This week's set of Gold Nuggets will help cut through the chatter of "Location-Based Services."
Today, August 23, 2010 Facebook changed some of the functionality of their website. In preparation of today's changes they've slowly been announcing new services to the world. Last week they announced Facebook Places in hopes to enter the arena of Location-Based Services (LBS).
It seems the world suddenly woke up and is talking about LBS as if it's something new that started last week. In reality the location-based technology became commonplace back in 2005, except many of us weren't quite aware of it. If ever you read the fine print in your cell phone feature, you would have know that Big Brother was tracking you.
There are many players right now vying for the LBS crown. At this point, we don't even know who will win the title of "King" or "Queen" or "Mayor" or "VIP," but honestly it doesn't matter.
As a retail jeweler, you need to get your store listed in each of the primary services right now, that way your customers can find you no matter which system they use. Each system has made it free and easy to use in hopes you will jump in and participate.
We're going to examine a few of these LBS companies in the next few days, and then conclude these Gold Nuggets with a live broadcast on Saturday August 28th where we will demonstrate how to set up accounts and really use them.
We will focus on the systems that have had a lot of press recently. These are:
* foursquare
* Gowalla
* Whrrl
* DeHood
* Facebook Places
There are a few other systems that need mentioning, but as of today we've deemed these as having limited worth in attracting new customers to the retail jewelry store. The systems we will not review this week include:
* loopt (more difficult than the others to use)
* yelp (reviews, but not as attractive or interactive)
* where (okay... boring compared to the others)
* myTown (aka BooYAH. Think the game of Monopoly but on a cell phone. It takes just as long to play too. Users are real gamers rather than the serious consumers you target.)
* brightkite (This is definitely more friend-oriented than place.)
If you'd like to follow along this week, go and download these applications to your iPhone or Android and play around a bit. We're doing exhaustive surveys out in the real word to compare them side by side and report back starting tomorrow.
