Advertisers know where you are and what you’re doing
The integration of mobile phones and social media has opened up many avenues, allowing advertisers to reach more consumers. Facebook has introduced an innovative tool which sees members disregarding privacy to be a part of it.
‘Places’, the latest Facebook addition, allows you ‘check in’ at various locations, announcing to your whole network exactly where you are.
How many times have you been out in the city and wondering what everyone was up to? Instead of sending a text you can use your mobile phone to check in and see who has checked in near you.
This isn’t a new concept, Foursquare offers something similar and Grindr is offering something similar for those looking for love.
Companies have also used mobile technology to map their location, e.g. MINI Cooper created a new iPhone app that took users on a virtual treasure hunt for a virtual MINI through Stockholm in Sweden.
The app mapped the user’s location and let them know how close they were to the goal. Once they were within 50m of the virtual MINI they could claim it. Once claimed, the user then became the target for players who tried to get within 50m of the user to take the virtual MINI. Whoever had the virtual MINI at the end of the game week won a real new MINI Countryman.
What’s really exciting is advertisers are able to communicate with consumers on the platforms they are already on. While iPhone apps are brilliant, you need to push consumers to download as they are unlikely to come organically.
Facebook has so much potential. It has over 500 million members just waiting to be tapped into and where it gets really interesting is the way advertisers can use ‘Places’.
‘Places’ helps Australian advertisers get around our privacy laws and target consumers in a similar way.
When using ‘Places’, you can use the ‘deal logo’ to get special offers. Businesses in the vicinity can secure a new customer by offering individual discounts, offer friends deal - requires tagging friends, offer rewards for repeat visits and offer donations for good causes.
A great example of this was used by Nike in Portland in the US. They wanted to promote the Varsity Destroyer Jacket so they teamed up with a Koi Fusion food truck. Nike then tweeted clues for followers to find the food truck. Once the follower found the food truck they had to check in using ‘Places’ and then order the secret menu item (The Destroyer Burrito). At the completion of this task the follower walks away with a Varsity Destroyer jacket and a burrito.
This is too much of a privacy invasion. We’ve all heard stories about how someone can track your Twitter profile and Facebook, but this has just taken out all the effort and made it extremely easy to be followed.
A friend of a friend used ‘Places’ to ‘check in’ at home with the status update ‘Bored at home alone’ letting her network know that she was all alone at home (as well as where her home is) – this frightens me. Sure, this update was send to her Facebook ‘friends’ but take a long look at your own ‘friends’ list and tell me if you really want all of them to know where you live and when you’re there all on your own.
Eventually, like all things, consumers will get wise to what’s going on and could potentially reject this invasion of privacy. My forecast is that we’ll all find this so convenient that we won’t.
I must admit Facebook makes this latest offering very tempting but I’m not quite ready to check in!
Elizabeth Latham
Foundation