My plane had just touched down at Chicago O’Hare at 11:10 AM last week mid-way to Los Angeles when I turned on my iPhone to discover a message. It was a reporter for a national news magazine looking for information.
Realizing I didn’t have the needed information, I called the reporter back. After speaking awhile I realized that David, a guy I met at the National Retail Federation last January would be perfect for the reporter.
What was his last name? All I could think of was P with difficult spelling. And I didn’t have his contact information in my phone or laptop. (Sorry David.)
I follow David on Twitter but that was no help and then it hit me, Foursquare.
For those of you who have written this game of a social media app off without trying it, I hope you’ll reconsider after this story.
For those of you unfamiliar with it, Foursquare is an app mainly for people in big cities with Blackberries, iPhones and the like to help you meet up with your friends and let you earn points and unlock badges for discovering new places, doing new things and meeting new people. You sign-up and then invite friends. You can do this allowing it to scan your Facebook or Twitter followers for people already signed up for Foursquare, then send a request to allow you to follow them. Only if they accept can you follow them. I think it will morph into a digital loyalty card for restaurants and bars but that’s another post.
Mostly this is kind of a “Where’s Waldo” for people you know. I have one guy who is a cameraman for network news who often is at the White House or other presidential activities plus about ten others who travel alot. In a quick moment of voyeurism, it is interesting to check once a day.
When you’re at conferences it can be useful to shout out to people you know electronically for meeting up. But for me on a daily basis, living in a village of 800 in New England, its usefulness wasn’t as apparent. That is until last week at 11:10 AM.
I went to my Foursquare app on my iPhone, clicked Friends and found David. I clicked on his name and up popped the information he chose to share on Foursquare. Now I could call him, text him, email him or go to his Twitter feed.
How cool is that? I can’t do that with LinkedIn, Twitter, or Facebook .
I then called David, told him about the reporter and he followed up within minutes.
Without that Foursquare information, I would have been lost and he would have missed the referral.
Like most social media, there is valuable information only if you know it is there. I invite you to sign-up and find me from my Twitter profile @theRetailDoctor. Then you can recommend me to your media friends:)
PS- Those of you who read those stupid articles and posts fearing burglars will be breaking into your home because you checked in at Tom’s ice cream or wherever via Foursquare, a burglar is more likely to watch your home and know you are gone to work from 9-5 M-F. If you’re that concerned, just don’t link your posts to Twitter or Facebook so Foursquare remains a closed system. You can be careful but no need to be paranoid.
PPS – Want to learn more about social media for business?
It was a story out of some reality show which I initially dismissed…and then found all the links to the story… I now call it the Paris Hiltonization of retail…
