COMMENTS
It can be a big blow for Foursquare. It seems like Twitter integrated the Retweet button creating concerns for tweetmeme, now this may be something to worry for Foursquare...
Although I have been participating in Foursquare since it came on the scene just to see how it works and what potential it holds (and I do believe there is lots of potential) I have yet to be truly impressed with any good programs by local business in my area, mostly because the adoption rate has been slow by lots of small rual businesses.
Heck for most of the people I have been doing business with lately they barely get Facebook at all never mind "location based" social media.
One step at a time I guess. :) Thanks for the great info.
This is a very strategic move by Facebook. It positions the company well for the next wave within the Web 2.0 world and ensures that the site will not go the way of MySpace.
Make no mistake - they are feeling the heat from Twitter and Foursquare and can see Google Me on the horizon - they are not only staying relevant - they are trying to ensure survival.
Facebook Places will be in direct competition with Google Places, just like Facebook Open Graph will compete with Google Search.
This is really Clash of the Titans!
Someone should perhaps find a way to drag local businesses onto a site like Facebook or myspace or foursquare. I think service company based upon providing a service to manage create facebook, myspace, and foursquare accounts should be profitable.
I have to agree with Matthew. For some new and small business, baby steps are key. Let's see what happens.
Will Hubspot be working on any changes to its software to take advantage of this new development? I don't really have anything in mind, but was just curious as to whether this sparked something internally for you?
I plan to use Facebook Places for any client we setup facebook with. It's a win for lead generation companies like mine, because I can add value for our clients without having to convince them to join another network like foursquare.
I like your read on the motives behind Places - there's definitely a lot of value Foursquare can provide some businesses (even in the B2B space) that facebook hasn't stepped up to match yet.
We have no current plans to use Places. That said, I'm not certain our B2B business really benefits a great deal but I'll wait it out a bit before passing judgment.
I am concerned that consumers may be a bit too quick to jump on to new "cool" technologies bandwagon in general--and location-based may be one of those. The privacy and security ramifications are staggering and the ability to simply turn it off if you don't like it may not be effective. I suggest caution with this one but I totally understand why facebook wants to use this as a connection point in future.
This seems like a natural addition for Facebook, but can you get Badges for checking in? I doubt it… although it will be nice to be able to share easily where you are with friends, I want some freaking badges! I do however have some worry over the use of this relating to personal and family security. I’m selective about who I accept as friends, but people talk and share rather quickly in the social media world. This type of information is often spread quickly and without your control. This, I believe can be good and bad. I suppose time will tell.
I have to agree with Greg about the badges being a feature of Foursquare that adds a game-like quality to it, but also that facebook is more limiting about "friending" to protect people's privacy, whereas foursquare encourages you to make new friends/contacts (probably because less personal info is revealed on their site), so it is possible the two could co-exist successfully.
Hi Kipp,
I didn't understand the first your sentence: "Facebook has delivered a major blow to not Foursquare and other location-based social networks, but to Google and Yelp." Did you mean "Facebook has delivered a major blow not only to Foursquare and other location-based social networks, but also to Google and Yelp. " or that Foursquare isn't affected?
Thanks for any clarification!
-- Colin
Colin,
You said it better than me. Google and Yelp should be concern with this move by Facebook.
Hi Kipp,
OK!!!
But I think there might be positive aspects for Foursquare and Yelp if they can leverage the API in their favor. We'll see how it plays out. I agree that Google Latitude isn't invited to this party... We'll see if Google Me materializes and whether FB tries to displace GMail with their rumored "Titan" web mail service... Interesting times in social media...
ttyl
-- Colin
I own a small business (3 locations) and I read about facebook and 4square. I have a twitter account. I have a facebook account. I have linked in. I've downloaded too many hubspot reports trying to figure it all out. Matthew and Alba are right - I haven't even figured out the baby steps and I feel like those don't even matter any more.
Stop the merry-go-round. I want to get off. It's going too fast for me and I feel sick.
Stacey
iPhone is not worthy to run FB!
We have more items for our "Social Worker" (yes, that's his actual title; we have a sense of humor) than he can handle as it is. The waves of change seem to be crashing against each other these days.
I am looking forward to this being rolled out on the Google Android platform Facebook app and testing it with local business.
I hope that this is true! :)
Thanks for this post!
We will have to observe and see where Facebook places will go and if it will be successful. There is no harm in trying new things, right? :)