2010 really looks like the year of location-based social networks, and the news industry seems to agree. The Metro publishing group recently announced a partnership with Foursquare; once a site user says where they are (done via GPS), relevant articles from Metro’s Canadian papers will be pulled into the program, providing site users additional information about the neighborhoods, restaurants and stores near them.
While this move may make some waves for Metro, and may drive some incremental traffic to the Metro group of sites, some may question the move’s overall value for the news company.
Here are three additional ways news organizations — and the business units that support them — can leverage location-based social networks such as Foursquare to make money and drive some incremental traffic:
Highlight local landmarks, must-dos and other activities in a multimedia tour. Location-based services such as GoWalla and Foursquare were created, essentially, for social urban explorers: people who like to go to new places and tell others about their travels. Local news organizations can encourage their writers to create content about landmarks and partner with advertisers to create promotions and deals for tour goers along the way.
Drive SEO by encouraging local lifestyle writers to post links to reviews/articles on location pages. While not a location-based social network, Urbanspoon allows bloggers to link their restaurant reviews to restaurant pages through a special embed code. (Example here.) Social media leads at news organizations can encourage restaurant reviewers to post restaurant reviews as “tips” on venue pages, feature writers to link to pieces on local landmarks on those pages, and so on. Then, when site users check in to a certain location, they may click through to the newspaper article pages from the network venue pages.
Partner with location-based networks to become their sales force. If a local news organization were to show interest in Foursquare, it could become its local sales division, helping draw in new users, new deals and new locations. The quicker Foursquare, GoWalla or MyTown grow, the more likely that site is to become the location-based social network of the future.
How else can mainstream media organizations leverage location-based social networks in a way that makes them money? Please share your thoughts as a comment on this post!
Addendum: Foursquare has announced partnerships with Zagat, Warner Bros., HBO and ExploreChicago. No other news organizations have signed on with the service, but the partnerships, as reported by Mashable, are quite interesting.
It’s a little early to say any one gadget will save anything, but Apple’s new gadget, the iPad, at least makes that a serious question. The publishing industry has to be cautiously optimistic. Here’s why:
It is built for displaying publishers’ content in an attractive way. The New York Times got a star demo at Steve Jobs’ big announcement, and the newspaper actually looks like an easy-to-read digital copy of a print newspaper. Based on the demo of the Times, it feels more like a print edition than any previous digital attempt at reproducing a newspaper. It has a nearly 10-inch screen, allows for intuitive navigation between newspaper sections and yet still takes advantage of the bells and whistles of the Web such as video, resizing and changing fonts, digital breaking news alerts, etc.
It will start at $499, not the $999 many were predicting. For people who want a 3G wireless experience, Apple did make it unlocked, which means you won’t have to only use AT&T the way iPhone users do. This gadget will be in a lot of hands quickly, and I think it will be an Amazon Kindle-killer.
The iPad is compatible with all the apps already in the iTunes store, including any iPhone apps that publishers already built. The experience is good enough to charge for subscriptions (like e-editions on the Kindle) yet high-quality enough to display more traditional print display advertisements. To fully take advantage of the new technology, publishers need to do more than just upsize their iPhone apps, but at least there’s an easy way to already be in the space.
Apple also announced the iBooks book store to allow for easy reading (and buying) on an iPad. iBooks is Apple’s answer to the Kindle. People will get in the habit of paying for content they read. That can only be good for the news industry.
It supposedly has a 10-hour battery life, hours better than most laptops. Combine its good battery life with its small size (half-inch thick and 1.5 pounds), and you have something that people will carry with them just about anywhere.
Some of the things I like about the iPad might also hinder it. Is the device too big? It’s certainly not going to fit in anyone’s pocket. Jobs was seen typing on it while it was resting in his lap. That doesn’t seem very ergonomic. Does it do too much? Will people spend their time on the iPad tweeting, watching YouTube videos and playing games, completely ignoring the news industry? Will publishers take advantage of all that can be done on a better processor and bigger screen that iPad offers over the iPhone or be content just letting the iPhone apps be upsized? If so, will those apps be successful or will people want more?
Several other tablets have been released, and more will come. This surely will become the year of the tablet. Having the iTunes apparatus in place — and Apple’s cachet from successes with the iPod and iPhone — could make the iPad the best opportunity since print for a publisher.
Will this save newspapers? Probably not on its own, but that’s OK - it’s a step in the right direction.
That may or may not be an exaggeration, but according to this data, it seems that more people are — at the very least — starting to explore location-based social networks by linking them up to their existing Twitter and Facebook profiles. However, for users who have just gotten used to Twitter and Facebook, these other networks (and how to act on them) may still seem very foreign.
I recently spoke to a reporter about folks who cheat at Foursquare and other location-based social gaming platforms, and was inspired to write up this quick guide to Foursquare etiquette. (NOTE: While I wrote this guide for Foursquare, it may be applied to other location-based social networks or games that involve “checking in” to a location.)
Here are some Foursquare dos and don’ts:
Do:
Create new, meaningful locations. Is there a landmark or cool restaurant that hasn’t been added to Foursquare? Do your fellow “Squares” (coining that term for Foursquare users) a favor and add it.
Add useful tips to existing locations. Do you have a favorite dish at a local restaurant? Is there a waiter or maître d‘ people should ask for? These are the tips that make location-based social networks (all social networks, really) cool — it’s the fact people are willing to share their local wisdom and preferences with others. If you have something to say about a given location that you think will help someone else out, take a second and add it.
Edit incorrect listings. Edit locations that have incorrect addresses and/or phone numbers, or restaurants and venues that are closed. By doing this, you’ll find that you may become a Foursquare Superuser in no time!
Share Foursquare promotions and deals with your friends. Know a bar or restaurant offering a great deal through Foursquare? Tell your friends on Facebook, Twitter and in real life. (For instance, there are several I’ve used: The Drawing Room at Le Passage [occasional client] and David Burke’s Primehouse.) The more people use these deals, the more businesses will create special discounts for Foursquare users. Don’t be shy to proclaim your geekiness to your friends — you may save them some money.
Moderate how often you cross-post to Twitter and Facebook. It’s easy to connect your Foursquare account to your Facebook and Twitter profiles; that said, it’s easy to spam your Facebook and Twitter contacts with your check-ins. Be mindful of how often you cross-post, and make sure to cross-post only things you think are important. Going to McDonald’s in a drunken stupor at 4am with someone who’s not your significant other? It may be risky enough to post it on Foursquare, but especially don’t post it elsewhere. (A hat tip to Benedict Wong for this one.)
Don’t:
Don’t accept friend requests from people you only know through Twitter or Facebook. When someone signs up for Foursquare, they have the ability to pull in connections through their Twitter and Facebook accounts. If you get a Foursquare invite from someone you know only through those networks, and you’re not comfortable with them knowing where you are, don’t add them, but don’t get weirded out that you’re getting these requests either. I only become Foursquare friends with people I know personally, but that’s my cup of tea. (Another school of thought: “Don’t like ‘em? Don’t Foursquare ‘em.”)
Don’t check in to places you don’t actually go to. I work on Chicago’s famed Michigan Avenue, and I take the bus to work each day. If I’m active on Foursquare, I may check in to my job, into the Magnificent Mile and to my apartment (not my real address), but that’s it. Some folks, as they commute via bus, train or car, will check into locations they pass by briefly.There’s no reason to check into locations you don’t spend any time at, so don’t do it.
Don’t let Foursquare consume you. Nothing will get you in the doghouse quicker than constantly checking in on Foursquare when you’re on a date. If your Foursquare usage interferes with dates or family time, you’re not enjoying the time you actually spend at that location, so you may want to scale back a bit. If you feel you must check in, however, retreat to the restroom.
Up for discussion:
Retroactive check-ins. It’s easy to forget checking in to a location, but if you remember after the fact, will you bother going back to check in to locations you’ve left? (I know I’ve done this on occasion, which is why I didn’t put it in the “Don’t” section.)
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Have I missed anything? Do you disagree with something I’ve said? Please feel free to post any additional thoughts you have as comments below.
We made a few predictions for how the media landscape will change in the new year, and we think it would be fun to hear what you think will be big in 2010, in less than 140 characters.
Use the hashtag #Media2010 in your tweet, and let us know what you think is coming.
Going by our predictions entry, our tweet would be:
2010 media predictions: More collaboration (soon with Wave), tablets on the rise, mobile strategies emerge, paywalls lose favor. #Media2010
Update: Because tweets don’t live forever, the widget we had on this entry displaying predictions has gone away. Thanks to all who participated.
When we all partied in 1999, who would have guessed how much things would change so quickly for the news industry in the first decade of the new millennium? In 10 short years, we saw change at a pace that was unprecedented in the history of mass media.
Instead of going back and examining those changes, which are well documented, I’m going to look ahead to 2010. Change is coming fast, so predicting what’s going to happen in the next year is perilous. But I’ll give it a shot anyway in three areas: social media, platforms and business models. Take all with a grain of salt.
Social media
The mainstream media really embraced social media in the last year of the decade. I think the media gets little credit for having done so, but the move to try out new tools was profound. When big news happens, newspapers, TV and radio stations are very likely these days to use Twitter and Facebook to collaborate with the community. In the next year, I think that collaboration will only grow. News organizations are realizing that user-generated content can be valuable, if used right. Twitter and Facebook are still relatively new tools, and journalists are just now hitting their stride with them. The interaction between journalists and the public is at an all-time high. For years, those of us in the news media have tried to find a way to make our reporters accessible to the public. We added e-mail taglines to stories, added reader comments online, etc. But it wasn’t until some powerful social media tools came along that we could really become accessible. It’s amazing when you think about it: An average fan could get in contact with a sports writer sitting in the press box at this year’s national championship football game through Twitter, ask a question - and get a response.
Social media is great for gathering public input and getting user-generated reports (think: Iran). In 2010, I see huge growth in using those mediums by the media, and some more experimentation in new tools that come our way, including Google Wave, which I believe has the potential to be the best collaboration tool journalists have ever seen. Real-time collaboration on a story is about to be a reality, and Wave will make it happen. Smart journalists are paying attention to Wave, though I predict it won’t be a serious option until near the end of 2010 (Google has scalability issues to work out, and developers need time to make it great).
New platforms
I think 2010 will be a year for big changes in the way we consume news. I’m not going to predict the death of print (that prediction has been around a long time, and print manages to keep chugging along). Rather, I see some new avenues complementing print and traditional broadcast media. The first one, I think, will be in tablets. Several tablets (touchscreen PCs that are roughly the size of a hardcover novel, but thinner) are on their way to the market. Apple is reportedly going to get into the game. Publishers are in talks with tablet makers to push content to the tablets. Apple jumping into the market could be huge. Can Apple do for publishers what it did for the music industry? I wouldn’t put it past them.
I also think 2010 will be the year that mobile really takes off. We almost saw it in 2009 with the prominence of the iPhone and the introduction of Android phones. Smart phones are becoming ubiquitous, and it’s only accelerating. With high speeds available (Sprint is unrolling 4G before many people are even on 3G), the possibilities are endless. I expect geolocation and QR codes to take off in the next year. Smart media companies will be paying attention to both technologies. Google is moving into the market quickly, offering QR codes to hundreds of thousands of local businesses. QR codes are like bar codes on steroids - people scan the codes with their mobile phones and it takes them to a URL. I can imagine a day (perhaps in the next year) when someone walks into a restaurant, scans a code printed on the menu with their mobile camera, and finds out instantly what the reviews are for the restaurant, not only from the public (via I predict Google-owned Yelp), but also from the local newspaper. If the local newspaper is smart, it is providing its own QR codes that serve as coupons for that particular establishment. Geolocation will also take off, and intertwine with social media. Foursquare and Gowalla, which are social networking games played over a geographic grid using mobile applications, will continue to grow (or be bought out by Google or Yahoo) and will become a bigger part of social media. The media should be watching these services carefully - there’s clearly some advertising potential here, because people are “checking in” to local businesses when they visit. Think about that.
New business models
The Miami Herald recently put out the tin cup online, asking for donations to “support ongoing news coverage” at the bottom of each story. The excitement over paywalls has died off some but is still around. Advertising revenue is expected to rebound some in 2010, along with the overall economy, so I predict that some of the more radical ideas (full paywall) will go by the wayside. Publishers should continue to look for new revenue streams, whether it is finding a way to monetize social media or make a buck off geolocation (imagine your phone buzzing when you walk by a bar, and the local newspaper is telling you about a drink special). I think experimentation in the next year is a good idea, but publishers should avoid throwing the baby out with the bathwater. We’ve made great strides in innovation - pushing too hard to make money off the new ideas might stifle some of the enthusiasm. If the ideas are truly good, their value will be revealed soon enough.
I hear all the time that this is a bad time for my industry. I don’t see it that way. I think it’s an exciting time, full of innovation. Of course, I still have my job, and I’m thankful for that. That’s it. I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday and a great new year.
2010 really looks like the year of location-based social networks, and the news industry seems to agree. The Metro publishing group recently announced a partnership with Foursquare; once a site user says where they are (done via GPS), relevant articles from Metro’s Canadian papers will be pulled into the program, providing site users additional information about the neighborhoods, restaurants and stores near them.
