving it a try.

Are you an active Foursquare user? Does the good outweigh the bad?

A few weekends ago, I attended the fourth annual SoCon unconference centered around social media at Kennesaw State University. Last year’s SoCon was the first Atlanta tech event that I went to; it was great to see some familiar faces that I met at SoCon09, as well as others who I’ve been in touch with since then.

Just as last year, the event kicked off Friday night with a networking dinner at the Cumberland Maggiano’s. Different tables were set up around the room for various topics, such as video, B2B, Twitter, et al. I sat at the entrepreneurship table hosted by Appcelerator CEO Jeff Haynie, who moved from Atlanta to the Valley a few years ago. During these discussions, I had a great chance to meet Travis Allen, a fellow young entrepreneur, as well as reconnect with Sanjay Parekh, Richard LeBer, and Jennifer Bonnett.

Flickr: leighauerbach

The event continued the next morning at KSU’s Social Sciences building, where a continental breakfast was a great opportunity to continue the networking from the previous night. After about an hour, Leonard Witt began the official conference by introducing the first keynote speaker, Carol Kruse, Vice President of Interactive Marketing at Coca-Cola. Kruse created the MyCokeRewards program, and also is a part of the company’s Facebook fan page initiative. The talk started with an explanation that Coke prefers for the consumers to lead the company’s social media campaign, leading to Kruse’s mantra: “Fans first”. She revealed that the page is moderated out of necessity, but that only around .8% of content is required to be taken down. However, any posts which may be negatively directed towards Coke remain. Also fascinating was the fact that any employee who wishes to be a part of the company’s social media marketing can undergo basic training and be let loose.

Flickr: leighauerbach

Dan Siroker of the Obama campaign then took the stage as the next speaker, explaining the huge impact that web marketing had on the President’s election and fundraising strategies. John McCain was able to raise $201M total through combined social media outreach and traditional publicizing, while Obama’s team (with the input and guidance of Siroker), raised over $500M solely through the Internet. Multivariant testing played a large role in this monetary gap; Siroker showed how a button entitled “Learn More” paired with a family-oriented image achieved the highest conversion rate, competing against tens of other combinations. The importance of taking advantage of circumstances was also stressed, as the campaign was able to raise roughly $10M simply through the sending of an impromptu email.

We then breaked for lunch, heading over to KSU’s newly-built student cafeteria. I caught back up with Travis and had the chance to meet Christina Stallings, a new media/tradeshow enthusiast. Lunch conversation varied from basic introduction of everyone to psuedo-representation (fake profiles)  in the virtual world.

After lunch, I attended two breakouts, the first being by Newell Rubbermaid’s Bert DuMars about implementing a community around an online brand. He talked about the marketing associated with Sharpie, and stressed the fact that community is a great resource and should be genuine, but shouldn’t be grouped to direct content towards one individual.

The next session I attended was by Chris Turner, Kimberly Turner, and Scott Lockhart of Regator, a blog aggregator sorting through and helping publicize the world’s best posts. They talked about their experiences in bootstrapping a startup, explaining what individuals would need to have in order to successfully launch:

1. A good idea.
2. Money.
3. A technical founder.
4. Commitment.
5. A polished product.
6. The ability to generate hype.

And their slides were hilarious.

I always leave conferences like this feeling energized and motivated to continue doing what I do. The sense of community here in Atlanta really is incredible, and the ability to connect with like-minded individuals is something I’m thankful to be able to do. Can’t wait for SoCon11.