Look out folks, it's on the rise.

Foursquare is what some in social media circles are calling the Twitter of 2010. It is a social media game that rewards you for logging your location at any point in the day.  Eating a burrito? Tell the world where and when! The more you do, the more “badges” you earn. If you are the person who has logged the most visits to a specific place on Foursquare, you will win the additional honor of becoming the “mayor” of that location. Smart locales are playing along and giving out freebies to their “mayors.” Taste D-Lite lets customers accrue extra points on their TastiRewards cards for Foursquare check-ins and tweets.

From January 2010 to February, Foursquare passed the 1 million mark on Twitter (you can opt to have all your posts on Foursquare automatically post on your Twitter stream as well). In that month’s time, the number of check-ins doubled–showing remarkable promise. It list of seed-money investors include some of the most innovative minds in social media, including Digg Founder Kevin Rose, who endorsed the site to the tune of $1.35 million.

Some cite the brilliance of Foursquare in the fact that real-life social interactions become a virtual game. The person who wins the game is the person who is best able to show the world that he/she has the most interesting life.

So why do I think it’s such a bad idea?

Don't people realize the power they are giving to others when they reveal their whereabouts & spending decisions?

Because so far, the only benefit I can see in Foursquare for the common man–the Joe-the-Plumber, if you will–is that it’s entertaining.

Who really wins in Foursquare? Marketers, big businesses, anyone hoping to use your personal information to make  buck…oh yea, and the FBI. And trust me, there are bucks to be made in this. I hate to be a fear-monger here. I swear, I’m not one of these “all change is bad” people. I am a quick adapter. Half my family has me to thank for their Facebook pages. But I also believe that information is power. And by making public every location where we spend money, we are giving incredibly powerful information away for free.

Twitter, which some would argue does the same thing (see cartoon on left), you have the option to generate meaningful conversations (albeit short ones), show off expertise, track breaking news, donate to a cause, and much more. You can also remain anonymous if you need to (on Foursquare, you can’t be a “mayor” unless you’ve posted a profile photo). No one ever needs to know your location in order to tweet.

Time for the Twitter vs. Foursquare Face-Off

Looking at this from a different angle, let’s take John Bell‘s five key questions to determine the viability of a new technology as a “groundswell” threat.

• Does it enable people to connect in new ways? – Yes, both Twitter and Foursquare present creative connection tools for people around the world.
• Is it effortless for people to use and signup? Yep. and Yep.
• Does it generate enough content to sustain itself? You bet.
• Is it an open platform? Of course.
• Does it shift power from institutions to people? This is the key question. In Twitter, the answer is an unequivocal YES. During the Iran elections, voices resonated worldwide because Twitter gave them a mobile platform. With Foursquare, I would argue that the institutions are the ones who still hold the power. Users feed information that otherwise would have been painstakingly cataloged by expensive marketing research firms and sold to big businesses in order to improve their bottom line. At most, you could argue that it shifts power from big institutions to smaller institutions. Those mom-and-pops shops who can’t afford market research can log into Foursquare and see what kinds of people are coming regularly, and try to capitalize on them.

My question is: Do the benefits outweigh the negatives? With Foursquare, they do not.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Thank you for participating. You are now an expert.

In the booming world of social media, words like “guru,” “expert,” and … ugh…”innovator” are handed out like participation trophies at a 3rd grade swim meet. But what–or who–determines the line of demarcation between average social media consumer and social media guru?

If you believe communications theorists’ definition of Diffusion Theory, Opinion Leaders (what you or I would call the gurus or experts) are defined by how many people fall in line behind them. So yes, folks: the number of Twitter followers you have does matter after all! Opinion Leaders also have to be well connected, good communicators and relatively innovative (that means that they are ahead of the masses following them, but not too far ahead).

Diffusion theory is all about how to measure social change: When it happens and how. And these opinion leaders are key in the formula.

So when diffusion theory is applied to our society’s massive movement to using digital media as a key communications tool, who are the Opinion Leaders?

Here’s my short list. Who am I missing?

• Steve Jobs — the creator of the iPhone has to place high on anyone’s list, right? Even major phone companies are copying Apple’s designs…and now to my amusement, their advertising strategy. (Side rant: Will someone please tell the “iDon’t” people and the “I’m a PC” people that they are just strengthening the already die-hard crowd of Apple believers???)

Just look at the picture and you can tell Pete Cashmore is a true Opinion Leader...or sumthin'.

• Pete Cashmore — he went from starting a blog in his basement at age 19 to the founder of social media’s mecca. Mashable.com is the source for everything from how-to tips to breaking trends.

• Evan Williams – The co-founder of Twitter has a remarkable record of reinvention and innovation. And if you watch the interview with him at the journalism industry’s best association event of the year, you’ll see he is widely worshipped in the crowds of information dissemination. The tool he helped created has vastly changed blogging and mass communication forever.

This top-three list is just for those related to the field of social media. It’s highly disputable–and I’m sure as soon as I hit “publish” I’ll think of someone huge who should knock Ev off…but no list is perfect. If we had to look at the U.S.’s biggest opinion leaders overall, we’d have to include Oprah and Barack Obama to the list. But thankfully, we won’t try to go that big.

But now I ask:

How is innovation diffusion changing with social media?

Get in line, folks the "guru" has spoken!

I do believe that these opinion leaders are becoming weaker as social networks strengthen. Oprah can still send a book to the bestseller list with a 15-second recommendation and a link on her Web site. But surely there’s less room for more Oprahs within mainstream media. Instead, we are grouping off into many stronger, but smaller, networks–each with its own opinion leader.

This gives more people the opportunity to be considered a “guru” but at the same time less weight to the crown. So maybe our swim coaches had it right all along. Maybe we all deserve participation trophies for being opinion leaders of our own niche. Or perhaps we should start rewarding those who are just following along. They are becoming the rare ones.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.