Why location based social needs to work harder in the UK
Rich Rust,
Reputation Manager,
Yomego
8th June 2011
This blog is inspired by a response my colleague, Kirsty Bell, recently put together for a publication looking at Foursquare and specifically, why it hasn’t yet taken off in the UK.
My take on it is this; in the same way that brands are seeking ROI on their social activity, customers seek value in engaging with brands, i.e. a reason, an incentive or at the very least, a
point. For me, Foursquare in the UK, doesn’t yet offer a high enough level of engagement or intrinsic value to consumers. It isn’t just Foursquare though, this is true for all of the
location based social services kicking around, facebook places is in my view, not offering anything more.
Over and above the functionality and engagement issues, there are still major privacy concerns from UK consumers, specifically around brand use of location services to track customer
behaviour, as highlighted in a recent Information Age article.
Barely scratching the surface
On a global scale, privacy concerns aside, Foursquare is doing rather better than Facebook places, if you look at check-ins alone, in part perhaps due to the gaming mechanic,
often cited as one of the key benefits of the platform. Beyond the gaming functionality
of Foursquare though, the engagement opportunity seems to cease.
Mobile social is such now that simply checking in, offers little pay off for consumers. When you can create & share content (videos, pictures etc), watch movies, play games,
email, call, tweet and aggregate all your social spaces in to one app, it sort of takes the shine off checking in for the sake of it.
If we look at the UK specifically, its the brands, rather than consumers, who seem to not fully understand how to leverage location based social or see any real value in it.
Whilst this may be a by-product of the lack of consumer interest in the UK market, it’s perhaps more of a broader problem about brands still not understanding where social
fits their wider marketing strategy. A standalone Foursquare campaign is not a social strategy, and without having that in place, it’s hard to justify an ad hoc campaign on
a single platform, especially one which consumers don’t really want to engage with.
Where it has worked
The Fast food sector is a stand out case study of a sector making the
most of the Foursquare opportunity, with McDonalds, Burger King and Dominos all running campaigns which were able to offer consumers genuine rewards. Most consumers get bored
with just being rewarded with a mayorship and badges and look to real-world incentives, which is why the Dominos campaign worked so well in the UK, coupled with the fact that
it was the first of its kind.
Retail is the other obvious fit for Foursquare - GAP in the US ran a simple money off offer – this is where UK brands are missing out and should focus their efforts,
with the exception of Jimmy Choo, which ran a real time give-away competition, few retail brands have caught on to the potential.
Overall, for consumers and indeed brands, to fully sign up to and embrace social check in platforms in the UK, there needs to be a greater social aspect to it, a genuine
reason for taking the time to check in – consumers to need to feel rewarded and brands need to see a tangible return on their investment, and as ever, see where this
kind of campaign can be incorporated into the wider marketing mix. If not, the future for social check ins in the UK seems bleak, with consumers and brands favouring content
rich engagement platforms.
There is of course still a major opportunity for location based social – it’s still very much in its infancy and with mobile social technology rapidly evolving,
we certainly haven’t seen these platforms in their full glory yet.