A quick programming note: We will be covering the upcoming SXSW Interactive Festival via Upshot’s Twitter profile. Please follow @upshot_agency to get up-to-the-minute updates from Austin!
A couple lingering points from our Here and Now (with Foursquare) Potty Posting, before we get back to your regularly scheduled awesomeness.
One caveat that we didn’t get to in the posting: at the moment, location-based services are occasionally susceptible to people gaming the system. One guy found a loophole that allowed him to check-in at the North Pole from the comfort of a cafe in Burbank, and proceeded to start checking in all over the world. While this guy’s obviously quite busy, his efforts do highlight an important point. If he wants to write a program to win the mayorship of a local bar in order to get a free beer, no big deal. But, if a marketer was giving away a large cash prize to whomever earned a particular mayorship, the hacker floodgates would come flying open. Until that loophole is closed, marketers should avoid doing big giveaways through these services.
And by “these services,” of course, we mean all the location-based social networks. While our Posting focused primarily on Foursquare, there are a number of other successful services in this space, including Google’s Latitude and Gowalla (which just landed the coveted coverage of SXSW). But, besides Foursquare, Loopt seems to be capturing the most headlines as of late. They’ve got their own stable of partnerships, such as their arrangement with Tasting Table to provide local food recommendations. Loopt has also experimented with charity tie-ins; a recent campaign raised money for Haiti for every visit to Chipotle, Panera, or Whole Foods. Looking ahead, Loopt is also testing location-based ads, which will push content to users based on their vicinity. Granted, we’ve heard rumblings about this kind of advertising via text messaging or bluetooth for years, with the same verdict every time: it’s just too intrusive. It’s hard to believe that Loopt’s version is any different, but we’ll keep an eye on the situation nonetheless.
Of course, if keeping all these services straight is stressing you out, you could always just create your own…
