Foursquare, the location-sharing social media company, unveiled new features for its Android app on Thursday. (The iOS app will be updated soon.) Users can opt to receive location-based tips on establishments they visit: what to order off of a menu, how to avoid a long line. The recommendations will pop-up automatically (i.e.without prompting) on the mobile screen if the app is left on based on users’ location, whether they check-in or not. Recommendations will be semi-customized, meaning only recommendations from users’ contacts will show up as notifications. The type of notifications will be based on user’s past check-ins and comments. The check-in feature will continue as before, with the added incentive of receiving information that is more relevant with more frequent check-ins.
The revamp of Foursquare shows two developments for social media: Reminders are becoming more important as users might forget or be averse to manually check updates to all of the apps they use. Second, it is important to give consumers a service (in the case of Foursquare, insider tips) in exchange for their willingness to share on social media to have them continue to do so. True, Foursquare does provide a free service that allows users to share their location and view other users. But as social media platforms become more ubiquitous (and sharing on them ever more tiresome), moves like Foursquare’s will become more common.
Indeed, several companies have rolled out notification capabilities similar to Foursquare’s. Google Now, Google’s mobile app, aims to manage user’s daily activities with unsolicited alerts about commute routes and suggested startup times. And part of the allure of Siri (Apple’s iOS voice assistant) is the ease of setting location reminders. For example, Siri can remind a user to pick up laundry when near a laundromat, or of a domestic task when a user arrives home.
A few, as well, have started to give consumers incentives to share their information publicly, or to a select group. Google Now has added a commute-share service. Users can share their location and destination with select contacts through Google+ for the possibility of sharing a ride with someone going the same way. Google+ has not done terribly well so far. (Many sources dispute Google’s official number of 100 million monthly active users because users are required to sign into Google+ before using Google’s Skype-like video chat service, Hangout.) The added incentive of a ride or commute share, however (combined with a requirement to sign onto Google +) can increase usage, reports have noted.
Others have caught on to the fact that consumers might be interested in using the service, but not divulging information or contributing. On Yelp, the business review and search site, users can read reviews without writing any. The company has said that it does not send any reminders for writing reviews because it believes treating consumers as promotional vehicles could backfire.
Perhaps Yelp has it down. Once the novelty of sharing one’s daily activities on social media goes away, consumers will be looking to get something back for info dumps, even if it’s in kind. And as more reports surface about how profitable users’ data are, especially location data, they will be even less willing to divulge even more without a visible upside.
