There are more than half a dozen location-based applications clogging my iPhone as I’ve spent the past year trying to figure out which one, if any, would take hold in a university setting.
Facebook Deals changes everything.
Facebook Deals, announced on Wednesday, would allow vendors to offer deals to those who checked in using the mobile Facebook Places application already in place. It’s not as flashy as Gowalla, as easy to use as Foursquare, or even as robust as SCVNGR. But if I had to invest in any location-based service, I’d put my money in Facebook Deals. It’s all about the numbers.
Try to fill a classroom with people who have a Facebook account and the exercise would take about two minutes. Try to fill the same classroom with people using either Foursquare, Gowalla, or SCVNGR and you may be searching all afternoon.
None of the aforementioned services come anywhere close to the 500+ million users Facebook can claim. Foursquare only passed 3 million users in August — and 20 percent of those are pushing their check-ins to Facebook anyway.
So what does this mean for higher education?
Facebook Deals as a location-based service already leaps over its competitors and the two largest obstacles to any higher education marketing endeavor — it costs nothing and it’s easy to use.
Here’s how it would work on a college campus: Users login to Facebook using their mobile phone and check in with the Facebook Places application. Facebook Places shows a list of nearby locations and highlights those locations offering deals.
There are four types of Facebook Deals:
- Individual Deals. Check in at the university film series and gets a free bag of popcorn.
- Friend Deals. Get five friends to attend a lecture, check in, tag each other and they all get a copy of the lecturer’s latest book.
- Loyalty Deals. Reach a set number of check ins at a specific university cafeteria and earn a free meal.
- Charitable Donation. For every check in at the “Local Big Business” lecture hall, the “Local Big Business” donates $1 to fund university scholarships.
The deals show up in friends’ news feeds to let them know the details of the deal how they might get involved in the future. Think about it for a minute … the average user on Facebook has 130 friends. Every time they check in at your location and claim a deal, all 130 friends get notified. I’m pretty active user of both Foursquare and Gowalla and the total number of friends I’ve compiled between the two is 20.
Clearly, I’m not the only person in higher education who can see the merits of jumping on board with Facebook Deals. When Facebook unveiled Deals, it did so touting a number of deals programs already in the works, including three with large universities:
Texas Tech: Giving away 100 pairs of tickets.
University of California at Berkeley: Letting football fans who check in form the human tunnel through which the players run.
University of Nebraska: Inviting attendees to a meet-and-greet with a Husker living legend.
Location-based networks for months have been offering special deals and trying to reach a critical mass for success. Facebook Deals may just have made their moves moot.
Any ideas on how you might be using Facebook Deals in the future? Please feel free to share them in the comments below.
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One thing that jumps out to me as a real downside to Facebook Deals is Facebook itself. Great numbers, but really poor service. I can’t imagine trying to claim 105 separate venues with them to offer the really granular deals that we would want. Really easy for users… not so much for those of us who have to set-up/manage it.
It also only addresses one feature of foursquare (the only location service I’m really familiar with). Not saying that it isn’t the money making part but the game and tips aspect of foursquare is pretty good and really useful. Though I guess without tips or the game maybe there’s no reason to claim all 105 venues on Facebook like we did with foursquare. Instead we could focus only on those we’d have deals for.
I’ll be curious to see how this shakes out. I really want to know what kind of experience schools have in claiming specific places like dining locations.
My thoughts were immediately of you when this came to my attention, Patrick.
Besides promotional applications, want to try to work out some models for *academic* applications?
Any idea on how can college athletic departments claim their different venues on campus to begin offering deals when fans check into the stadium, arena, etc.?
Dave, I think the idea of rewards is what draws me in. Fighting ‘Foursquare fatigue” is tough, but when there are rewards involved it changes the dynamic of a check-in. Getting something tangible is a huge motivator.
Bruce, we’ll have to get working on this, but its hard to ‘reward’ people for academic activity in an authentic way that respects the experience.
@patrick aren’t “specials” in foursquare the same as “rewards” in facebook deals? or are you saying places is now more interesting to users because now they have a chance at rewards via facebook deals?
@dave, the latter. It seemed no one really cared about checking in with Facebook Places because there was no real motivation to do so. “Specials” were the only reason I still check into Foursquare … or at least to see what’s nearby. If Facebook is now offering the same rewards/specials, its sheer numbers make it the place to be.
@patrick ok, that makes sense. our football stadium has about 100 check-ins on facebook and a little over 1100 on foursquare.
interesting… facebook’s graph api gives access to total check-ins. maybe i need to do a facebook statistics script similar to foursquare
Patrick
I’m with you when it comes to the idea that this will be formidable once it is really launched. Fro the same reason: the amount of people on Facebook is enormous. FourSquare’s numbers are minute compared and, from what I see, most places haven’t even claimed their location let alone offer any deal.
It also would seem that “places”…restaurants…would appreciate a Facebook Place more because they have greater control over the whole presence. Content. Interaction. Appearance.
Great topic and treatment, thank you. I am not sure about one aspect of what you wrote:
“…the average user on Facebook has 130 friends. Every time they check in at your location and claim a deal, all 130 friends get notified.”
My understanding of the Newsfeed algorithm in Facebook is that it pushes your Facebook activity to some fraction of your friends’ feeds, but never approaches 100% notification among your friends. If this is correct (it may not be), checking in on Facebook would push a notification to the Newsfeeds of a small portion of the 130 friends, but not to all.
Even so, it would be very scalable, and the aggregate exposure across the entire FB platform would be huge, no doubt.