Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Foursquare as a "Social Connections Manager"... Will People Buy It?

Hot off the press! TechCrunch just reported that Foursquare has updated its website. You can find the original article on TechCrunch here.

The social application, once reliant on its predominantly mobile platform, has made major improvements to its website. As TechCrunch reporter MG Siegler puts it, Foursquare website now "has utility: as a social connections manager."

But wait a minute - isn't that Facebook's role in people's social network?

IMO, Facebook is currently the most popular "social connections manager" out there - on both mobile and website platforms. Foursquare, in a small way, is also a social connections manager. It's mobile "check-in" feature is popular within the social networking realm because it allows your friends to know where you are currently located. It's an instant GPS locater, and you as the user are in control of the information posted. It's only downside - until now at least - is that it exists primarily on a mobile platform as an application. With the new "Find Friends" feature where you can find and follow your friends on Foursquare on your phone and via the website, Foursquare might just elevate its usefulness onto a whole different level.

While keeping in mind my points below, I pose the following questions:
1) If Foursquare is already a hit as a Facebook application (with a dominant mobile presence), why try to compete with Facebook as a social connections manager?
2) With so many people's real-time updates (News Feed on Facebook, following people on Twitter, instantaneous informational updates via RSS) blowing up your phone, will Foursquare updates turn into yet another platform that induces informational overload?

1 comments:

GGU AMA Marketing Club said...

Fai,

This is a really good question. Another platform that includes informational overload? It looks like it for me. I find it hard to keep up with all the daily updates I receive through Twitter, RSS, Facebook, LinkedIn, Blogger, Youtube, you name it...

There is so much information out there and so many ways to reach your target audience that many marketers get overwhelmed by a temptation to be present EVERYWHERE (which may or may not be good).

I've used Foursquare a couple of time and it was pretty neat - earn point, discover new places, find your friends. But then I got caught up with all the other social media updates and never returned back. I guess I'm not the only one who experiences such informational overload.

It would be great if developers could invent a platform that is capable of integrating all of these channels together in one place; this would make social networks much easier to manage.

Best,

~ Olena Canessa

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