4 Mar
2011
Foursquare and Facebook check-in services are not picking up as fast as they should be - or could be, rather. If you look at a number of other cultural/business insight-based services & compare, the check-in world is dragging (even with a reported 3400% growth in 2010. That's growth in subscribers - not revenue.) The point of comparison du jour is group buying.
Groupon, Living Social, and the littany of community-based couponing services are building an empire at an exponential rate. Why? Because they make results that are valuable to participants.
Don't get me wrong - there is an allure to check-in services. I too was a part of the check-in phenomenon. I once got my kicks out of becoming the mayor of a number of places, earned my badges, and poked fun at my friends who hadn't reached the stellar level of social reporting status that I had. Fun. But the excitement faded - fast. After gaining all of the cred, I still wasn't reaping enough benefits from the business community for it to be worth my while. It was a 2-month cycle for me and my friends (then in Raleigh, NC.) We abandoned the services almost completely after our short stint.
But we could've been kept - it was the businesses who let us slip away. There was an opportunity missed - a huge one - and I'm surprised that the business community still hasn't picked up on it. The group-based buying craze gives customers a tangible, redeemable benefit. Check-in services? Not so much.
Granted, this is the fault of the businesses not getting on board in due time. Foursquare's latest improvement, Foursquare for Business, allows small businesses to more easily learn about the benefits of check-in services, claim official ownership of their locations, and track data available from checkers-in. While it's a step in the right direction, it seems that the system is still missing the key ingredient to activating business involvement: not simplcity, but results. It's what makes small business owners get up in the morning. If a solution is simple yet still mysterious, they won't get on board.
With group buying, the potential gain is simple - right in everyone's face (business and consumer) - it's an easy call for a small business owner to either get in on a specific deal that they dream up and build or to abstain. With check-in services the process is more mysterious and not at all guaranteed. Small business owners are hesitant, and understandably so. Most of them are not tech-savvy enough to have the vision it requires to take the (relatively simple) steps Foursquare is providing. Because, again, it's not about simplicity. It's about results.
So why haven't businesses - or check-in services for that matter - tapped into the group buying trend to get things moving in check-in land? A combination of ideas might work wonders. The immediate example would be a busienss offering - say - a 10% discount for everyone at a bar if they receive 100 check-ins for the night. Simple rules, clear goals and payoffs, and a nod to a system that is already working at an amazing rate across the world.
The real problem is probably that of targeting and goals. Foursquare et al are thinking of the consumer first when they should be thinking of busienss owners. The masses have been turned onto the trend - it's time for the business world to harvest them. So, thinking like a small business owner, what are the obstacles standing in the way of participation, and how do we help get them through it? Foursquare for Business is still not acting on behalf of the true motivations of the business owners. Small business folks need to see results, now. Or at least be able to expect them from a simpler system. So help them achieve that.
Check-in services - take a lesson from the group-buying world. They've hit the target needs and opportunities on the head and are enjoying ridiculous spoils. Combine forces or study and learn - either way, until you understand your money-making sector better, you're still going to limp along while hundreds of millions of people (and businesses) move on without you.
