How Foursquare, Gowalla, and Twitter Location Based Services Will Disrupt Your Business, Dating, and Marketing

Stephanie Marcus, a new Mashable editor, just posted an anecdotal list of the Top 10 Gowalla check-in locations. On the list are Disneyland, Pike Place Market in Seattle, Trafalgar Square in London, and surprisingly, the Alamo Draft House Cinema in Texas (Turns out Gowalla is a TX native and born from SXSW).

At first glance, this data seems like simple coffee table trivia. But it’s not. This data and visibility into consumer activity verges on divine omniscience. It will mean billions of dollars for one party and total irrelevance for others.

Think about the last traffic accident you witnessed, the last survey you filled out, or the last focus group you joined. All three witnesses called three different colors on the defendants vehicle. You fudged. And you said you’d watch “The Gates,” but you just kept watching “Fringe.”

People don’t know themselves. So marketeers and entrepreneurs have the darnest time predicting them.

Now, with Twitter, Gowalla, and Foursquare, projections about what you might do become fuzzy crystal balls. By mining data, they know exactly what you will do, when and how often. It’s like bing a 4th dimensional god in a world of blind 3d people.

Why You Will Let Evil Corporations Know Everything About You. The Consumer Benefits
This isn’t all bad for the consumer. Soon, eHarmony.com and Match.com’s million dollar business will go the way of the dot com. Seriously. If they are public, short them now.

Think about it. Instead of paying $20/m (or whatever these services that I DON’T USE cost), you just set up a location/demographic profile and corresponding filter. Basically, you describe yourself in a premium version of Foursquare and Gowalla and you describe your soul mate in your location based filter. My profile would look like:

Male
90401
Santa Monica
Very Attractive
Athletic
Wealthy
1977

Etc.

I’d then set up a location based filter to find:

Female
Los Angeles
Super Model
Athletic
Heiress
1980-1986
M.S. Columbia (JK! =p)

Etc.

And the moment she checks in, whether we are “friends” or not, we both get pinged. She can see my full profile and then has the right to opt-in to my precise table or bar stool geo-coordinates.

The potential is literally divine omniscient. You can ping for a cardiologist for that 57yo man who suddenly grabbed his left arm. You can ping for a lawyer as soon as you see the flashing lights in your rear-view. You can even ping for a mercenary wing-man as soon as that blond opts-in and smiles back.

Location based services will go this way. Integrate them into your long range corporate strategy. If you want me to help you do that, contact me at 310 598 1606 and bob.wan.kim@gmail.com … or just speak your mind at http://twitter.com/journik .

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Posted via email from Social Media Marketing Strategies for the Closet Revolutionary