Location Based Social Networks Set To Take Off in 2010

Why does every social media website care where you are? Better yet, why do you care? There is a trend, although not a new one, that is gaining popularity in 2010 that could potentially change the way people are marketed to. That is the trend to “go local,” because that’s where the money is. Everyone is trying to grab hold of the hyper-niche markets like the popular service review site Yelp. Yelp recently added the option to allow users to check in, bringing it in direct competition with an already over-crowded group of location based websites: Foursquare, MyTown, GoWalla, and Loopt.



Although, Yelp does have a huge head start as it has passed nine million reviews recently (something the others don’t offer). The location based check-ins do offer some credibility to Yelp’s reviews and also an easy way for users to participate without having to write a review. Yelp also has an awesome iPhone application that uses augmented reality. Basically, you hold your phone with camera facing out, and it uses your location and the compass in your iPhone to show you building locations and reviews in real-time. Click here for a demo.

As one of the major players, Foursquare is not going out without a fight. Ian Paul from PCWorld.com reports that Foursquare has partnered with the TV Network Bravo to create its own Bravo based location game. Users will be able to follow “The Real House Wives,” “Top Chef,” and “Shear Genius” across the United States with the opportunity to get prizes and a chance to be entered into sweepstakes. This partnership marks the first attempt for a large company to invest in a promotion with one of these location based social media sites. It will be intriguing to see if Bravo will be able to generate enough buzz to get people to want to participate.

Even though Foursquare gets most of the media hype, the most alluring location based site may be MyTown. Launched by three ex-employees of the ever-so-popular Blizzard team (creators of the Diablo and World of Warcraft franchises), they know a thing or two about the gaming industry. To begin, users check-in to new locations (like every other site) and receive online currency. Once you have accumulated enough cash you are allowed to purchase certain buildings. Then everyone who checks-in after your purchase pays you rent à la Monopoly. You can expand your empire by gobbling up real estate, and you even gain levels that are determined by your amount of check-ins. There are even gaming strategies posted by users that aim to help you level up faster. All of this sounds very much like an online game, although this one does have a basis in reality. What is most impressive about MyTown is that they have already surpassed GoWalla and Foursquare to become the most popular location-based social game for the iPhone, and they only started in December of 2009.

These sites are banking on the trend of social gaming, and so far the results have been surprising. While not much money has been made yet don’t think that the MyTown team isn’t aware. They already helped create the world’s most popular massively multiplayer online role-playing game (which is a pay-per-month subscription). I have to give them a slight edge in being able to monetize their site's popularity.

I still think that it will take companies a while to see the importance of this new breed of social media. For example, it took Twitter about 5 years to become mainstream; perhaps the learning curve will be shorter this time. Either way, this is an important trend for any business to follow, because of the impact it could have on the future of marketing for small and large businesses alike. It will take time before the dust clears from this battle and the true champion emerges (if one at all), but the site or two that do come out victorious will have a stranglehold on the new tools to influence countless potential customers. And that makes this a trend worth following.

For more info check out the great blog, Location Awhere, which is fully devoted to this topic. Also check out the social media marketing services that AI has to offer.