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Are There Too Many Geo-Location Networks?

April 8, 2011 By Erik Deckers Leave a Comment

A couple days ago, I shot a quick video for 12 Stars Media’s You Do Video program, spoofing all the different check-ins I could make on my phone. In the video, I checked in (pretended to; I was acting!) on 7 different geo-location networks.

The sad thing was that out of the 7 I named, I actually had 6 of them on my phone.

Now, I’m a regular Foursquare user. I’ve invested the most time and effort into it. And I’ve played with Gowalla, and I like that they create tours that users can take of different cities (I may even create my own tour for Indianapolis). But then there’s Whrrl (which Jason Falls got me to try), Hashable, Google Latitude, Yelp (I blame Thomas Ho for that one), and Facebook Places (the one geo-location network I refuse to use). I even signed up for Bizzy, but haven’t installed it.

Someone had the brilliant idea of creating a third-party app that would check in to all of your geo-location networks at once, but Foursquare and others said they wouldn’t give any points from those third-party check-in apps, so I gave up.

There are just too many damn geo-location apps to keep track of. I know there are at least a couple dozen more that I could be using. But I was so disgusted with my geo-whoring that I dropped Whrrl (sorry, Jason) and Hashable from my phone, and saved myself about 10 MB in space. I also removed Latitude from my home screen, and recommitted to not using Facebook Places. I’ll stick with Foursquare, use Yelp when I want to leave a restaurant review, and use Gowalla only on road trips.

What about you? What geo-location networks are you using? Or are you avoiding them completely? Let me hear from you.

Filed Under: Geo-Location, Networking, Social Media Tagged With: facebook, FourSquare, geo-location networking, Gowalla, Hashable, mobile phones, Whrrl

Are You a Social Media Private, Captain, or General?

February 18, 2011 By Erik Deckers 6 Comments

I’ve noticed that most social media books are written at one of three levels:

30,000 foot view — The General
15,000 foot view — The Captain
Ground level — The Private

Soldiers studying tactics Books at the ground level, that is, the Private’s level, are how-to books. They detail the step by step process you need to follow to execute a strategy. Follow those steps, and you will have done the right thing. Write a weekly blog post using these 12 steps. Add 1,000 people to your Facebook business page by using this tool. Feed your blog post into Twitter with this plugin. They touch on strategies, but they’re mostly just books on execution.

Books at the 15,000 foot level — the Captain’s level — are the strategy books. They show you how to create the plan to give to your Privates, with some statistics to back it up. They tell you to blog, because 77% of American Internet users read blogs. They tell you to use Twitter, because 150 million people are on Twitter. They tell you to use Facebook because Facebook has 600 million users. They may touch on the why, and they may cover a little execution, but they’re by and large books on the what and when of social media

30,000 foot level books — the General’s level — are the why books. They tell you to use social media, because social media is more popular than porn, or because more people use social media than any other form of entertainment out there, including television. They tell you why you need social media, maybe even tell you what you can accomplish with it, but they’re short on strategy, and they never, ever discuss processes.

A General’s book explains why you should “Take that hill,”

A Captain’s book shows you how to “Take that hill by outsmarting your enemy.”

A Private’s book explains every step you need to “Take that hill in 30 days.”

I’ve been thinking about this a lot, because I’m trying to decide the next stage of my development. I’ve spent so much time on the ground, telling other people how to do processes, and that’s working well. Those blog posts are some of the most successful I’ve written. Those talks are some of the most well-attended at any conference. But, just like the army, there are thousands of us.

I like creating strategies better. I like being the Captain. I’ve created enough marketing strategies over the last 18 years, because I get the most enjoyment out of it. Of course, with an army of two here at Pro Blog Service, I’m also the Private, carrying out the strategy I just created.

But I hate being a General. I don’t have the patience or world view to tell people how to see the big picture. I can’t even see it that clearly myself a lot of the time. I know enough to explain to a client why we need to take that hill, but once that’s done, and they’re convinced, I can’t add any more value, unless I can put on my Captain’s bars and create the strategy.

However, it’s the Generals who are seeing a lot of the success in this industry. A lot of luminaries in the business world are Generals. A lot of rock stars are Captains, but they don’t get the glory. Or the keynote speeches. Or make the New York Times Best-sellers list.

But I also know myself enough to know that I’d much rather give up that stuff if it meant liking what I do. Still, I’m wondering if I can create a new niche for myself. Maybe I can be a Major, or even a Colonel. I can tell people why they need a strategy, and then I can create it. Sort of the 22,500 foot view. I don’t want to hang out out 30,000 feet above the earth, and I’m tired of slogging in the mud.

So who are some good Majors to pay attention to? Who are some of the business leaders I should be watching, and what books should I be reading? What have you been reading lately, and why should I read it too? Leave a comment, and let me know.

My own book, Branding Yourself: How to Use Social Media to Invent or Reinvent Yourself (affiliate link) — a true Captain’s book, if there is one — is available on Amazon.com, as well as at Barnes & Noble and Borders bookstores. I wrote it with my good friend, Kyle Lacy, another Captain, who’s been eyeing a Generalship lately.

Photo credit: Virginia Guard Public Affairs (Flickr)

Filed Under: Marketing, Social Media, Writing Tagged With: blogging, facebook, Social Media, social media strategy, strategy, twitter

Social Media is Older Than You Think It Is. Much Older.

February 15, 2011 By Erik Deckers 3 Comments

Social media is not as new as people think it is.

It’s not even as new as the new date you just thought of after you saw that last sentence.

Social media, or at least its very beginnings, is almost as old as I am. (Give or take 10 years.)

The very first place for people to communicate online was on the bulletin board systems (BBSes), which were created in the late 1970s, and allowed people to dial in on their 300 baud modems. They were usually only for the hobbyists and geeks who wanted to talk about things that interested them, usually computers. Since long-distance charges applied for out-of-town groups, most users were from their particular city. And user gatherings (this was before we called them “meetups”) were a regular event, where people had the chance to meet those they had been chatting with online the night before.

In 1980, the Usenet — a collection of BBS-type discussion groups — was created and used widely in academia. There, people could visit a group, post articles and messages, and other people would reply to them. While Usenet was originally started to be discussion groups for researchers and computer users, people started creating groups for their other interests. Back in 1990, I joined a soccer discussion group on Usenet, and had “friends” from England, Scotland, Australia, Italy, and Germany. We would discuss our favorite soccer teams, and the 1990 World Cup, which had just finished before I joined. There were groups for political viewpoints, philosophical thought, favorite TV shows, and various sports. I connected with people from all around the world, but especially in the US.

"You've got mail!"

Four years later, I took the plunge and joined AOL, downloading the first software in 90 minutes over my wicked fast 14.4K modem. (I had to choose between it, Compuserve, Prodigy, eWorld, and a host of other online communities.) AOL was the first major attempt at offering an online community to people outside the university setting. This was like Usenet on steroids, because there was a more graphical interface to AOL, and it looked nice. There were also more consumer groups, geared toward those non-computer users. I belonged to groups for writers, home brew makers, cooks, and fans of Celtic music. Since AOL had local and long distance access numbers, our friends were from out of town, and meetups were unlikely (and frequently warned against).

A lot of people outgrew AOL, once they learned they could explore outside the walled community with a web browser and an Internet Service Provider. We consumed the web for information, we emailed each other funny websites we found, and we shared graphics by breaking up ASCII files and emailing them, reassembling them in word processor file, and then converting them with a text-to-graphic converter. But we didn’t have community, unless we returned to AOL or joined an email listserv.

It wasn’t until groups like Friendster, Myspace, and Facebook took advantage of the Internet’s increasing speed and the web browsers that did all that assembling and converting for us, making it easier to connect with our friends, and even telling us where they lived. Twitter boiled communication down to its barest essence, letting us share information in text-sized bits. And LinkedIn played Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon with our professional networks, letting us see who we were connected to, and how far we were from each other.

The point is this: social media is older than Facebook (2004). Way older. To truly understand the history — and age — of social media, you need to talk to the computer geeks who were online in the late 1970s and early 1980s, participating in the different BBSes and Usenet groups that dotted the online landscape.

Filed Under: Facebook, LinkedIn, Networking, Social Media, Twitter Tagged With: America Online, AOL, BBS, facebook, linkedin, twitter, Usenet

Six Reasons You Should NOT Feed Your Twitter Stream Into Your Facebook Stream

January 18, 2011 By Erik Deckers 20 Comments

After yesterday’s post, Ten Signs You’re NOT a Social Media Expert, my friend Josh Husmann asked “Help me out! Why shouldn’t my twitter feed forward to Facebook?”

It’s a fair question, and it’s something I see a lot of people doing it. I even did it for a few weeks, until someone who wasn’t on Twitter told me to stop it. Here are six reasons you shouldn’t feed your Twitter stream into your Facebook stream.

Most of your Facebook friends aren’t on Twitter. They don’t understand #hashtags and @replies. Your Twitter messages that contain those will just be confusing and/or boring.
No one wants to read half a Twitter conversation, especially if they have no way of reading the other half.
If you also automate your blog feed to Facebook, then your Facebook friends will get hit with two messages about new blog posts.
If you’re trying to create an effective personal brand, then automating your feed will work against you. Take the time to write a custom message for both Twitter and Facebook.
Facebook status updates can hold a whole lot more than a tweet. Why limit yourself to 140 characters on something that gives you a few hundred?
Your Twitter audience is not necessarily your Facebook audience. Most of my Facebook network is made up of friends, family, people from high school and college, and people who live in the Indianapolis area. But they are not necessarily social media or PR people that I work with. A good number of my tweets are about business, social media, etc., and while I don’t mind sharing personal information with my Twitter stream, I don’t want to bother my personal stream with work information.

My book, Branding Yourself: How to Use Social Media to Invent or Reinvent Yourself (affiliate link), is available on Amazon.com, as well as at Barnes & Noble and Borders bookstores. I wrote it with my good friend, Kyle Lacy.

Photo credit: NathanGibbs (Flickr)

Filed Under: Facebook, Social Media, Social Networks, Twitter Tagged With: facebook, Social Media, social networking, social networks, twitter

Ten Signs You’re NOT a Social Media Expert

January 17, 2011 By Erik Deckers 12 Comments

Ten Signs You’re NOT a Social Media Expert

10. You updated your blog in December. 2009.

9. You’re convinced that Orkut will be the breakout social network of 2011.

This is not the same dude.

8. You’re feeding your Twitter stream into Facebook.

7. You think Chris Brogan was the star of “Jonah Hex.”

6. You’re still quoting the Malcolm Gladwell “10,000 hour rule,” unaware that you’re quoting someone who quoted someone else who didn’t actually read the book.

5. Your business email address ends with “@aol.com,” but you don’t work for AOL.

4. You work for AOL.

3. You play Farmville so much, Zynga’s revenues plummeted the week you went on vacation.

2. You tell people you had the high score on Technorati when you were in high school.

1. Your social media experience consists of your unpaid college internship at your dad’s accounting firm.

Filed Under: Communication, Networking, Social Media, Social Media Experts Tagged With: AOL, Chris Brogan, facebook, Farmville, Social Media, social media expert, social media internship, social network, twitter, Zynga

Why do Google, Yahoo, and Bing give me different results?

December 1, 2010 By Erik Deckers 1 Comment

Search engine results can be rather misleading, especially to online marketing newbies. There is no one search engine central clearinghouse. They don’t all share results. What ranks high in one search engine may be lower on the list for another.

We were asked about search engine results several weeks ago by a potential client. He thought his company’s website was doing great because they were 4th on Bing, but couldn’t understand why he was on page 7 on Google.

So what are the major search engines for online marketers? Should you focus all your search engine optimization attention on Google, or split your efforts up equally among all the search engines you can find? And why do the Big Three — Google, Bing, and Yahoo — all give different results?

To start with, the Big Three is now the Big Two. That’s because Bing has been providing their results to Yahoo, which means there are really only two sets of results that people are finding. But Yahoo and Bing each have their own identity and own market share. More on that later.

Do a quick search on any topic, and you’ll see some markedly different results between Google and Yahoo/Bing.

Google search results for Erik Deckers

Bing search results for Erik Deckers

The results from the two search engines — Google and Yahoo/Bing — shows some serious differences.

In the 7 results on Bing, only 4 out of the 7 are me. The other 3 are guys from Belgium and Holland. On Google, those guys don’t show up until about page 6.
Google shows my blog, my work blog, and my Twitter account. My results on Bing are 2 listings on LinkedIn (the same LinkedIn account, mind you), and 2 listings from an old website (the same website) I haven’t updated in nearly 4 years.
Google provides the most up-to-date and most accurate results, Yahoo/Bing is giving out of date information and repeating itself.
Google is more likely to satisfy my insatiable craving to be the center of attention; Yahoo/Bing has failed me.

So where should you focus your search engine attention?

Google. Far and away, Google.

Yes, Bing is picking up in popularity. Yes, Yahoo and Bing have teamed up to reach two separate audiences, but when you look at the total market share of the Big ~~Three~~ Two, that’s like Vermont and New Hampshire joining forces and saying they can beat the crap out of the Midwest.

According to a Hitwise, Google owns over 70% of the entire search market. Of course, there’s a significant change between the end of November and the end of August.

2010	Google	Yahoo!	Bing
2010-11-27	70.10%	15.17%	10.10%
2010-08-28	71.59%	14.28%	9.87%

Does that mean you should forsake Yahoo/Bing now and forever? No, of course not; that’s silly. But until they become a bigger player in the search engine market, focus most of your attention on Google.

Of course, now that Bing has teamed up with Facebook, that is going to be more of a certainty, not a pipe dream. The change from August to November is fairly significant, so Internet marketers may want to keep an eye on Yahoo/Bing’s market share and adjust their search engine optimization efforts accordingly.

Filed Under: Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, Social Media Tagged With: Bing, facebook, Google, search engine optimization, seo, Yahoo

Indianapolis Motor Speedway Cars Part of New Facebook Game “Car Town”

October 27, 2010 By Erik Deckers Leave a Comment

As I get to know a few of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and Indy Racing League marketing people, I’m impressed by how much they’re embracing social media. They took a big step two years ago, when they invited me and a few other bloggers to sit in the media center at the 2009 Indianapolis 500 and blog about the race.

Since then, they have been present at different social media events around Indianapolis, including BlogIndiana 2010, a week before the Moto GP, they have their own blogs, and the IMS CEO, Jeff Belskus, is now video blogging.

Dario Franchitti at the press conference after the 2010 Indianapolis 500

Dario Franchitti after winning the 2010 Indianapolis 500

I just received a press release from the IMS about their latest social media effort, including a variety of race cars and pace cars from different races at the IMS for the new Facebook game, “Car Town.”

“Car Town” is a social game created by Cie Games in which players collect and customize virtual cars, build their dream garage and help their friends do the same. It’s the only game on Facebook built around licensed automotive brands.

This makes the IMS the first major motorsports venue to be featured in Car Town. The first two cars they’re releasing are the 2010 Indianapolis 500 Chevrolet Camaro SS Pace Car and the 2010 Brickyard 400 Chevrolet Corvette Pace Car. They will also make IMS, Indy 500, and IndyCar Series posters with real-life images and logos for players’ virtual garages. They will release other Indy 500 race cars and assets on a regular basis.

While I’m not a big player of Facebook games myself, I appreciate what the IMS is doing. They recognize where their fans are, they recognize the explosive growth of both Facebook and online gaming, and they’re going to ride that wave to increased awareness and improved fan loyalty. Car Town may be one game I have to check out.

Photo credit: Erik Deckers (Picasa)

Filed Under: Facebook, Marketing, News, Social Media, Social Networks Tagged With: Car Town, facebook, Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Indy 500, race cars

How do Facebook Applications really work and why should I be concerned?

October 20, 2010 By Paul Lorinczi 1 Comment

Facebook Controversy

This week, there has been a lot of discussion about Facebook Applications and privacy concerns. The issue for most is that Facebook is not policing their application developers well enough to audit what they are doing with Facebook user information. It is a legitimate concern. When users “grant permission” by signing up for an app, developers can collect pretty much anything they want.

While the information is not supposed to be leaked to 3rd parties, it is being leaked. Unlike scanning for your email address to spam you, depending on how much information you’ve given to Facebook, these developers are getting demographic information about you through your Facebook ID. It’s pretty easy to do, too.

As a marketer, Facebook is a goldmine. If you can create the right application, and it goes viral, you can collect a lot of information on users you otherwise would not be able to get.

So, how do they do it?

You can find the Facebook Developers instructions on the Facebook developers site.

In a nutshell, there are APIs that need to be followed, but that very doable. Here is what it takes to build the Permission button.

Note the fields it can collect. Based on the level of permission, it gives the application developer access to your information which can be sucked out into their own database.

Once you have their data, you can now communicate with personalized messages to your audience. Here’s how that’s done:

This is pretty easy for any developer to do, and many of them are. So, the debate happening today is a healthy one. As a user, you have to be aware of what is being collected about you. If you have a problem with it, beware. Make sure you are very selective about who you give access to your personal information.

If you are a marketer and can provide a value add experience for your fans, this is an excellent tool for helping build your list, personalize their experience and reach your audiences in new ways. But like all things in Social Media, don’t be evil about it. Make sure you are being responsible with the information. You will get more fans and your list will grow as a result, and you won’t make the news for being an information pirate.

Paul Lorinczi

Paul Lorinczi is the President of Professional Blog Service. The goal of the company is the help clients use Blogging and Social Media to expand their business online through planning, execution, and measurement.

Filed Under: Facebook, Lead Generation, Marketing, Social Media, Social Networks Tagged With: facebook, Facebook applications, online security, privacy

I’m Thinking Arby’s Social Media — An Open Letter to the New VP of Digital and Social Media Marketing

October 4, 2010 By Erik Deckers 1 Comment

It seems that Arby’s is jumping on the social media bandwagon, having formed a new Digital and Social Media team, and hiring a new VP of Digital and Social Media. This was later confirmed by Mashable, which listed a job for a new Manager of Social Media Manager, that would be part of “a newly formed team reporting to the Vice President of Digital & Social Media.”

From what I have heard, Arby’s hired their new VP just recently, and has made social media a big part of their marketing effort. So, to welcome this new VP to the social media fold, here is an open letter of recommendations to their VP as they start their new ventures:

Find a couple social media mentors you can talk to on a regular basis. Even if you have a few years of social media experience, you’re going to need someone to talk to on a regular basis, to bounce ideas off of, and to give you helpful hints on your efforts.
Treat social media as a listening tool more than just a push marketing tool. If people complain or praise Arby’s or an individual restaurant, respond to them. If they had a bad experience and talk about it on Twitter, Yelp, or the Arby’s Facebook page, respond to them publicly, apologize for the problem, and offer to fix it. If they like something, thank them. If they ask for something or lament the loss of a product, explain why it went away and if it will be back. If customers see that you’re interested in their input, they’ll give you more of it. And if they know they’re being heard, they’ll return to your store over and over because you’re listening to them, and the other guys are not.
Trick out your Facebook business page, and then monitor it heavily. Hire a Facebook design expert to create a good looking page. You have good traffic, and 114,000+ people like it, but I don’t see any communication with your customers. However, you do have a couple of Arby’s fans who are talking for you. In addition to your own communication, you should reward the people who are talking on your behalf. Reward them with free stuff once in a while so they continue to be your brand evangelists.
Get an account for either Radian6 or ScoutLabs to monitor the social media sentiment about Arby’s. Find out where and when people are talking about your restaurants. Monitor the complaints and respond to them. Monitor the compliments and thank them.
Set up ever Arby’s restaurant on Foursquare, Gowalla, and Yelp. Follow these networks on a regular basis and watch what people are saying. Run special promotions, like a free shake or sandwich to the mayor of a restaurant. (Make sure the store managers and staff know that this promotion is running.) This may not be possible with franchise-owned restaurants, but see if you can get them to buy into the idea. Let the franchise restaurants run their own campaigns too.
Create a mobile version of your website. Include a restaurant locator so people can do a quick search to find the nearest Arby’s restaurant. Be sure to direct people to it if you’re communicating with someone who is looking for the nearest Arby’s or is just looking for a place to go to lunch. And don’t make the mobile version a Flash version. Flash doesn’t play on the iPhones or iPads, so all of your content will be lost to the millions of Apple users. Plus, Flash is not searchable by Google, which means you’re getting absolutely no Google benefits at all.
Create a Twitter search for terms like “#Arby’s,” “roast beef,” and even some of your competitors. Set up these search columns in TweetDeck, and respond to anyone who tweets about any of these terms, when it’s appropriate. If someone says they’re thinking about Arby’s for lunch, send them the URL for the restaurant locator on the website (especially if it’s mobile enabled). Let your new Manager of Social Media handle this, as well as the interns you will no doubt be able to hire.
Learn how to use Google Analytics and tie it into your different social networking properties. See what traffic is being driven to and from your different sites, and how many people are redeeming the different offers you’re making. You’re actually better off using a paid service like Yahoo Analytics, but Google is a great place to get started because it’s free, lets you monitor campaigns, and is one of the most thorough analytics services out there. Plus there are some great books, like Google Analytics in 10 Minutes a Day to get you started. This isn’t going to be a way to accurately monitor something as large-scale as a multi-million user, national scale campaign (ScoutLabs and Radian6 are going to give you a better idea of sentiment and the actual communication threads), it’s at least a good way to watch trends and get basic information at a glance

While this will only scratch the surface of what you should be doing, it’s at least a place to get started. Good luck in your new position and with your new team.

Filed Under: Facebook, Geo-Location, Lead Generation, Marketing, Social Media, Social Media Analytics, Social Networks, Twitter Tagged With: Arby's, facebook, geo-location, Radian6, ScoutLabs, Social Media, social media monitoring

Can Geo-Location Services Get Too Clingy? A Neer Review

September 21, 2010 By Erik Deckers Leave a Comment

I like geo-location services. If nothing else, I like the competition of trying to wrest mayorship of a restaurant or office from a social media buddy. But I also like it for the ability to see if any of my friends are nearby, and I’ll send a quick Twitter DM for lunch or coffee.

I also like how some restaurants like Scotty’s Brewhouse or a museum like Conner Prairie will offer specials to people who check in (Scotty’s: 10% off each visit you check in, plus a special bonus to mayors; Conner Prairie: $2 off your general admission on your first check in).

To me, Foursquare has actually told me a little bit more about my friends, and gives us something to talk about when we bump into each other. (I once had someone come up and introduce themselves to me at Hubbard & Cravens because they saw I was the mayor and recognized my avatar photo.)

But the thing I’ve always been careful of is to not tell everyone every time I check in. I turned off my Twitter and Facebook notifications, and only submit a location on special occasions (i.e. checking in at the Pittsburgh Steeler’s practice facility sometime back in May or June, or checking in at an Indianapolis Colts’ preseason game against the Bengals). But otherwise, I try to leave my general networks alone. Plus I just don’t want to pester everyone with my new location anytime I move three feet to the left.

So I’m a little leery of this new private geo-location service called Neer. Okay, maybe not leery, but I rolled my eyes a little harder than necessary, and gave myself a headache. Here’s what Neer says they do.

Neer allows you to privately and automatically share your location with the people you care about. Not everywhere you go, just the places that really matter.

Neer works in the background so you don’t have to. Go ahead, leave work and leave your phone in your pocket. We’ll let your loved ones know you’re on your way!

In other words, let’s say I select “Work” and “Home” as your important places — this is called “geo-fencing” — and I choose my wife as the person I want to notify. Then, my wife will get a little message when:

I arrive at work in the morning.
I leave the office for lunch or a meeting.
I arrive back at the office from lunch or a meeting.
I leave the office to go home that night.
And when I get home.

I don’t know, it seems a little creepy. I mean, I love my wife, but I don’t want her to keep track of every move I make. And I don’t want to keep track of every move she makes. (10 cool points to everyone who just said “every bond you break” in their heads.)

However, to be fair, Neer probably isn’t for me. As TechCrunch said in an article,

Neer is for people who constantly have to keep track of each other and already do so with phone calls, such as husbands and wives with small children. Instead of calling every night to see if a spouse has left work yet in time to help feed the kids or put them in bed, or whether the school drop-off was successful, they can get a reassuring geo-alert.

Since this isn’t an issue for me, I don’t need the constant reassurance or helicopter spousal attention that Neer will give me.

However, I do like the idea of passively sharing my location with a few necessary people, even actively. In fact, the more I wrinkle my nose at the idea, it makes the blood rush to my brain, and I can think of a few business and personal applications where this might be useful:

Long haul truckers who follow a specific route over and over. They can text stops to their family or their dispatcher when they have reached a certain location, like crossing a state line or arriving at a filling station.
In town delivery drivers who follow a set route. Their dispatchers can keep up with them via Neer.
Government employees who have to visit certain locations as part of a regular route.
People who live in one city and work in another. A friend recently spent nearly a year working in Fort Wayne — 2 hours away — and had to call his wife every time he arrived at his apartment on Sunday night, and when he left the office to head home on Friday nights.
Parents who send their kids off to college with a dodgy car. Just enter “the dorm” or “campus” into Neer, and you can be sure when your kid makes it back safely.

Okay, so maybe it’s not all creepy. Just a little clingy. But in the right circumstances, and to the right people, I can see this being a valuable tool for some people.

So here’s a video explaining what you can do with it.

Filed Under: Geo-Location, Networking, Social Media Tagged With: facebook, FourSquare, geo-location, Neer, twitter

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I’ve noticed that most social media books are written at one of three levels:

Social media is not as new as people think it is.

Ten Signs You’re NOT a Social Media Expert

So where should you focus your search engine attention?

Facebook Controversy

So, how do they do it?

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