My City, Your City

how well do you know your neighborhood?

published on thoughts on tech with

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My first check-in was over two years ago. At the height of my usage, I was
number 15 in all of New York City. It was a fun little adrenalin game. Today, I
check-in because I’d like to remember an establishment or because I’d like to
find my friends at conferences or any major group gatherings. I personally
believe that location based services can influence a neighborhood’s economic
development and growth.

On the user’s end, I wonder if location based services truly changes behavior by
encouraging users to be more social and curious about their surroundings. Do
you explore your neighborhood more or other neighborhoods in your City since
the availability of Location Based Service? Are you a more confident traveler
because you know when you check-in you’ll probably find someone familiar at a
conference? Or is location based passe?

What Is Location-Based Service?

Location Based Service or LBS is an information source provided through the

use of the mobile network and a smartphone to pinpoint a user’s location and
their activity within that vicinity. It can be used in a variety of ways. We’ve seen
it primarily as a channel of entertainment. The use case is expanding to real-
time promotions from national brands and local neighborhood establishments,
healthcare, real-estate, research and more!

LBS opens a new medium for marketers to promote to prospective customers.

This type of promotion is spurred by users through sharing of information within
a specific geographic location and in real-time. For example, while walking down
the street in Soho, New York City I received a push notification from my favorite
cafe in the area, Ground Support - $1 off on yummy peanut butter jelly
sandwiches and a cup of freshly brewed cappuccino. Yum! I am likely to make
that quick stop before a work meeting, a shopping spree, an appointment at the
salon or meeting friends for a drink. After checking-in at the cafe, I would be
notified by my LBS service that a friend is nearby, so I should probably let him
or her know of this cool deal from Ground Support. After all, sharing is caring.

The unique combination of social media, LBS and mobile technologies opened
portals to what New York VC, Fred Wilson calls “the earned economy.” We earn
rewards based on actions of promoting or engaging with a brand, a charity, an
event, a venue, travel, auction, vacation planning ~ almost everything and
anything.

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The Check-In Society

With the use of LBS, people have an opportunity to discover places that friends
like without having to ask them for recommendations. The information is readily
available thanks to their check-ins! With LBS you no longer have to wait for
friends to hang out -- you can just roll on our own, choose a highly rated venue
based on check-ins and perhaps meet new like minded people. Spontaneity also
becomes more accessible with LBS. You can invite yourself to friends’ gathering
at a nearby bar two blocks from where you may be standing in the West Village.

LBS apps like Foursquare and Gowalla, offer their users recognition in the form
of badges, titles and a freebies from selected sponsored locations. The most
popular location base app, Foursquare boasts of approximately 4M users. In
March, a number of stories circulated that the startup’s growth trajectory has
slowed down. Are users bored?

Meanwhile Facebook Places is an optional utility in the social media giant’s

mobile app dashboard. New York based startup, The Hotlist is a social LBS
aggregator that curates its information from Facebook Places, Twitter and
Google. It is a service that offer users with rich data including who among your
friends are going to an event next week, who went to that boring event last
week, boy and girl ratios for each venue and event if you are in the market for a
partner or not so you know which events not to bring your partner to (ha!). It
also gives you insight on which venues will be packed and truly crazy or which
ones will be good for group conversation or a date. I thought The Hotlist as a
service is so cool, I recently joined them as Community Outreach Director.

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Use Cases

Discovery

Why should you try LBS if you have not yet? I believe LBS encourages those
who are less inclined to go out on their own and wander around neighborhoods
to get out of the couch, explore and discover. It is a social tool that aides those
reluctant to be out in public on their own.

Not many are born a curious wanderer. I’m a curious wanderer. I love walking
around neighborhoods. New York City encourages one to be a wanderer. I’m in
love with the City’s vastness, yet cozy, accessible and unique neighborhoods.
LBS is a tool that curates these little discoveries from its users.

I’ve lived in New York City for 6 years, I’m still amazed at the local
establishments that I didn’t notice the first time I walked down Sullivan Street.
Like that little sweet and savory cafe that look like a 50‘s film set, Once Upon a
Tart, brimming with deliciousness at $4.50 a pie. I made sure that my friends on
the LBS platforms know about this little gem in Soho.

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Support Your Favorite Establishments

Do you have a favorite

Italian restaurant that you
never, ever want to go out
of business? I do. In fact, I
have a number of favorite
neighborhood
establishments that I’ve
discovered living and
exploring New York City.

My New York City would not

be the same without these
iconic establishments. To
honor their existence, I’ll
check-in and let my friends
know this is the place for the most delicious home-cooked Italian meal in the
West Village. That one check-in is probably going to generate at least one, two
or five of your friends to try that spot. Once they check-in they could be
bringing in more people to that spot. The check-ins may translate to the long
term existence of an establishment. It means, I will enjoy that freshly baked
warm crusty Italian bread served with the freshest olive oil for many years to
come.

It is also nice to be warmly welcomed at your favorite lounge even when you’ve
been away for months. That makes me want to check-in and say hey, The W
Hotel is the best place to unwind when you’re in the Union Square area in New
York City.

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How To Own A City

Knowing your City is owning your City. With LBS you have an opportunity to
learn about new spots from your friends and share new spots you discover. It
does not matter if the best pizza is across town, you will go for a slice in the
cold because it is the best pizza in town.

Social aggregator LBS, The Hotlist takes your discovery to new heights by
showing historical data of which events were cool and who among your friends
joined in on the festivities. You can also discover events in the future.

Visiting a new neighborhood or moving into one? With The Hotlist you can roll
with the locals just by looking at that neighborhood on The Hotlist app.

It All Comes Back To You

With LBS, restaurant and venue owners can predict days in advance if their
location will suck on a Tuesday or Thursday night. They can try to use that
information to their advantage by offering quick promotions to get people to
come by for a “Tata Tuesday-tini special or a Pick Me Up Thursday Tornado-
tini.” Frequent check-ins could also mean a free coffee, beer or wi-fi access!

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The act of checking-in brings back some change and fun swag into your pocket.
Before LBS brand incentives didn’t directly correlate with your activity or
efforts. This time you know you’re earning it.

What About Privacy?

Part of being social means that a certain degree of privacy is lost. I do like to
keep it simple when it comes to my personal approach on privacy.

• Keep your social settings to what you are comfortable with.

• Keep your social network contacts to your comfort zone. Organize them by
priority and preference if that option is available.
• If you want to keep information private don’t share it.
• If you don’t want vendors to market to you, don’t shop using your credit
card, don’t shop online and don’t accept push notifications.
• If you don’t want to receive any promotional material, make sure not click no
on any newsletters or promotional material opt-ins.
• If you want to keep it a “secret” don’t share the information with anyone.
• Be aware of the privacy rules that the social network you are joining.
• Check the information that you have to give up to engage in that social
network.
• Check the information that the social network is sharing with partners and
advertisers.
• Be aware of any changes that may affect your privacy options.

Social technologies are minimizing and helping humans shift their behavior to
being more open and accepting. After all, that is the mission of Mark
Zuckerberg, the man behind Facebook. He was probably inspired by Uncle Bob’s
song.

Are you using a Local Based Service? How has it influenced your social
behavior? Share your thoughts write to jessica@mavindigital.com or say hi on
Twitter.

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About The Author

Jessica Valenzuela is Founder of self-funded star­tups Mavin Digital, Inc. and Just Kite It dot
com, in charge of site design, site functionality, content development, business development,
project management and resource management. More musings from Jessica.

At Mavin Digital, Jessica works with clients in the specifications documentation process, defining
the UX/UI, planning timelines, selecting, hiring and managing the best resources for each
project. She also offers research in brand naming and design development, creating online and
offline strategies for brand aware­ness programs and community development. Jessica’s
professional experience offers expertise in these areas:

• Writing for the web / content creation

• Product development

• Brand development

• Project management

• Resource management

• Creating evolving media strategy

• Search

• Social media net­working and partnerships

Jessica recently joined, New York City startup, The Hotlist, a social location based service
aggregator that offer information about events, venues and happenings in popular metropolitan
neighborhoods in the US and around the world. The data is curated from social destinations
including Facebook, Twitter and Google. Questions? Write her at jessica@mavindigital.com.