Geo Geeks: Final Presentation

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For our Final Presentation in #mkt3730, my group and I decided on the topic of Geo-Location Integration. Due to the topic, we chose the group name Geo Geeks.

Our final SlideShow is found above.

Since our class only met once a week we used a lot of online collaboration tools to work on our project and put the final presentation together. The many tools we used included twitter, google docs, google alerts, LinkedIn and also SlideShare.

Using Google Docs we were able to set up a group collaboration and work on our separate parts while still allowing them to be viewable and editable by the rest of the group. This also made putting the final presentation together, much more efficient since all the parts were in the same location.

Twitter is another great tool we used to collaborate on our final project. With our group name Geo Geeks, we created the hashtag #geo_geeks so that all group members could share tweets using this hashtag. This made it easy to follow and share links and information on our final project. We also created a twitter list that included our group members. This is was just another efficient way to keep tabs on all the information we were sharing as a group on twitter.

Google Alerts was a tool used to monitor information being published on the web concerning Geo-Location Integration. Using Google Alerts I would receive emails from Google that would provide links to that information. I could then scroll through the multiple links to find useful information for our project and then share the links with my teammates on twitter.

LinkedIn is another good collaboration tool that allows LinkedIn users to set up a group. Our team created a group but didn’t actually use this tool to work on the project. This is mainly because twitter is a much more efficient way of sharing information and with the hashtag we created it was much easier than using the LinkedIn group to collaborate.

SlideShare is an awesome tool! Not for collaborating on a project like the rest of them, but for sharing our final presentation and putting it out there for the masses. With SlideShare we were able to upload our final presentation slideshow and then share it on twitter and other social media sites. Now our final presentation can be accessed by millions of people.

Overall I feel like this was a great final project and I was able to use all the tools I’d learned in #mkt3730 to collaborate with my team and create a great presentation. These tools will definitely be helpful in my future career whether I collaborate with a team across the room or across the country. These are valuable skills and with the growing technological world they will continue to find ways to become more efficient.

FourSquare or not FourSquare

The goal this week was to choose two Geo-Location Check-in apps and put them to use. The two apps I chose were FourSquare and Yelp! This review might be slightly biased since I’ve been using FourSqaure for a good couple months but I’ll try to validate my opinions on them. First lets just get to know each of them.

FourSqaure is a Geo-Location Check-in Game. FourSquare takes your GPS coordinates and finds businesses and places around you. You then check into these places and get points for doing so. It gets better though! After checking into certain places more than others, you can become the Mayor of that location. Not to mention you can unlock random badges for different accomplishments. Here’s a few  of the badges you can unlock:

To my knowledge check-ins still aren’t a very popular thing these days and those that do use them always seem to be really into the Social Networking thing. I feel that FourSqaure has a lot to offer to everyone though. It’s definitely a game by nature and at first it was kind of boring to me. After having added more and more friends on FourSquare it’s become increasingly more fun! I mean we’re all really competitive and trust me, when your sibling steals the Mayorship from you, you can’t wait to win it back!

FourSqaure also has another side to it. While it’s developed as a game it also provides businesses with a way to market to those that frequent their stores. So let’s say you visit a restaurant a lot and soon become the mayor on FourSqaure. Businesses are beginning to offer discounts on items to the Mayor of their restaurant. This provides FourSqaure users not only with fun filled game with friends, but now a reason to visit their favorite places more and more in hopes to get a discount. This is a great marketing tool, and as Geo-Location apps become more and more popular I see this becoming a big trend. The following image is a sticker you may see outside of a store that offers specials for those that check-in:

 

 

 

 

 

Yelp is also a Geo-Location app. This one is catered more towards restaurants though. While FourSqaure was developed as a game, Yelp started as a way for users to share reviews and opinions on restaurants. It has become more than that now though and continues to add more features. I didn’t have the chance to use this one as much but I feel like this app would be less of a marketing tool for restaurants. Mainly because they can’t control the opinions and reviews of their place. They can offer discounts to visitors that use the app but if a bunch of Yelp-ers give a restaurant horrible reviews then I doubt many people would visit the place to take advantage of the discount.

 

Anyways I see Geo-Location apps as a trend that’s starting to gain momentum in this always on the go, social networking world. These apps are continuing to grow with it and I’m excited to see what they can grow into as more and more users join the “Check-in” world!

The Best of “Social Networking Apps”

 

I have been without power since Sunday so not only is this post being done last-minute, but I also didn’t have as much time as I would have liked to spend using all the apps. I did get a basic feel for all of them though and have enough to tell you what I liked and didn’t like about each. Let’s get to it!

 

HootSuite – I’m putting HootSuite first for good reason. Of all the apps I’ve tried this is the most customizable, efficient and BEST! From my phone I can use it to view Facebook news feed, twitter homepage, and my foursquare check-ins. I even have a tab in my twitter that searches for the #mkt3730 hashtag. HootSuite is the most complete of all apps I’ve tried and running it in Chrome I can even add my LinkedIn account which makes it possible to run all my social networks from one app. HootSuite is hands down the best. In fact the only negative I can think of is that I can’t yet get my LinkedIn account setup for my iPhone. It  does work under Chrome though so no big complaints.

 

TweetDeck – TweetDeck is my second favorite networking app and was my favorite until I began using HootSuite. I’ve spent the most time using TweetDeck and really have nothing bad to say about it. You can customize the columns and even choose between two different colors. It uses the bit.ly shortener and has it built-in for functionality (at least on the iPhone). The only downfall is that it’s not as good as HootSuite. Also no LinkedIn or FourSquare functionality but again just a limitation.

 

Seesmic – The first complaint about Seesmic is that it doesn’t have an app for the iPhone. Though it does have an Android and Windows App. My favorite part about this app is that it minimizes to the tray which is very useful on my netbook, because the screen gets cluttered pretty quickly. What I don’t like, however, is when you retweet something, you can’t edit it. I like that feature in TweetDeck and HootSuite. While Seesmic is great for the netbook, its downfall is that I can’t run it from my phone, which is very important for most social networking these days.

 

SocialOomph – This is definitely the best Twitter Manager. You can have multiple columns open and running multiple Twitter accounts if you have them. I like being able to keep track of my homepage, mentions and the #mkt3730 hashtag all at the same time. Its a great web app but only if you’re focused on Twitter. That’s generally not the case for me.

 

TweetGrid – The interface of TweetGrid is very nice and this is a great tool to use. The one place I think TweetGrid would be very helpful would be in a TweetChat. I might give it a shot on the next assignment and see how it works. You can run multiple TweetChat’s at once even with the nice grid setup. Overall just a very useful tool for Twitter.

 

Monitter – Monitter could be useful but the problem is I can do everything and more than Monitter using SocialOomph or TweetGrid. If you’re bored than Monitter is fun to play around with but for a serious tool I’d look to TweetGrid or SocialOomph.

Anyways that’s my review of the Social Networking apps, I hope you find these helpful and I welcome any other opinions or suggestions.

The Social Media Experience

Its strange to think that just 5 years ago I created a Facebook account, having no idea what lay ahead of me in the world of internet socializing. Instant messaging was the most social thing I did online until Facebook. These days though, I’m never more than a few steps away from some form of social media. On top of that I have five different ways of communicating with people all from one device. From my cellphone alone I can reach people by calling, texting, emailing, facebooking, or tweeting them.
Its crazy how quickly these technologies have developed but they all do more than just make friends more accessible. They make EVERYONE more accessible. Social Media has opened many doors for marketers and consumers alike. Marketers can now easily reach consumers through various Social Medias and provide benefits to those consumers that take advantage of social media marketing.

A type of social media newest to me is “FourSquare“. With foursquare I can check in at certain places such as restaurants, stores or movie theaters. What foursquare does is make checking into these places a game. The more places you check into and the more times you check into them, the more points you get! Using foursquare you can also unlock badges and if you check into a certain place more than others, you become the mayor of that place. While it is entertaining for consumers it also has become a new social media for Marketers. Many business now offer deals and specials to those foursquare customers that frequent their stores. This is just another example of how social media is continuously growing and bringing about a closer connection between marketers and consumers. I’m excited to see where we’ll be in another 5 years!