Ralph Jacobson

BrainTrust Query: Supercharged Checkins

August 9, 2010

FROM RETAILWIRE:
Location-based social networks are the latest fad to hit mobile phones. The concept has mobile phone owners using GPS to "checkin" to establishments, including restaurants and retail stores. What do you think of the potential of "checkins" tied to location-based social networks?      [more...]

It's great to see this is finally going mainstream. Around the globe, like in Tokyo where GPS has been used for a couple years now to not only identify when a customer enters a retailer, but also on a social basis where (get this!) when two people who are registered on a dating website, are walking down the street and the have common interests, their phones call each other when they are within 100 meters of each other. Imagine what retailers could do with this community! A coffee shop adds a coupon to the phone message to invite the two people to stop in the store!