Fortune Web Marketing Blog

Our Take on Foursquare vs. Facebook Places

08 Sep 2010 1 Comment

by fortuneweb in Social Media Marketing Tags: facebook places, foursquare, geo-tagging, social apps, social media

Some people love these location based social apps, others hate it. Yes, we agree it is not necessary to know what someone is doing every second of their life. And for those of you who check in at your own home…seriously, please stop. No one cares you are finally home relaxing on your couch with your favorite beverage and TV show.

However, for SMB’s, especially those catering to local audiences, and individuals who use these channels sporadically to share tips and add comments, these location based social apps hold value.

We have been talking about Foursquare and Facebook Places for a while now on our Facebook & Twitter pages. We have been avidly using Foursquare for many months now, and we like it. Since the launch of Facebook Places however, there have been many discussions on if the social behemoth we know as Facebook will kill other apps like Foursquare and Gowalla, and why use one over the other. Here is our take of what we think works, what doesn’t and how we use them.

• All hail the iPhone. That’s the #1 gripe I have with Facebook Places. I have the Droid, some of us have Blackberry’s. There is an app for Facebook but there is no Places tab. I would have to go to touch.facebook.com and use FB Places from there. So, it’s a pain. Thus, I don’t do it. The Foursquare app for my phone though is great, fast and super easy to use, plus my check-ins post to FB & Twitter if I want them too. Oh, and FB Places is not rolled out to all US users yet.
• Notifications. I do not really need to be emailed or have a little notification icon pop-up when one of my friends checks in somewhere. You can easily turn these off if you want to on Foursquare.
• Comments & Tips: I always leave a comment or a tip when I check in. I rarely use Foursquare to see what others are doing, although sometimes it is fun to see what your friends are up to. I use it most to search for nearby places that have good food, good drink specials, things to do, artwork to see, etc…and 9 times out of 10 if someone leaves a tip to try something, I usually do.  Very Foursquare centric.
• Tagging. One of the big deals users spoke out over was privacy issues on Facebook places. For example, your Friends can check in and tag you whether you want to be tagged or not. You can control tagging and who can see your check-ins by tweaking your FB privacy settings.
• Who’s Here Now. Both apps let you see who is also checked in where you are as well as nearby places and who is checked in there. I have caught up with some old friends just by being in close proximity….so you just never know.
• Badges & Mayorships. I like this. I admit it. It’s mostly a Foursquare thing (Gowalla has something similar). It’s like a game to see what badges you can unlock and how many Mayorships you can obtain. And there are some pretty fun badges out there. There is even an app on Fousquare called “Mayor War” where users battle over Mayorships. FB Places has no Mayors or incentives for users to check in.
• Business use: Businesses can use these channels to run promotions and reward their customers. I’ve seen everything from offering “specials nearby”, say a free cup of java from DD, or a drink special when you show a bartender you checked in. Mostly this is done on Foursquare and Gowalla right now as FB Places at the moment is really just used to share your location with your friends.
• Places: Each app let’s you create places if they have not been added already. Just follow the instructions. If you are the official representative of your business, you can take verification steps to claim the Place on Facebook. Beware though as FB places uses GPS coordinates and if that fails your location could get screwed up. Foursquare allows you to manually type in a location, leaving little room for error.

So will Foursquare users dump the service for FB Places? All signs, right now, point to no.  We say good. Yes, it should have become obvious we are Foursquare peeps by now. In fact, Foursquare surpassed 3 Million users at the end of August and experienced a huge surge when FB Places launched. According to a study conducted by Mashable, Foursquare won over Facebook Places, with 57.11% of the vote.

You can also check out this video where CBSNews.com’s Shira Lazar talks to Foursquare co-founder Dennis Crowley about the new Facebook Places and the future of his location based social networking application, Foursquare. We certainly share his opinion.

What’s your take??