This Isn't Your Parents' Foursquare

Foursquare, of course, was only a stepping stone. It was revolutionary for a minute. It was fun, neat, and a little useful. Now it is time for it to be productive and essential. Foursquare and other location aware services have reached their peak, crawled back up the trough, and now must become intelligent and useful with our enlightened understanding of them. The goal in all of these articles is to combine the communication, location, purchases, and deals available through many types of LBS. This is an ideal goal, and one I believe can be reached.

In order to combine all four of these services people must be shown how much benefit they are actually receiving. If people don't think they will gain anything from the service they will never use it. But if people realize that the place where they buy coffee could start offering better food to gain more of their money and loyalty to their food then I believe they would be in. The biggest gain for businesses would be better targeted rewards and deals. Companies could eliminate redundant savings that don't really bring them any more sales than without the deals.

The overall idea of finally piecing together the full conversation people have with corporations everyday is brilliant. Consumers send messages beyond simply the verbal when the buy and don't buy products or travel to other retailers. If all the messages sent directly, indirectly, or subconsciously can be pooled together I believe everyone involved would gain. One obstacle I see remaining is the open sharing of consumer activity with separate corporations like DD and Starbucks. I think that both companies should be disclosed or able to purchase the same information to keep competition fair, and thus advantageous for the consumer.

Overall these articles were really interesting to read, I always enjoy something that presents an opinion on how things will be in the future. I would give these readings a 10/10. Can't wait for this class.

What will it take to get all four of these activities into one service? Buyouts, internal development, cooperation?

Heroes: Save the Cheerleader, Save the World

I liked the article from this week about work place HEROs, and on the other hand I am getting a little tired about new customer service methods, especially regarding Comcast. The thing I liked most about this article was its attempt on rating what project are worth while. The system is clearly flawed by having such a limited range of values to associate with each project. The evaluations are vague at best. Yet I appreciate how someone is trying to establish a methodology to practically choose projects to undertake. When dealing with ROI so many companies have trouble using the correct metrics, and I think this article is a step in the right direction. The hardest thing I believe to quantify is the "it" factor that these projects may possess, and the gut feeling of an experienced manager. No number can really be placed on either of these traits, both of which are hugely essential to success.

If you all had to implement one change in your work space, whether it is at school or in the office, what would it be?

The Fortune 500, and their 500 Million Fans

When I checked out this weeks readings I was a little disappointed to see the Starbucks case was all taken up. Nonetheless the Fortune 500 case was pretty interesting. I liked how it changed my idea that the biggest, most successful, and sometimes the oldest companies were actually using social media so well. It goes to show social media is the real deal. Aside from changing my view point of the Fortune 500, I was surprised to see how many companies use Twitter, and I also liked the idea of "absorption" by companies.
Both of these ideas go hand in hand. Twitter allows for quick and concise communication,  and absorption of this information by a company really determines how successful a social media campaign is. I imagine if a company really wants to engage customers, they also want to do so a simply as possible. Twitter confines comments, questions, and outbursts to 140 characters. By keeping all of this information short a company can easily analyze it and act upon is rapidly. Whether an online response, total company apology, or physical change is called for a company can do so immediately.

From the three cases, I found Coca-Cola using social media the best. They had several official outlets run by the company, but also had customer run communities set up with specific guidelines to keep usage in line. Coke also has a blog run by the company historian, which aside from being cool, is essential to their brand. Coca-Cola is one of the oldest and the most recognizable brand in the world. By having a historical based blog they really enhance their brand and stick to their heritage and roots.

In all the reading had a lot of older things we have discussed, but some great ideas inside. I would give it a 7/10

I'd like to know: Is absorption and responsiveness the most important trait for successful social media? And what other cool social media developments have you seen similar to Coke's historical blog?