It was cool while it lasted. It made the marketing world go a little mad but have you noticed that no one gives a crap if you’re the mayor or the king? Most people I know stopped checking into places because it was a tedious exercise. Gave away too much information.
Facebook, FourSquare whatever, it all became too much to keep up with. Because your check-ins could be linked to your Facebook and Twitter accounts so newsfeeds became filled with Hamish has just checked into your girlfriend, Hamish is the king of your mom. OK I exaggerate a bit but you get the picture. Sharing gave no value which goes back to one of the foundational values – how does your SM contribution offer value to me a consumer?
I made a recommendation several months ago for my company not to fork out a staggering amount of money. It was dicey at the beginning but the results proved my recommendation. Check-ins began dying in the US and UK around the end of 2010 and carried on in 2011. Why?
Firstly greedy management thought that ordinary customers would give them free advertising for no go reason. There was no incentivise. A cup of coffee is cute but after someone’s already done that then it becomes a case of pushing up the ante.
Deals: I wish more retail marketing folks in the world understand this. A deal needs to be seen from the consumer’s perspective no how much your brand can lift before someone catches on. Telling people that check-in will receive super deals should mean just that. If you’re just expecting folks to check in so that all their friends know where your shop is without any return for them, guess what? People get tired and leave.
Facebook or FourSquare
I preferred Foursquare. But that’s like arguing over Pepsi and Coke. Everyone has their preference and it is all about marketing at the end of the day. It all went wrong when owners of check-ins forgot the social aspect of social media. As in, that it required some sort of engagement in order for it to work, in order for word of mouth to act as a marketing mechanism. Instead people got bored and check-in died faster than a third world dictator in a French hospital.
What are your thoughts?
Excellent post, and I agree with all the points raised.
I think the ‘check-in’ could have possibly replaced the humble loyalty card entirely. From a consumer point of view, it’s one less card to carry around and ofcourse from a store owner’s perspective – its great free social marketing.
Foursquare and the rest could have been magic for retail, had substantially worthy deals been offered to its users.