Facebook Places Just Changed The Game

Posted by Pinky on Aug 19, 2010 in Blog | 2 comments

So it turns out that starting a new business and blogging are inversely proportionate.  The more of one there is, the less room there is for the other.  But today I get to have my cake and eat it too. (And I love cake.)

Last night at 7:30pm EST facebook made a very big announcement.  They have entered the “location” space, meaning that anyone who uses their mobile application can now “check in” to nearly any commercial establishment with the click of a button.  Twitter has had a lesser version of the same thing since March, but it’s a little company that ‘could,’ foursquare, that has popularized the concept itself over the last year and a half.

It works like this…

Anyone with a modern smart phone, be it an iPhone, Android, Palm or Blackberry device, has a built-in GPS chip, so your phone knows where you are.  foursquare, and now facebook, tap into that functionality by displaying a list of places in your immediate proximity.  In simple terms, you select the place that you’re at and hit the “check in” button.  That’s it.  These services then deliver a status update to your friends, show you who has checked in to that particular place the most, and savvy retailers might even give their top customers a little gift of thanks, be it free guacamole or an icy cold brew.  It’s a pretty neat little system.

Enter Pinky Gonzales

So I started using foursquare sometime in March and it occurred to me that fans should be able to check in at concerts!  It seemed like a pretty obvious next step for the technology.  And then I thought that sponsors would probably see value in sending those fans a little note when they did so.  But the thing about sponsors is that they usually have locations of their own, such as the stores where their products are sold.  It doesn’t take a genius to realize that the combination of artist+sponsor locations can add up to a pretty substantial map, and every time a fan checks in at any one of those places, they can earn points.  Points that can be redeemed for just about anything, from gift certificates to concert tickets, merch, downloads… whatever.

There’s a much longer version of the story that I’d be glad to tell you over a beer, but to keep it simple, I hooked up with a couple of really smart guys that were working on a new system of their own called Carl Says.  (Think Groupon for location.)  We built a platform together that works WITH foursquare, Twitter and now facebook, that allows you to check in with any application you like while receiving messages directly from us.  Win-Win.  The big difference between our platform and any other is that it’s completely white-label.  It’s not about our brand, it’s about yours.  You own the data.  You control the messaging.  You build the promotions and you don’t even have to wait for a return call from the good folks at facebook or foursquare.  Pretty neat, huh?

So for the last three weeks I have been making the rounds, preaching the gospel of location-based services to artists, venues, sponsors, sports teams, politicians and major consumer product manufacturers about the joys and opportunities that place-based promotions have to offer.  It looks like we’ll have our first major partnership announcement shortly and I couldn’t be more excited.

So that’s where I’ve been since the last blog post.  Actually getting my hands dirty with a new startup rather than pontificating about everyone else’s.  It feels good to be back.

If you have any questions about this mega-trend in the making, drop me a line or leave a comment below.  I want to know what YOUR map looks like and what you might do with a tool like ours.

Happy travels!