According to the Fourtrace website, “Fourtrace is a research project in “Advanced topics in Computer Networking” at University of California, Santa Barbara. Our goal is to find out if it’s possible to predict where a user is at a given time.”

The site uses only the public Foursquare check-ins found on Twitter, so it is limited to only what Foursquare users choose to share. However, even those who limit their public sharing have the potential to display predictable patterns of behavior. Over a long enough period of time, even small amounts of sharing begin to add up. How could it the information be used? Time will tell.

The post Fourtrace Urges You To Think Before Sharing appeared first on Zeek Interactive.

Sorry for the tone, but that just seems ridiculously obvious to me.

So I read the article, then posted a tweet with as much sarcasm as I could fit into 140 characters, and headed to the gym. Since I’ve been trying to give Foursquare another shot (blame Brian Copeland), I dutifully checked in to my LA Fitness and noticed that there were three tips for that venue. I had never bothered to check them out before.

Imagine how thrilled I was to see the second tip from a local loan officer. “Almost 50% of the Santa Clarita Valley is upside down on their mortgage. Go to www.blahblahblah.com for more information.” Apparently he thought the name of the place was LA Financial Fitness.

Things that are “ridiculously obvious” to me seem to elude some people. Clearly this well-intentioned guy thinks dropping his ads all over Foursquare is a perfectly good way to use social media. Or perhaps he realized it was silly and tried to cover it up by posting the incredibly helpful, “Guys, rack your weights when you’re done.” Thanks. Good tip.

My reaction to this is the same one I’d have to someone pissing in my pool: You picked the wrong place and the wrong time. And now you’ve ruined the water for everyone.

I showed this to a friend a bit later, someone who is not a Foursquare user, and they had a similar reaction.  Their immediate comment was something to the effect of, “That would turn me off to the whole service.” I think that’s a fair reaction.

Context. Context. Context.

Had this tip been on a bank, or his office, or a house with a foreclosure sign in the front yard, then I might have had a different reaction. The context would have been more appropriate. Heck, I might have actually clicked on his link. Context matters. Always has. Always will.

The post Stop Pissing In The Social Media Pool appeared first on Zeek Interactive.

What they were referring to was a point in my talk where I advised the audience members to stop looking at the apps and tools put out by developers as an end unto themselves. Instead I wanted them to start asking the question, “how could I use the ‘ideas’ behind their tools to accomplish my specific goals? Does their API provide a path to use their tool in ways the creators would not have imagined?” As I write that now, I understand that I should have explained further.

So, let me explain further. First, API stands for “application programming interface.” It’s a way of explaining how different software applications communicate with each other. So, if you want your website or tool to interface with another website or tool, the API tells you how to do that and let’s you know what is and is not possible.

Now, the interesting thing about how most API documents are written is that, in many ways, even a non-programmer can get an idea of what’s possible. And this is why you, as a non-programming business person should care. Because if you know what’s possible, doors to new ideas and creative uses may open up for you. Here’s an example.

The Foursquare API

Much to my dismay, Foursquare doesn’t appear to be going away and among the current location-based social networks, it is the leader. But if I’m a business owner, in this case a real estate broker, I don’t want to just sit back and wait to see how the developers at Foursquare are going to move their platform forward. I want to take advantage of the network and make it work for me. First step, understand what it will let me have access to and make sure how I want to use the data is within the limits of their terms of service. The terms are simple enough to get to. Their terms of service are clearly displayed on their API page.

How can I tell what I have access to if I’m not a programmer?

I think most people will be surprised at how much “human-readable” text is contained in a well-done API document. Here’s a section of the Foursquare API that is under the category – “Check-in Methods.”

—

Checkins

Returns a list of recent checkins from friends.

If you pass in a geolat/geolong pair (optional, but recommended), we’ll send you back a <distance> inside each <checkin> object that you can use to sort your results.

Some notes on how to parse each <checkin> block:

• if <venue> exists, it’s a check-in to a proper place.
• if <venue> and <shout> exist, it’s a check-in to a proper place with a shout.
• if only <shout> exists, it’s a shout (no check-in). shouts are like callouts or tweets to your network. they need not be tied down to a particular place. it’s useful for sending messages like: “hey who’s up for hanging out later tonight?”.
• if no <venue> or <shout> exists, then it’s a silent check-in (“off-the-grid” as we like to say). this shows up in the timeline so that you know the person is out and about (to make it easy to meet up after they are done with whatever they are doing. it’s useful for stuff like dates, business meetings, etc).

URL: http://api.foursquare.com/v1/checkins
Formats: XML, JSON
HTTP Method(s): GET
Requires Authentication: Yes
Parameters:

• geolat – (optional, but recommended)
• geolong – (optional, but recommended)

—

Even if you’re not familiar with programming, you can learn several things from this section. A quality high school education is probably a good start, but I don’t need  to understand the formats, http methods or how to pass along the parameters to see that if I “pass in a geolat/geolong pair” that Foursquare is going to tell me how far away <distance> each place I can <checkin> is from my latitude and longitude. I know that my phone can figure out where I am and that a programmer can figure out how to get that information from my phone.

So, I now know that I can use the Foursquare API to deliver information about where I can check-in. In the next section of the API it tells me what I can do when I get that information. I can make a “shout” and send it out to my friends. I can check-in to one of the venues they send back. I can create a new venue and tell them about it. Just like I can do with the Foursquare app.

But this is where it gets cool. As long as I’m within the terms of service, I can then use that data to distribute information to places that the Foursquare app might not provide. Where might that be? Other websites? Other tools? I don’t know where it is for you, but you might. I know where that knowledge leads me. And armed with a better understanding of what’s possible, you may be spurred to create a new use for the tools, one that the developers never saw coming.

This is why the API is made public. This is where innovation lives. Diversity – of thought, experience, and need – provide the energy required for growth and change. It’s the beauty of an open system. And I believe that the missing ingredients in fueling commercial growth are the thoughts, experiences and needs of the average business owner responsible for making these tools work for their business.

So, do yourself a favor and take at look at the API of one of the tools you like using. Spend an hour studying it. Read past the programming jargon and sift through the text that feels like common English to see if it sparks some creative juices. I think you might be surprised.

And let me know how it goes.

The post Why Should You Care About An API? appeared first on Zeek Interactive.

When I take myself out of my tech lover mindset, I’m just not sure what the point of all of this public “checking in” really is. My general feeling is this – If you want someone specific to know where you are,  just tell them? And if you’re not a social media fan boy, or someone enjoying their 15 minutes of technorati fame, or a Realtor trying to turn every mundane daily activity into a sphere-of-influence-building mission, then you probably couldn’t care less if your entire network knows you’re at your local Chevron. I have to believe that if you’re just an average Joe or Jane, telling the whole world where you are at every turn just seems kind of silly.

I’m not alone in my house. In fact, my wife, Rocky, has heavily influenced my opinion. She is not anti-social media by any stretch. She has witnessed the value of Twitter and Facebook in encouraging public conversation. It has helped her charity, MFFO.ORG, raise thousands and thousands of dollars for an extremely worthy cause. But she falls squarely into the “average Jane” description above. It would be accurate to say she thinks all of the public Foursquare announcements are stupid in most cases and dangerous in others. She’s was not a happy camper when I was using Brightkite, Foursquare and Gowalla in real time to broadcast where I was to my Twitter stream. She was less considerably less happy if I checked in when we were all together as a family. She wouldn’t even consider doing it herself.

If I’m a business, I’m hoping guys like me and gals like my wife change their mind fast. Why? Because these services represent a major opportunity to influence our buying decisions. And the new Foursquare analytic tools for business being tested offer a good look at the wealth of data that could be available if the consumer begins to see a benefit in using the services ubiquitously. But what is it going to take to get people like my wife to use them? It’s going to take more than cool tech to sway them. She has no idea I’m writing this post right now, so I’m going to go ask her and then come back.

I’m back. And I’m a bit surprised.

I won’t beat around the bush. She agreed with my descriptions above. She feels all of the public check in activity is dangerous, especially for women. And said, “Unless I was at a social media conference, trying to keep up with where my friends were, I just can’t see myself using it.”

Then I said, “OK, but let’s pretend you’re Julie in Illinois or Kim in West Virginia. You’re never going to go to a social media conference and you rarely, if ever, travel without your family. You’re you as you are in your day-to-day life here in Santa Clarita.” She put herself in that place and I asked,  “What would it take for you to use it if you could keep your check in activity completely private?”

That spurred some thought. And I was surprised by her answer.

“You mean if I could limit who saw my check in to just my small local sphere of friends, the people I interact with face-t0-face, people who live nearby?” Yes. “Then I could see a real value in getting an alert if Alana or Susan were at Whole Foods, for example. I could ask them to pick something up for me. It would be a benefit for them to know if I was at a store as well. That would have REAL value to me.”

I would never have gone there. I can see real value in that as well.

Encouraged, I pushed on and asked, “What if when you checked into Whole Foods, the Pei Wei across the parking lot could push a message to you that offered a discount if you showed them them your iPhone screen, or if a new organic cereal company offered you a free sample as you were in the store shopping, would that encourage you to check in more often and at more places?” She paused a second and said, “Yes, that would make me check in more often. No question. But I still wouldn’t care if I were the Mayor of Whole Foods.” (That’s my girl!)

What’s interesting is that she could use Foursquare as she envisions it right this very second. She was totally unaware that her check in activity could be kept private and limited to just a few people. Her understanding of Foursqure and other “lo-so” services was solely based on the public behavior being displayed by the technorati on a daily basis and at conferences like SXSW.

I’m going to help my wife use it as she described above. I want to see if it provides value for her. But I’m left wondering how many other average Janes and average Joes are being negatively influenced by the popular uses of these services? It may be time to take a step back and ask the question, “is the popular public use of location-based social networking attracting people or driving them away?”

Photo credit: Bits

The post The Lo-So Hurdle – Getting The Average Jane To Check In appeared first on Zeek Interactive.

Last night my wife and I finished up our Christmas shopping. It was fun. We were alone… no kids. It felt just like a real date. From the time we left the house, around 6pm until we decided to get some hot chocolate at Starbucks around 10pm, I was never once tempted to let the world know where we were. The lure of Foursquare points was not enough of an incentive to make me want to check-in at Toys”R”Us or Sports Chalet. I simply didn’t care if the rest of the world knew where we were.

But I did need to find a different a specific gift. So, I fired up the Maps application on my iPhone and typed in “sporting goods.” My iPhone knew my location and quickly populated the screen with cute little stick pins. I clicked the one closest to me, a Big 5, then clicked on the phone number so I could ask if they had what we were looking for. They did. At that moment, I was very happy my iPhone knew exactly where we were. And equally happy nobody else did.

Truth be told, I’ve been forcing myself to use things like Brightkite, Foursquare and Gowalla. Perhaps if I lived a more exciting life I’d feel differently. But I don’t. When I was in San Francisco a few weeks ago, I felt certain that when I checked in somewhere that there was the potential for a friend to be close enough to quickly jump in a cab and join me. It feels the same way when I’m at a conference. The popularity of a specific tool among the people I want to hang out with makes it really easy to locate the parties.

But I live my every day life in Santa Clarita, CA, and my business is not location specific. On a typical day, I rarely venture outside a 300 yard radius of my front door. And If I do end up going somewhere, it’s not usually very exciting. I’m the mayor of a Chevron for goodness sakes. Yay me.

When we arrived at Starbucks, I pulled my iPhone out and noticed several Twext.me updates. So, I read them, without actually going to Twitter. When I closed Messages down, there, staring at me on my home screen were the pretty little Brightkite, Foursquare and Gowalla icons. I thought, “why not.” So I fired up the one I like best, Gowalla, and let the world know I was having some hot chocolate with my wife. At that point in the evening, I wouldn’t have minded if someone we knew saw it and came by to say hi. But I didn’t really believe that would happen. Not in Santa Clarita. And I didn’t really believe anyone would or should care.

So, that makes me wonder. I wonder how many others are like me? I wonder if the technorati’s use of Foursquare will really translate to the general population? I understand that the tech community is madly in love with the potential of these apps, but when it comes to everyday use, my wife thinks they’re all stupid and dangerous, especially for a woman. She doesn’t even want me to know where she’s at most of the time, let alone the rest of world.  I wonder how many people are just like her?

Are you?

The post I Just Want My iPhone To Know Where I Am appeared first on Zeek Interactive.

I think my comment on Matt Stigliano’s FourSquare post deserves a bit more explanation.

First, I want to say that I am not a FourSquare fan. It’s partially because I think geolocation will be better served inside a larger social network, like Facebook. It’s partially because my wife hates geolocation and sees it as potentially dangerous. But it’s also because Foursquare allows anyone to input anything they wish. And since it’s a game, it allows people to cheat, easily. And  a few people I know cheat, openly. They know who they are. So, I’m not even going to begin to argue the merit or lack of merit in investing time playing Foursquare.

The Quesiton of ROI

It’s not surprising that the conversation in the comments on Matt’s post quickly turned to ROI. Bob Wilson rightly questioned the value of spending any time at all on Foursquare under the assumption that it would “bring you business” and said, “I guess I’m growing weary of all those who keep pushing sm as a biz model for selling real estate who are unable or unwilling to provide real numbers that demonstrate the value or ROI.” He then quickly added, “Oh, wait. I forgot that you are not supposed to ask about ROI when it comes to SM”

I always find it humorous when someone says that. I’m not sure who made this “don’t talk about ROI with social media” rule, but I’m thinking it was somebody who doesn’t understand the nuances of analyzing return on investment in marketing or what can or should be measured in the first place.

The Problem With Most Social Media ROI Discussions

The problem I see with most of the discussions around social media ROI in the real estate industry  is that the product real estate agents sell, a house,  is not an impulse buy and the decision to use one agent over another, a completely different kind of conversion,  is not a simple decision.  If they were, we could focus on conversion alone and be done. But they’re not. So, the focus on conversion to the exclusion of all other sales or marketing objectives is simply wrong. It fails to address the big picture. In real estate, the “conversion” is proceeded by multiple touch points of exposure. Those touch points can include print advertising, direct mail, email, a phone call and yes, social media. Each exposure, each touch, each conversation, plays a significant role in helping the customer move from awareness of the “product”, whether that’s a house or an agent, to the intention to “buy.”

The key to evaluating the merit of any tool, social media or otherwise, is understanding where that tool (and the behaviors it facilitates) fits in the acquisition, persuasion and conversion cycle. Focusing on conversion alone will simply result in a lack of investment in acquisition- or persuasion-oriented initiatives. Just as an unbalanced focus on acquisition initiatives will result in a lack of investment in conversion tools and behaviors.

Marry that with the absence of a clear marketing goal (even the simplest of goals) and poor to no analytics and you have a recipe for disaster. In the business environment, engaging in any activity without an understanding of what you hope to achieve as a result of that activity makes it impossible to measure the success of that activity. The goal can be as simple as “lead people to my blog post.” That’s measurable. Did my efforts lead people to my blog post or not? Did my advertising bring more visitors, did organic search bring more visitors or did my tweets bring more visitors? How do I make sure I can measure the impact of each effort? And that can’t be the end. There has to be some understanding of a path to conversion. After they came, who stayed longer? Which channel moved more visitors to the next step in my conversion process? Do I know what that next step is? Subscribe to my blog? Search my IDX? What is it?

Tools Are Just Tools

Tools aren’t strategy. Tools aren’t behavior. Tools don’t do anything without someone using them. Some use them well. Some don’t. Some tools probably shouldn’t be used for business at all. And in a business context all tools are worthless without a plan. Where do the different tools and behaviors fit for you? Where does Twitter fit into the cycle? What about Facebook? Where does advertising fit? Where does your phone fit into the cycle?

And, by the way, do you know the ROI of your phone?

The post FourSquare And Social Media ROI appeared first on Zeek Interactive.