Marketers Studio - David Berkowitz's Marketing Blog

TripIt's Questionable Billing Practices Tarnish Travel App

I've been a big fan of TripIt for years, logging more than 292,000 miles of trips through the travel service that organizes travel plans into useful itineraries easily accessible via mobile devices. My enthusiasm for them was greatly diminished though recently due to their billing practices and clear lack of understanding why what they're doing is wrong.

Some time ago, I received a free trial of TripIt Pro which activates many of TripIt's bonus features like real-time flight status alerts (which often proved to be inaccurate, and less reliable than far cheaper programs like FlightTrack Pro) and updates on when flight fares drop and you can receive refunds (the one time TripIt kept alerting me to refunds was for the wrong flight, so it didn't apply to me).

A friend and colleague received the free trial at the same time, and alerted me several weeks ago that he was billed for the service once the trial ran out. He received no notice from TripIt, and only discovered it through Mint, which was tracking his finances. I find it problematic when Mint brings up fees like this. Mint had alerted me to some suspect fees from Citibank, and I was able to call the bank and get the fees waived given that the bank never alerted me to them. Citibank's customer service was far better than TripIt's, which I contacted once I discovered TripIt had charged me $49 in February 2011. Note that TripIt never sent me an alert that I would be billed or that I was billed. It was there for me to check on my own when going through my account on TripIt.

For those who use TripIt, you know you get A LOT of alerts from them. They're always telling you about upcoming trips, who's in your area, and why you should upgrade. They have no problem sending lots of messages to users. The only reason that I can fathom that they wouldn't alert people that they have been billed is dishonesty. They have yet to offer any other plausible reason for this.

I tweeted them on January 6 about the error and got no response.

I also posted on Facebook on January 9:

Warning to Tripit Pro users: Tripit will not inform you when your account is up for renewal and thus when you will be charged. When you discover you've been charged and ask for a refund, they will not give it to you. These are completely dishonest billing practices, and I highly advise against signing up for TripIt until things change.

Another user commented that I should contact the credit card company for a refund. I responded:

This is a bigger deal than asking for refunds. My problem is that TripIt does not notify users when you'll be charged or when you were charged. Either TripIt wasn't aware of this and should change it, or it's doing this intentionally. With all the notifications TRipIt sends users, this would be a logical one for them to include.

TripIt responded with a generic message:

We’re always willing to review a policy or procedure based on user feedback and this post has been passed on to management. Please note that billing information, including next billing date and amount, are available to all users at anytime in the Billing Information area of their profile...

I responded in turn:

I'm glad it's been passed on to management. I've received a lot of communication from TripIt but none even suggesting that it would be in customers' best interests to notify them when they will be charged. This is tone deaf customer service, and it's why I canceled my premium account and am exploring alternatives to TripIt's free services.

TripIt still never addressed the issue beyond 'passing the post on to management.'

TripIt clearly doesn't get the benefit of alerting users to charges, nor do they bother explaning why they don't alert people. Further proof comes from TripIt's Catina, who responded to a separate email I sent through their site:

Thanks for contacting us. Reviewing your TripIt Pro account based on your email address XXX, we see that you were billed on 2/11/11 for $49 transaction id is XXX . Your next scheduled renewal is 2/12/12. If you feel you were billed after that date, it could be that you have another account with a different email address that's not associated to XXX. We can only pull account information by an email address. At the time of sign up you entered your credit card information and agreed to the terms of service (which stated that if you did not cancel prior to the conclusion of the trail period that your membership would continue and your card would be charged).

You can view your transaction history and print receipts for each transaction, on our web site (www.tripit.com), in the 'Your purchase history' section of the billing history page of your TripIt account. To access this area (after signing in) go to User Name > Settings > Billing info (you can find a direct link in our help page item: http://help.tripit.com/entries/393497)

To avoid the auto renewal, you can cancel your TripIt Pro subscription and keep your Pro benefits for the full term paid please see the instructions in our help page on this topic: http://help.tripit.com/entries/89464. If you wish to close your account, sign in to TripIt and click on your user name and then Settings > Close Account (http://www.tripit.com/account/delete). Be sure to select the 'do not contact' option if you don't want to receive any TripIt initiated emails in the future. Please note, if you are a paid TripIt Pro member and cancel your TripIt account no refunds will be provided.

So in other words, it's the "terms of service defense." But that still doesn't answer why they were charging users without alerting them. I explained this to them, and Catina said, "You stated, 'I was billed twice.'" I never said that, so the next exchange was all about clarifying something that Catina invented.

It was then that I posted on Facebook and got another form response from TripIt:

We saw your Facebook posting and wanted to inform you, your transaction history can be viewed on our web site (www.tripit.com), in the 'Your purchase history' section of the billing history page of your TripIt account. To access this area (after signing in) go to User Name > Settings > Billing info (you can find a direct link in our help page item: http://help.tripit.com/entries/393497)

I responded to Catina:

That still doesn't help as you never notified me a payment was due or then
processed. I will continue to post this on Facebook, Twitter and elsewhere
until you change your policy. A refund is still requested as well. If you
were being charged for a service, wouldn't you want to know about it? I'd
actually be fine forgoing my refund if you change your policy.

Catina never responded, nor did anyone else from TripIt through this line.

I did take one more measure. I know someone who works with TripIt, so I reached out to her partially to let her know that I was going to raise the issue further, and partially to see if I'd get any better a response. She responded:

I checked with our team, and the intention behind auto-renewal is to prevent travelers from having a service lapse in the middle of traveling. The last thing we'd want to happen is for a traveler not be alerted that their plane is early/late (for example), when they're expecting to hear from us. However, we do provide a 2-week grace period following the charge, so cancellations can be made during that time.

Please know that your voice has been heard, and we're taking into consideration the suggestions you've made.

Again, my voice has been heard. Management received my request. Great. I responded to her:

My problem isn’t the auto-renewal at all. I understand that makes sense for some services.

Can you explain why they wouldn’t notify users that their auto-renewal is coming up, and that their auto-renewal was just processed? How does one even know when the grace period is if they’re never notified?

I heard nothing more from her or anyone at TripIt.

For a service built on notifications, and one that I thought was designed with the consumer in mind, I have been seeking alternatives. FlightTrack Pro, as mentioned, works well for notifications with a one-time $10 charge. Kayak's My Trips further organizes trips in a similar way that TripIt does and is proving to work well.

I'd like to keep using TripIt but can't if this is how they treat their users. Fortunately the alternatives keep getting better.

Ten Mobile Social Trends for 2012

10 Mobile Social Trends for 2012 and Beyond: Customer Engagement Technology World 2011 Keynote

View more presentations from David Berkowitz

Originally published in MediaPost's Social Media Insider

Ten Mobile Social Trends for 2012

How prepared are you for the mobile social tidal wave, tsunami, hurricane, and  Bieberquake that will hit us in 2012?

You better get ready. Gartner forecasts that there will be 7.4 billion mobile connections in 2015, when the Earth’s population is expected to be a mere 7.2 billion. And you know what everyone’s going to be doing with their 1.03 mobile connections per person? They’ll be undressing catalog models with augmented reality apps. But when they’re not doing that, they’ll probably be engaging with some kind of social media.

Following a keynote I just delivered at Customer Engagement Technology World 2011 on mobile social media, which you can view above or download at bit.ly/cetw2011, here are the ten trends to follow. You can find even more examples of these trends in the talk, with links in the appendix.

Here are the top ten mobile social trends:

1) Social Fashion

Why it matters: Mobile experiences can change the shopping experience to provide real-time feedback from friends, experts, and sometimes brands.

Watch out: Retailers and fashion brands might not love the real-time feedback when it’s negative.

Best in show: Go Try It On is one of my favorite digital experiences, especially for an app I don’t need personally (being married gives me all the real-time feedback that I need, and then some).

2) Tag, You’re It

Why it matters: Tagging is cool again thanks to Instagram, Pinterest, Tumblr, and other services built on tags, let alone the humble hashtag popularized by Twitter.

Watch out: Keep tags simple and relevant. No one will use a tag just because a marketer tells them to do it.

Best in show: If you haven’t tried Pinterest yet, you’re missing one of the great phenomena migrating from trendsetters to the mainstream.

3) Interactive TV

Why it matters: Interactive TV is here. Almost all mobile internet users access their mobile devices while watching TV, and most of that activity involves socializing.

Watch out: Check-ins and other gimmicks won’t have the same staying power as experiences that provide relevant content and active communities.

Best in show: There are some great contenders here, but I like IntoNow to use during TV programs and Shazam during the ads.

4) Q&A

Why it matters: Mobile social media makes it possible to get instant feedback from local experts.

Watch out: Very few local apps scale, especially for real-time experiences.

Best in show: Opinionaided is addictive. More than 100 people bothered voting on whether I had something in my teeth. Oddly, they couldn’t agree.

5) Putting ME in RecomMEndations

Why it matters: We’re not all the same, so how come recommendations are the same for everyone?

Watch out: Few services do personalization well, either because the social graph data is limited or the personalization takes too much work.

Best in show: Foursquare still nails this better than any newcomer I’ve tried so far. Seeing where your friends have been and what they recommended is both powerful and rewarding

6) Social Context

Why it matters: For people sharing their location, you can find out who is nearby and what you have in common with them.

Watch out: Many find this creepy, even if it’s all opt-in.

Best in show: Sonar has become one of a handful of apps that I use regularly; it’s perfect for habitual location-sharers.

7) Geo-Gaming

Why it matters: Mobile games can be far more fun if they’re based around real-world locations.

Watch out: A lot of people just want to kill pigs and cut ropes.

Best in show: I’m addicted to Traveler’s Quest for burying and finding virtual treasure all over the globe, but Life is Crime is also a well done version of Mafia Wars using real venues, and the latter runs on Android.

8) Augmented REALity

Why it matters: Merging digital experiences with the real world offer imaginative new ways for people and brands to tell their stories. New applications will have people using AR to find people, not just places.

Watch out: So far, it’s still mostly gimmicks.

Best in show: The Airwalk virtual pop-up store by Goldrun may be the best AR campaign run so far.

9) Near Field Community

Why it matters: Near field communication (NFC) becomes far more interesting when it taps into social media.

Watch out: Hey, Jack, in Springfield! Can we borrow your phone? The rest of us 300 million Americans are waiting for our turn to try NFC since our handsets don’t have the hardware.

Best in show: Look how excited this guy from Engadget is to buy a Coke from a vending machine just because he’s using NFC. Now imagine if there was an incentive for him to buy one for a friend.

10) Facial Recognition

Why it matters: Mobile handsets are just getting powerful enough with fast enough connections to process facial recognition. Whatever you’ve seen so far using webcams will seem like child’s play.

Watch out: It better be 1,000% opt-in or people will flip out. And it doesn’t play well in places with more sensitive privacy concerns, like schools, strip clubs, or Europe.

Best in show: Face.com has processed 34 billion faces so far and is just getting started.

Face.com isn’t the only one. We’re all just getting started. How are you planning to use mobile social media in the months and year ahead? I’m excited for the opportunities we’ll have to learn from each other.

 

Checking In On The Check-In Class Of 2010

Keanu's sad because none of his friends are checking in anymore

Checking In On The Check-In Class Of 2010
originally published in MediaPost

Remember when check-ins were the future of social media? Remember when Foursquare was the next Facebook, Gowalla was the next Foursquare, and Whrrl was the next Gowalla? Yeah, I’m glad we’ve moved on, too.

Yet it wasn’t long ago that these check-in apps were so prevalent that I used eight of them concurrently, and then showed how they differed by including a celebrity persona that embodied each one. Things have changedm though. At last week’s OMMA Social event in San Francisco, I kept winding up in conversations with people wondering what happened to the check-in craze. The hype has faded, leaving check-ins in the proverbial chasm that must be crossed for the activity to become mainstream.

So what happened to the one-time pioneers of the check-in world? Here’s a review of the Check-In Class of January 2010.

Buzzd (Lindsay Lohan)

2010: “Buzzd is a little too cool for me so I don't use it as much as the others, but if you're more into bottle service than cupcake trucks, party on.”

Today: Buzzd quietly faded as a consumer app, and founder Nihal Mehta pivoted the business. Today it’s LocalResponse, “the world’s first cross-platform check-in based ad network,” allowing marketers to reach consumers publicly sharing their locations (full disclosure: I’m a LocalResponse advisor).

CauseWorld (Lance Armstrong)

2010: “Every time you check in somewhere, largely at retailers and restaurants, you earn karma points that you can donate to a number of charities, all thanks to sponsors.”

Today: CauseWorld is gone, but its good karma has been reincarnated into Shopkick. Now, points are earned not just for checking in but for scanning objects at a store, creating more opportunities for marketers to reach consumers. With 2.5 million users so far, it has achieved more success than many check-in apps ever did, though it still has a long way to go before it scales.

Foursquare (Ashton Kutcher)

2010: “Foursquare is responsible for a lot of how we think about mobile social media, from ‘merit’ badges to local advertising. It's tough to say how well Foursquare will play to the masses, as the whole idea of checking in creeps some people out.”

Today: Foursquare remains the king of check-ins, which sounds great except when you find out the rest of the royal family either contracted cholera or left to join the clergy. Foursquare has grown, notching 10 million users, but most people still don’t get the point of checking in. I still love Foursquare and look forward to its next act. It needs that next act, though.

Gowalla (Anna Kendrick)

2010: “You might be thinking, ‘Anna who?’ That's the reaction I still get when talking about Gowalla, even as it racks up investments and increases its global appeal.”

Today: Gowalla squandered its opportunity. You know when I knew it was dead? At South by Southwest, the hallmark tech event in Gowalla’s home city of Austin, no one was using it. Think I’m exaggerating? Check Google Trends on Gowalla versus Foursquare. Gowalla flatlined so much that you can hardly tell it’s still declining. I was wrong. Gowalla wasn’t Anna Kendrick. It’s more like Quinn Culkin, the younger sister of Macauley who had a couple brief acting roles before fading from public life.

Loopt (Mark-Paul Gosselaar, circa "Saved by the Bell")

2010: “Sure, it was in Apple's ads for awhile and may have a passionate fan base. But it seems short on features compared to its competition… It's the one I keep forgetting about.”

Today: It still exists. Every now and then, it inks some marketing deal. But it remains as forgettable as ever. Oddly though, if you check Google Trends, it seems like its entire fan base is in the Netherlands. Veel succes, Loopt!

MyTown by Booyah (Ellen DeGeneres)

2010: “MyTown has the most fun with location-based checkins… In MyTown, you buy properties and upgrade them, and then you keep collecting rent while finding new items to boost your points.”

Today: MyTown went from a market leader to a ghost town. Following a slew of frequent updates in 2010, Booyah’s only announcement between December 2010 and September 2011 was hiring a COO. Now it’s resurfacing, having just released MyTown 2 last week. Veel succes, Booyah! (Dutch is the fifth most popular language for “MyTown” searches; the Dutch sure love experimenting.)

Whrrl (Dame Helen Mirren)

2010: “Whrrl's not the newest or the hottest of the apps… It's not a must-use for me...”

Today: In April 2011, Groupon acquired Whrrl creator Pelago, naming Pelago CEO Jeff Holden its SVP of Product Management. Unlike Groupon’s share price, you can bet Holden’s undervalued. My favorite thing about Whrrl was the team behind it, and I wish the old Pelago crew the best.

Yelp (Michael Jordan -- on the Chicago White Sox)

2010: “It has the chance to be the Michael Jordan (Chicago Bulls style) of review sites, if it doesn't get crushed by Google. But now it's trying a new game, adding check-ins. While users love it for reviews, the notion of checking in is not part of its core purpose.”

Today: It’s not a check-in app and never was. Yelp’s growth remains meteoric; just check its own infographic from this summer. It needs all the success it can muster, because now that Google’s acquired Zagat, Yelp has bigger competition than ever.

If you’re keeping score, there’s hardly a resounding endorsement for check-ins. But there’s more to the story.

First, it’s odd that I didn’t include former check-in star Brightkite in the round-up, but it killed that functionality late in 2010 to focus on group texting.

The column also ran before the launch of SCVNGR, which includes check-ins but really hinges on rewards for location-based challenges. Even in that short window, it has quasi-pivoted, launching mobile payments spin-off LevelUp, though SCVNGR remains alive and well.

The biggest change to happen during this span is Facebook introducing check-ins in August 2010 and killing off the feature a year later. Tellingly though, Facebook made it much easier to share one’s location with every post. Thus, the check-in is dead but location is much more central to its functionality.

If you’re overwhelmed by this review, imagine using all these apps. I noted in the original post, “It gets to be a problem when you start interacting with the apps so much that you're not interacting with the people in front of you.” That’s a problem that is only getting worse. Yet that’s an issue that’s much bigger than check-ins. And on the flipside, the marketing opportunities for mobile social media are much bigger than just check-ins. The era of the check-in may have been short-lived, but the era of brands creating meaningful experiences through the combination of mobile, social and location-based marketing is just beginning.

The 'S' In 4S Stands For Social

What's more social than greeting cards?

The S in 4S Stands for Social
originally published in MediaPost's Social Media Insider

Even as the world waits for the mythical Facebook phone to surface, there’s another social phone that has done pretty well: the iPhone 4S. It may not be exclusively social, but in many ways, the 4S embodies the theme of how mobile devices are inherently designed to connect people with each other.

Fellow columnist Cathy Taylor already wrote about Steve Jobs as an unheralded social media guru. Her rationale is beyond sound, although I’m not sure if the inimitable Mr. Jobs would have associated himself with the 220 people on LinkedIn (and far more on Twitter) who have used “social media guru” as their title. Cathy looked at Apple’s broader contributions and Jobs’ legacy, but what about the 4S itself?

I’m using the 4S as shorthand here. Tens of millions of people who haven’t bought the 4S can still access any of its features through Apple’s new iOS 5 mobile operating system. Both the 4S and iOS 5 were released publicly this month, and now we can see what they can do.

Find Friends

For the purists, the original point of Foursquare had little to do with points and badges. It was all about finding friends. The 4S and iOS 5 strip away all the gamesmanship and check-ins. Instead, they automate the process of sharing locations and finding friends.

Users won’t be focused on ramping up their friend tallies here. Many friend requests will wind up being temporary. One can locate friends over the course of certain travels or an event, and then end the connection.

Other apps beyond Foursquare have tried this. Marco, for instance, debuted in March 2010 and offered temporary sharing, with the added advantage of using SMS to connect people who didn’t use smartphones. Find Friends is limiting in that all users need iOS devices. That presents new opportunities for other apps to incorporate such functionality.

Cards

There’s something wonderfully old-fashioned about Apple’s latest approach to social media. Beyond bringing people together in person, Apple now makes it easy for people to send each other printed cards. This has the potential to change people’s behavior in unexpected ways. Suddenly it becomes more important to have physical addresses in your contact list.

Tweet

One short, simple word was added to sharing options in the new iOS browser: “Tweet.” Am I more likely to tweet links now that this is part of iOS? Sure. Will people sign up for Twitter just because they can tweet from the iPhone? That’s unlikely. Mostly, it will increase the volume of posts from iPhone-wielding Twitter users. Tweeting is just one of many options now, joining options to add a bookmark, add an article to the reading list, add the link to the home screen, email the link, and print the page. There’s a lot of clutter, and any more options will require Apple to redesign the menu.

Siri

The most important new feature on the 4S that isn’t in iOS 5 is Siri, Apple’s voice-activated virtual assistant. Does Siri encourage more social behavior?

It all comes down to the beholder, or in this case, the person beholding the iPhone. Social media may make us share more, and it may remove inhibitions, but it doesn’t turn an introvert into an extrovert. Similarly, the voice commands may be so intuitive that people use their mobile devices more to call, text, email, and schedule meetings with others. Or maybe people will check the weather and stock prices more often. It depends on the user.

Apple did prove that by adding a touch interface, people would interact far more with their devices, and with the media accessible through those devices. Apple rewired our brains so quickly that people like me, who grew up with keyboards and mice, now tend instinctively to touch any computer screen. If Siri succeeds, we’ll spend more time talking to our devices too, regardless of whether they accept voice commands.

Will those commands be more social, though? It’s not likely, but it’s entirely possible. It depends how much friction Apple removes in social encounters. If it becomes so incredibly easy to locate close friends nearby, send them printed notes out of the blue, share stories with anyone interested, and reach out to people via voice-activated prompts, then it will be intrinsically rewarding to do these actions more often.

The 4S and iOS 5 are perfect symbols for where social media is heading. Apple didn’t launch some new social network, and even the most social features like Find Friends don’t directly compete with social apps like Foursquare. Rather, Apple understands that our existence is largely social, and its devices should fulfill those needs for its consumers. That’s true for all brands now, and it’s up to brand managers to best orient these brands toward their consumers’ social needs.

Facebook's Little 'M' KOs Three 'Ws'

Facebook Mobile: big things in a small package (Image via Facebook)

Facebook's Little 'M' KOs Three 'Ws'
originally published in MediaPost

Facebook takes its leadership mantle seriously. Instead of merely coming out with a new iPad app, it changed in ways that will long cement its role as the most important suite of mobile sites and applications in the world.

Lofty claims? Perhaps. But they’re warranted.

Consider Facebook’s 350 million mobile users. Facebook surely hasn’t gotten there by offering the best mobile experience to date. Beyond some of its apps being half-baked, not all mobile devices make it easy to use Facebook’s mobile services. Facebook didn’t have to be the best; it just had to meet enough of its users’ needs. 350 million people don’t voluntarily do something that makes them miserable (though a few million people do somehow keep rooting for the Mets).

Consider how Facebook keeps its app users within its own environment. If a friend posts this column on Facebook and you tap the link from a mobile device, you’ll be able to read the full column on MediaPost while remaining within Facebook’s mobile app. Others have done this, including some Twitter clients. It matters far more on Facebook, though, not just because of the reach but because Facebook has always owned its own mobile experiences.

Consider how Facebook now directs its app users to other apps, as long as they tap into Facebook. This is the most significant mobile update Facebook has announced this week, and perhaps ever. Let’s look at it metaphorically: Mr. Zuckee is the most popular ice cream man in the neighborhood and has more kids lining up at his truck than he knows what to do with. To corner the market, he lets all the other ice cream shops in town accept Mr. Zuckee loyalty cards, but in return he gets the shops’ customer lists. That’s what has been happening all along since Facebook Connect launched. Now, with the new updates, Mr. Zuckee says that as a perk for being in the Zuckee network, he’ll drive kids to any other Zuckee affiliate. In more literal terms, Facebook will send its own app users to other apps on their devices, and will even direct people to those apps’ iTunes Store download pages.

All of this makes Facebook function more like an operating system than a publisher. It doesn’t control the whole experience yet. For instance, there are limits to how Facebook Credits can be used, largely to stay within the bounds of Apple’s policies. But Facebook now cements itself as the best portal on any mobile or portable device.

It’s very different than the portals we used to know. though.  The old Web portals used to be about delivering news, sports, and weather, with a side dish of email. Facebook is instead focused on delivering links and updates from friends, content from brand pages that users opt into, and quick access to their favorite apps, with a side dish of instant communication. Perhaps the weather and a few sports scores will be thrown in over time.

What’s also fascinating is how different these announcements are from what happened at f8 in late September. There, to much fanfare, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the Timeline, a revamped profile page customizable with more multimedia and actions. Yet the Timeline has one massive flaw: It doesn’t work well on mobile devices. It’s a two-column format with rich images and a modular layout. Mobile profiles, however, default to a linear, more rigid format.

Zuckerberg seems to know the future of Facebook is all about mobile usage. Along with the new apps, Facebook is enriching everything it can at its mobile site, m.facebook.com. In time, the mobile experience will be the focal point of Facebook, and this may well have been the last f8 to not issue important mobile announcements. In time, the PC-based site will be where people go to tinker with their profiles and where brand managers administer pages, but for most people, Facebook will be an overwhelmingly mobile experience.

Here are Timeline updates I’d love to see from Mark Zuckerberg. “September 22, 2011: announced Facebook’s Timeline.” “October 10, 2011: effectively killed off Facebook’s Timeline.” Sometimes even those making the future happen to get blindsided by it.

Why They Stopped Using Foursquare

originally published in MediaPost's Social Media Insider

Why They Stopped Using Foursquare

This may be shocking news, but not everyone's actively managing their identities on 10 social networks and 50 location-based mobile services. Some early adopters have even reached a point where they feel they've been adopting a little too early. They're the ones we'll hear from today.

When I recently browsed my Foursquare contacts - admittedly to remove some dead weight because I was getting too close to the 1,000 friend limit - I saw that a number of friends had stopped using it. I wanted to know why, and several were kind enough to share their stories.

This isn't about bashing Foursquare. The majority of my friends are active users, with their most recent check-in happening within the past week. Yet to acknowledge the obvious, most people - even most smartphone owners - have never used Foursquare. Those who tried Foursquare and stopped are in a unique position to speak to some of Foursquare's challenges, and some of the challenges for location-based services in general. Interestingly, as I was soliciting opinions for this piece, Facebook killed its Places check-in service, and distant runner-up Gowalla killed off some of its popular features. So it's an especially important time to understand the user value proposition of social location-based services.

Below are several thoughts on why people stopped using Foursquare, along with the date of their last check-in. For more thoughts on this, you can find a vibrant discussion on Google+.

Robert Wollner (April 2011): I don't like people knowing where I am and what I am doing unless it is very fun and very exciting. Similar to the value of Google+, I don't like the idea of coworkers, friends, family, and clients knowing what I am doing at all times.

Anonymous (December 2010): In truth, I didn't check in on Facebook all that much so I guess I won't miss it much anyway, and I don't plan to start using Foursquare again. I only ever used Foursquare and Facebook to check in when I was somewhere I wanted to remember or when I was somewhere with a group of "real life" friends (which Facebook is better for). While I played with Foursquare for a while, I didn't really get any benefit from it. The location-based deals idea is interesting though if it ever takes off. I'd love to get the benefit of deals for being a regular at places I like.

Walt Ribeiro (June 2010): I used to be a huge Foursquare user, but yes, I haven't touched it in more than a year. When Facebook places came out I stopped using Foursquare that very day. Then I began using Facebook less, and as a result haven't 'checked in' much at all. All the investment I had to do in order to become a mayor, just to save 10% on a $2.00 soft drink seemed senseless to me when I began to look at the time I was investing in these companies. That, and the idea of "investing social capital" was not something I wanted. My friends and followers don't care where I am, it had nothing to do with my music company or music fans, so the whole thing seemed more like a fad than a business strategy.

Jeff Rutherford (August 2010): Social media fatigue. I've used SCVNGR, which I liked a lot more than Foursquare, but even with SCVNGR I'm not a regular user. I do use social media a lot, but checking in to physical spaces is something I only do occasionally. I have two small kids, and everything I do in social media I question the time spent vs. what I'm gaining. Checking-in to physical locations ranks pretty low, so I don't do it that often.

Susan Bratton (February 2011): A boring waste of time. Something someone else wants me to do for them. No value. Focused on my own deliverables. Feel the same about Google+.

Ian Jindal (May 2011): I initially had fun with Foursquare - easy mayorships, interesting places and some discovery. After a while though the game became too much: my wife complained, my roaming fees increased... Then a few small things started to annoy me [that] culminated in my abandoning Foursquare and deleting the app ;) They were, in no particular order:

- I didn't care where other people checked in. It was Twitter spam. I didn't find anything of interest in real-time and none of my followers or real life friends cared either (i.e. no utility, no fun).

- The check-in is too crude. Places mixed with events and so the purpose/benefit is reduced. May as well just tweet with the location turned on.

- Other than mayorships, there's nothing else to the game.

Taken together, the brief game magic evaporated. There's only room in one's life for a couple of systems and between Twitter, microblogging, TripIt and one experiment (currently Google+), that's me full :). Of course I'm 45 and currently feeling rather grumpy, so I'd not assume that this is a general position ;)

Ian and others are hardly grumpy. They've just figure out what works for them, and in these cases, Foursquare doesn't. For a much greater group of people, Foursquare hasn't made the case yet to try it out. The value of these mobile social services is evolving, and it's something that Foursquare, its peers, brands, marketers, and of course consumers will have to figure out.

So where do you stand? Share your thoughts on the Social Media Insider comments, in Google+, or if you're so passionate about it, create an event on Foursquare and leave your opinion as a tip.

Sonar's Search for Your Second Degree

Sonar's Search For Your Second Degree
originally published in MediaPost's Social Media Insider

Let's play a game. I'm going to throw out a bunch of statements, each one of which builds on the one before it. Your score is the highest numbered statement that describes you. Be honest, as there's no reward for having the highest score.

1)  I am a person.

2)  I use a mobile device.

3)  I at least occasionally engage in some form of social media usage via my mobile device, such as social networking, tweeting, blogging, or sharing multimedia.

4)  I at least occasionally use an application to engage in social media usage from my mobile device.

5)  Of the applications I have used for mobile social media usage, I have used at least one to share my location, whether publicly or with select friends.

6)  Along with having shared my location through a mobile social media application, on at least one occasion I have used such an application to see if I knew anyone either at my location or somewhere nearby.

7)  I have met someone that I know at my location or nearby that location with the assistance of a mobile social location-based application.

8)  Not only have I met someone I know at or near my location thanks to a mobile social location-based application, but I have also used such an application to find out information about a second-degree contact (i.e., a friend of a friend).

9)  I haven't just met at least one first-degree contact via a mobile social location-based application; I have met a second-degree contact that way too. I noted to this second-degree contact the people and perhaps the interests we have in common.

10)  I've used a mobile application to scan the faces of several people in the room, identify by how many degrees we are connected, and strike up conversations with them based on our mutual connections and interests.

This list could go further, though it would quickly become a work of science fiction. As it's laid out here, 1 and 2 applies to nearly everybody, whether in the U.S. or elsewhere. Number 3 applies to most mobile users, and 5 and 6 are fairly common. It's 6 where the largest drop-off happens, especially as that moves into 7. Few probably realize how easy it is to do number 8, number 9 is possible now but makes some people squirm, and I don't even score a 10 here, although such prototypes have been developed.

It's number 9 that fascinates me now, as I've done this on multiple occasions thanks to an application called Sonar (see sonar.me, not .com). It's not for everyone. As of now, it's only for people with Apple mobile devices, and the app is based on Foursquare. Once you connect your Foursquare account with Sonar and tie in your Facebook and Twitter accounts, you unlock a new layer of social information wherever you go.

Consider this example. I was in Atlanta presenting at a Social Media Club event. I pulled up the application and asked if a Terry Coniglio was present. She raised her hand, somewhat tentatively, as if I was about to either tell her that she had left her car's lights on or I was seeking a volunteer to be sawed in half. Instead, I informed her that we shared at least 25 Twitter friends. We had a starting point for a connection, and after the presentation, I was able to kick back, sip my sweet tea vodka, and talk with Terry about whom we knew in common.

As I write this, there's someone at a nearby Whole Foods with whom I share 31 Facebook friends. He doesn't have that much to say on Twitter, so I won't follow him just yet. There's someone at 24 Hour Fitness near me who knows an old digital media friend. The two of us both like StyleCaster and PSFK - though no other interests are shared. He happens to be working out with a former colleague, someone with whom I have more than 100 shared connections. If I ever worked out at a 24 Hour Fitness, or worked out anywhere outside my Xbox Kinect-equipped living room, perhaps I could go there and introduce the two of them.

What do you make of all of this? For most people I know, it goes too far in overreaching perceived bounds of privacy, even those who are frequently using mobile social location-based services. It's like when I looked outside and caught a naked guy in the building across the street; he was probably fine being naked as long as he wasn't aware that anyone could see him.

As for me, I love having more information about my surroundings -- including the people there. As facial recognition technologies become more pervasive, I'll be the first to creep out all of my friends, assuming they don't defriend me too quickly.

As I was getting to know Sonar, I wound up at a wedding in Cincinnati where I sat next to a total stranger whose parents happened to live in the same apartment building as my grandmother; we soon realized they literally lived next door to each other. My grandmother now thanks me for the inadvertent introduction to her new friends.

What if I wasn't sitting next to that guy, out of all the weddings in all the towns in all the world? Who else at that wedding might I be connected to in ways I never got to discover? Could Sonar, or the generations of applications to come, help piece that together? Or should we steer clear of these apps entirely and appreciate the serendipity that emerges from being the social creatures that we are?

As much as I love these apps -- as much as I will soon score a 10 on this list and will embrace scoring a 20 on next year's -- the most important part is number 1. You're a person, I'm a person, and there's probably some shred of shared humanity between us. Appreciate that, and the rest is insignificant. We'll always strive for shared connections with each other, regardless of how we choose to bring them about.

 

Social and Location: The Consumer Perspective - Social Media Club Atlanta

Last week, I had the pleasure of joining Social Media Club Atlanta and gave a talk on emerging trends in the social and location fields. Below is an annotated version of the presentation with some context added. It covers a number of things that fascinate me from Sonar.me to Localmind to Aurasma to awful and great ways to use QR codes. I welcome your thoughts on any of the above, or below for that matter.

Social and Location: The Consumer Perspective - Social Media Club Atlanta

View more presentations from David Berkowitz

20 New Confessions Of A Foursquare Super Mayor

 

Congrats, Foursquare, on reaching the 10 million user milestone. It's an impressive feat, as your momentum took off even as Facebook launched its rival check-in and deals programs. If anything, your competition is lighter now than it has been for years, as also-rans have sputtered.

As for me, I still can't quit you. It was just a year ago when I listed 20 confessions of a Super Mayor after earning a virtual badge for being the most frequent visitor of  10 separate locations. Somehow, I still rank as a Super Mayor. On this occasion, with Foursquare's user count roughly six times what it was a year ago, here are 20 more confessions.

1) I'm now the mayor of 11 locations, up from the 10 just over a year ago.

2) I expected that I'd be the mayor of fewer places after hitting the milestone, given Foursquare's user growth and my own waning interest in checking in just for the sake of being the mayor. Sometimes I'm wrong.

3) I didn't know how many mayorships I had now until I started writing this. I swear.

4) Of my four mayorships in New York City, one is for my favorite office lunch spot, Salume (more on that below), another is for a location in 360i's former office, a third is for an event that is long over, and the last is for my dentist's office.

5) If you follow me on Foursquare or Foodspotting, you'll see how I can maintain the mayorship of my dentist's office. Granted, I'm hoping 23andMe will tell me I can blame genetics.

6) Outside of New York City, I'm the mayor of my parents' building and two grandmothers' buildings. I am totally fine with that. At least I can prove to my family that I visit.

7) I have two retail mayorships, one for Atlantic City's J. Crew Factory and the other for the area's broader outlet stretch called The Walk. For those unfamiliar with The Walk, it probably attracts the lowest proportion of smartphone users in any retail environment not catering to the Amish.

8) The final two mayorships are for hotels in South Africa and Zanzibar. They both had great WiFi. Those mayorships won't last forever, as another Foursquare user is bound to stay there longer. Mayorships are fleeting but memories last forever.

9) A year ago, I hadn't earned a tangible reward for being the mayor of a location. I still haven't. But sandwich shop Salume did reward me with a bottle of sparkling water on my fifth check-in. I believe that's the only loyalty deal I have received through Foursquare.

10) I'm way too easily susceptible to gamification, and I don't even like the word. When a Foursquare update earlier this year reemphasized points as a form of bragging rights, I started caring about points again. I've never been the point leader among my Foursquare friends, but I've been in the top three a few times.

11) I've done some rough mental calculations on whether it's better to earn more points for checking in with friends you haven't seen in a while versus earning points for being the first of your friends to check in somewhere. I'm pretty sure the points favor people with fewer friends. I haven't yet defriended people to earn points, but I've considered it.

12) Foursquare caps your friends at 1,000, which is fine with me. What annoys me is that while it keeps warning me that my 700+ friends have me nearing the limit, every time I approve or reject a friend request, it suggests new friends. Stop suggesting new friends if I shouldn't have more! And also, follow Facebook and LinkedIn and let me at least reject suggestions so you don't show me the same people I don't need to connect with there.

13) I was relieved when Whrrl was acquired by Groupon, as I no longer needed to use that check-in app. One down.

14) I basically stopped using Gowalla during South by Southwest this March. If it couldn't break through in its hometown of Austin during that geek getaway, it wasn't worth focusing on.

15) For a while, I enjoyed the Yelp check-ins, but I've generally stopped using it for checking in too. It was telling when I met someone at Yelp promoting their mobile services but had barely checked in at all.

16) I'm not particularly interested in badges, though they're fun enough. I still wish I could selectively share badges through Facebook and Twitter; today it's an all or nothing option, and I keep it turned off.

17) The most unexpected badge I received was an Ellen DeGeneres badge earned at the Hong Kong Museum of History.

18) When someone follows me on Twitter and I see a large percentage of their posts are Foursquare check-ins, I know not to follow them.

19) If we're not Facebook or Twitter friends, there's no way I can realistically friend you on Foursquare. If you really don't know me, I welcome being followed (in the Twitter sense, not the sense of lurking behind me on my way home from work). For that matter, don't send LinkedIn requests to strangers either. Please.

20) My biggest change in Foursquare usage is that I now routinely rely on it for recommendations, often instead of Yelp and other local services. It's helpful to see what's popular and where your friends have been.

That wraps the latest confessional. If Foursquare continues its hot streak, there will be many more to come.

101 Types Of Mobile Social Alerts

Those red dots must be clicked, as it's likely a social alert

101 Types Of Mobile Social Alerts
originally published in MediaPost's Social Media Insider

Ever since Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC), the coverage I've read has been far more excited about the forthcoming alert upgrades in iOS, Apple's mobile operating system, than the iCloud launch or hundreds of other updates. As more prominent alerts lead to even faster adoption of various mobile services and technologies, mobile social media should be disproportionately affected.

If you wonder why, remember that the Internet was always designed to be for communication above any other purpose. Mobile devices are similarly designed around communication first. We're social creatures, and we'll always pay the most attention to what other people are doing above all else.

To get an appreciation for the potential for how alerts can be used through Apple's mobile devices for social purposes, here are 101 possible examples. These are largely culled from current use cases, or potential use cases for existing apps -- but with a little more time and creativity, this list could reach 1,001 examples before long.

Here are 101 types of mobile social alerts:

1.     Someone is calling you

2.     You miss someone's call

3.     You receive a text message

4.     You receive an instant message

5.     You receive email

6.     A friend starts a video chat with you

7.     You're invited to a group chat

8.     A group chat's information has been updated

9.     A friend joins a group chat

10.  A friend leaves a group chat

11.  A friend is near you, based on their mobile device entering your area

12.  A friend explicitly checks in near you

13.  Someone with whom you share mutual friends checks in near you

14.  A friend plans to attend the same event you're planning on attending

15.  A friend plans to be in the same city as where you are or where you're going

16.  A friend follows multiple stages of an itinerary you have shared

17.  A friend earns a badge for their check-in activity

18.  A friend becomes the mayor, duke, or other leadership title of a venue

19.  Someone steals the mayorship or other leadership title of a venue you used to "own"

20.  A friend responds to an event you posted

21.  A friend sends you a recommendation

22.  A friend shares a recommendation with you based on a product they scan

23.  A friend seconds your recommendation

24.  A friend adds a recommendation to somewhere you've been

25.  Your status jumps to a new level because people like enough of your recommendations

26.  Your recommendation leads someone to purchase what you recommended

27.  A friend requests your recommendation on something they're considering buying or doing

28.  Responses arrive for a recommendation you're seeking

29.  A friend proactively shares a tip to help with a program or project you're involved with

30.  Someone responds to a question you asked through a question and answer service

31.  Someone rates your answer as helpful

32.  You become an expert for a given topic or location through a Q&A service

33.  Someone responds to a poll you asked

34.  Someone requests that you answer their poll

35.  You receive a photo or video

36.  You are tagged in a photo or video

37.  A friend updates their photo

38.  Someone posts a photo of the event or location where you are

39.  A friend takes a photo of the same person, place, or thing you previously shot

40.  A friend likes one of your photos or videos

41.  Someone responds to one of your photos or videos with a photo or video of their own

42.  A friend invites you to listen to their music playlist

43.  A friend sends you an application

44.  A friend sends you an e-book

45.  A friend sends you a virtual gift

46.  Someone tweets you

47.  Someone direct-messages you on Twitter

48.  Someone you follow tweets

49.  Someone on a list you follow tweets

50.  Your tweet is retweeted

51.  Someone tweets using a search term or hashtag you're following

52.  Someone follows you

53.  Someone sends you a friend request

54.  Someone accepts a friend request

55.  Your friend shares a status update in their social network profile's feed

56.  A friend likes your status update

57.  A friend comments on your status update

58.  Someone has viewed your profile

59.  Someone invites you to play a game

60.  A friend makes a move in a game you're playing

61.  A friend reminds you to take a turn in a game you're playing

62.  A friend beats you in a game

63.  A friend beats your high score in a game

64.  A friend reaches or surpasses your level of achievement in a game

65.  A friend helps you out in a game

66.  Someone shares a deal with you

67.  A friend invites you to take part in a deal that can only be redeemed if you both participate, whether virtually or in-person

68.  A friend sends you a progressive coupon that becomes more valuable the more it's shared

69.  A friend buys you a drink or another gift you can redeem in-store

70.  A friend offers to split a bill or tab with you

71.  A friend's contact information is updated

72.  Someone shares a contact with you

73.  It's a friend's birthday

74.  A friend becomes an expert of a product or category based on their barcode scanning behavior

75.  A friend invites you to collaborate on a document

76.  A friend updates a document you're both working on

77.  A friend sends you a file

78.  Someone updates traffic information in your area

79.  Someone updates weather information in your area

80.  A friend records having a better night's sleep than you did

81.  A friend comments on the page of a brand you like

82.  A friend likes a photo of a dish you ate

83.  A friend changes their relationship status

84.  Someone has a crush on you, such as through a dating site or app

85.  A potential relationship match is in the same venue or general vicinity as you

86.  A food truck or other mobile business you follow enters your area

87.  Your friend tunes into the same TV show that you're watching

88.  Your friend posts a comment to a TV show you're watching or interested in

89.  You or a friend earns a reward for regularly watching a TV series

90.  A friend joins you virtually for a run or another exercise program

91.  A new potential relative is discovered via shared connections on a family tree or genetic matches

92.  A certain number of your friends shared the same link

93.  A blog you read is updated

94.  Someone comments on a blog you read

95.  Your social influence ranking changes

96.  A friend installs the same app you're using

97.  Someone contributes to a crowd-sourced program you're running or participating in

98.  A friend bookmarks something you shared

99.  A new friend is added into your search engine's social search results

100.    A friend searches for something you've recently searched on as well

101.  The public sentiment of a trend you're following materially changes

Remember, this is just the beginning. Also keep in mind that not all mobile alerts are social. Alerts will tell you about sales, travel updates, game updates, and plenty more, but the ones that will really get people to pay attention are those focused on other people. If your mobile program includes communication at its core, you're setting yourself up for success.