FourSquare 1.0 is doomed, but it’s not because of Facebook Locations.

For the better part of 2010 I owned Nashua, NH- well at least on FourSquare.  I was not just an early adopter, but an advocate for the location based social ‘game.’  The concept of becoming the ‘Mayor’ of a business or location by ‘Checking-In’ the most appealed to me.  It was a challenge I could win at my most frequented restaurants, shops, and even at work.

As a FourSquare advocate I explained the purpose and benefits of telling your friends where you were:

“If you’re in a coffee shop and check in, a friend of yours might be in the area, see that you checked in and join you.”

Huzzah! It’s about time your online social network joined you in real life!  Or is it? (dramatic pause)  A friend of mine, Shea Sylvia, wrote a cautionary tale on her blog about a creepy guy who saw she had checked-in to a restaurant on FourSquare.  Mr Creep actually called the restaurant asking for her- (music from TV show Lost would fit nicely here) “Ahhh!”

Okay, so FourSquare only allows your friends to see where you check-in.  Before we scold Shea for simply ‘friending’ to many creepy dudes on FourSquare, it’s important to note that you can also see who checks into locations without being their friend.

The other big controversy, this one with equal parts satire, was Rob Me Please.  The site is currently down, but their point was that people tend to ‘over-share.’  A robber could see that you’ve gone on vacation and steal your flat screen.  Technically this robber would have to know where you lived and all, but it’s not too hard to see how that could be found out.

Being a big tough guy with a relatively small flat screen, I wasn’t too concerned with the nay-sayers.  It was fun to be the Mayor of multiple locations in NH and even some highly competitive ones in Boston.

Some locations would even give you free drinks or discounts if you were the mayor.  That was the plan anyways.  Nashua certainly didn’t buy into this tech very quickly. Save for the local Starbucks (which was locked down by @KevinMic anyways), none of the 20+ locations I was the mayor of actually ever hooked me up.

Right about the same time the “Early Majority” group (from book Crossing the Chasm by Moore) of adopters started checking in around my home town, I began checking in less.  It was a slow process that had a flipping point when I stopped checking in where I work at EF Tours (@EFTours) in Cambridge.  The hotly contested building of over 850 people had about 5 regular FourSquare participants.  Maintaining your position as #1 requires consistent check-ins and frankly, is tedious.

One day I just stopped.  “Let someone else be the mayor today.”

I kept thinking about a criticism my friend and tech thought-leader, Aaron White (@AaronWhite), had made about social start-up Aadvark.  The site allows  you to ask & answer questions utilizing your social network.  Aaron’s main point of contention was that there had to be a ‘reward’ for answering questions to keep the system going.  Whether it was money, points, business referrals, or ICEEs from 7-11 some motivation was critical.  Aadvark, to their credit, replied to Aaron’s keen observation and must have added the ‘reward factor’ to their equation because they’re being acquired by Google.

It’s this same criticism that I now have of FourSquare, GoWalla, and now Facebook Places.  Why check-in? How is this going to benefit me?  Where’s the ‘reward factor?’

Good ol’ Kevin, yes the guy who is the mayor of just about every Starbucks in NH, actually swung by a PetSmart when I checked in there during a puppy training class.  He got to meet my starter-son Charlie, a wheaten terrier.  That was it though.

I’ve realized that the only thing I’ve been doing while checking in on FourSquare is missing out on the experience of real life.  It seems too, that I’m not alone.

Last week I tweeted that I was bored with FourSquare.  The responses came rolling in:

• mizkerri Yup. RT @CaseyChesh: I’m getting bored with @FourSquare – Anyone else?
• MeganLeap @CaseyChesh No, but isn’t that was Facebook Places is for?
• Private – @CaseyChesh yes. But it seems much more popular here in the west coast (I’m vacationing)
• denimroad @CaseyChesh yea its a split.. I use it because of the social networking qualities but the rest of is not fun anymore
• NathanSpencer @CaseyChesh I feel bad. I only use 4sq to let ppl know where I am and even then not much anymore.
• jennifer_el I killed my account. RT @mizkerri: Yup. RT @CaseyChesh: I’m getting bored with @FourSquare – Anyone else?
• jennifer_el @CaseyChesh Not really. I mean, I kept forgetting to check in cause I was actually busy enjoying myself, so what was the point?
• MeganLeap @CaseyChesh Maybe! However, I’m going to stick to Foursquare. I don’t need to update ALL my Facebook friends with my whereabouts.
• Private – @mizkerri @CaseyChesh Yes and no. It’s still useful and kinda fun but the novelty has worn off.
• Drantis82 @CaseyChesh yeah, I quit a few weeks ago.
• YoavShapira @CaseyChesh I quit months ago

The prosecution rests. FourSquare and it’s friends GoWalla, Facebook Places, as they’re currently offered, are doomed.  They need a reward factor for check-ins.

Will they find it? Maybe, but I see a much more interesting future for geolocation.  Checking into a location is the start, much like floppy disks were so much cooler than using index cards with holes punched on them.

We’re seeing only the tip of the location-based innovation iceberg.  Saving money more than social fun will be the driving force that helps this new tech bridge the gap from fad to phone.

Wednesday, all over the world, online marketers experienced drastic changes in their Facebook advertising performance.  Most advertisers saw large drops in both impressions and clicks.  The bigger the ad spend, the larger the drop, some as high as 60%.

There are many factors that go into advertising performance, and some immediately checks come up negative:

• Has the volume suddenly dried up? Are they all on vacation? This is not the case as these drops cross industries, markets, and demographics.
• Has the competition gone up, increasing the minimum bid? No sir, bid recommendations remain the same.
• Did your intern pause all of your Campaigns? No, interns are kept locked in the conference room.

All signs point to Facebook changing the way they serve ads.  Data collected since Wednesday shows no signs of return, leading most to assume these changes are here to stay.

While you may think it a bit odd for Facebook to suddenly change the way they do business, keep in mind they continually change their interface- much to the (dis)like of the majority of their users.  Those changes, however, typically allow people to revert back to the old style for a few days.

If you think it’s confusing, you’re not alone.  Reps at Facebook have been scrambling to come up with answers as large checkbook advertisers flood their phone lines.  I can almost imagine the hoards of online marketers yelling: “This wouldn’t happen on Google!”

I applaud Facebook for continuing to grow and mature it’s ad serving platform. They’ve got plenty of targeting power and are slowly learning how to enable everyone to use it.  My problem is with their implementation and lack of communication. If you’re the biggest, badest, fastest growing social platform- the future of the web, ACT like it.  Get a campus like Google, hire a beebop flute player, and seek measurable perfection in all that you do.

Potentially related, Facebook has publicly discussed their work on optimization the News Feed with a system called EdgeRank.  A great News Feed will make for better user experience, but the ad platform is what keeps the iguana fed at Facebook.  They need to devote more attention to the business side of the house.

Triage – What can you do? Test results haven’t come back yet.  In the mean time, here are a few potential band-aids:

• Ensure your bids are within the suggested range & test upping your bids.
• Create new ads with the same & new copy.
• Compare performance across multiple accounts & campaigns.

The way I see it, Facebook will either revert and reevaluate or adjust and inform.  My guess is that they’ll tweak what they’ve done- though there is a sense of urgency.  You’re spending less, and they’re making less so it’s going to be a working weekend at Facebook.

I also recommend adjusting your Facebook advertising strategy.  The system is changing and soon the new levers that affect performance will become clear.  Gear yourself up for a Facebook Quality Score, complete with it’s own set of algorithmic quirks and voodoo rules.  The positive side is that they’re moving toward Quality, which should benefit us all in the future.

If you’ve had any performance changes recently, please post them below:

I was checking in to Lingo, my local lunchery, on geolocation-social service FourSquare when lo and behold a trending location caught my eye: Heatpocalypse Boston.  Wiping away the sweat from my brow, I immediately checked-in.

Yes, 106 of us are currently baking in the Heatpocalypse Boston.  This new venue has had over 200+ unique check-ins and is a remarkably accurate description of the insanely hot weather we’ve been having in Boston lately.

This event is a funny reminder of how a common struggle- like weather, can unite us all.  If not for FourSquare, I might not have had proof that I wasn’t the only one sweltering out there.

There is a serious side too of course.  Dehydration can be dangerous so get yourself some water & drink up Boston!

I received an email from Charles Schwab (the bank, not the guy) today.

It started off with “We’re making some exciting changes that will make your online banking experience even better, We therefore request your to verify your location.”

Later it goes on to describe a “verification” that is needed, and has a link that says “Go To Verification Process” with a destination of: http://www.schwab-verification.com/public/schwab/home/welcomep.html

Here’s a screenshot of the email:

Looks relatively legit right?  A few red flags go off right away when anyone, especially a bank, asks you to “verify” something.  You’ve probably guessed already, that this email wasn’t from the bank.

What did the destination (www.schwab-verification.com) look like?  It was an exact copy of what schwab.com looked like.  How scary is THAT!?

Go Phish?

It’s called a phishing scam and it involves bad guys asking hundreds of people for their login information to online accounts such as banks.

The concept of phishing can be thought of by a big fishing net cast out to the sea.  The hope is that while most fish will escape, a few might get caught.

That fake Schwab message was sent to hundreds of thousands of email addresses.  The villain sending it realizes that a small percentage of people opening it will actually *have* an account with Schwab, and then a much smaller percent of account holders will actually fall for it.  But that’s okay because 1 big account may be all he needs to pimp out his evildoer lair for the upcoming year.

5 Phishing Scam Red Flags

1. Ask Not… This first one is key: No financial companies will ever ask you to do or confirm anything requiring login details online.  Verify, confirm, and words like these are instant flags because they’re requesting you tell the bank’s site what it already knows!
2. No Site Key.  Lots of banks (Bank of America for example) are now instituting Site Key images.  Before you log into your account, the bank will show you an image that you previously picked out.  If you go to log in and see the wrong image- or no image at all (when you know your account has one), stop!  This one helps stop phishers in their place.
3. Fake Urgency! OH NO. Our mainframe had a 409XB error at the same time your Debit card was used in Boca Raton, Florida- quickly confirm your details so we know your account hasn’t been compromised.  How about no?  If the issue at hand was *that* serious, they would call you.
   I’ve gotten calls before from a fraud team asking if I’ve been to Connecticut lately as fraudulent behavior was identified there.  Even these departments won’t ask you for vital information- if they do, ask for a number to call them back.  And remember, sending an email for something serious is like emailing all workers in a building that there is a fire and to get out.
4. Funky Destinations. Just like in the example above, the website I went to from clicking the link was not the actual website of the company that emailed me:  www.schwab-verification.com is not www.schwab.com.  This one is pretty clever, but you have to ask yourself why there would be a separate address just to verify- there won’t be!  Some URLs are a lot more blatant like: bankofamerica.verify.systemconfirm.ru   This is an example of a Russian website (.ru) with plenty of garbage thrown into the web address to confuse you- it’s definitely not a bank!
5. “English! Do you speak it?!” Samuel L Jackson says this famous movie line- of course, his version is littered with more colorful language…  If you actually take the extra 5 seconds to read a suspicious email you’ll be surprised at how often they’re poorly written.  Real companies, banks, and firms often have teams of employees who come up with multiple drafts of the same email in order to make it clear and professional.
   Here’s an example from the above email: “We’re making some exciting changes that will make your online banking experience even better, We therefore request your to verify your location.“  Seriously? You used a comma instead of a period and you THEREFORE request YOUR to verify?  Oh please!  If something like this ever left Schwab, whole departments would be getting fired as droves of investors ran for the hills.  “If you can’t write an email, how are you going to manage my money?”

Phishing scams are not new and sadly they are not going away soon.  Our best bet is to share what we know about them with friends and family.  As our world’s digital experience matures and fewer people fall prey to online scams, phishers may have to pick up real fishing nets and try a new career.

Facebook has a new feature! (gasp) And this time it’s for all of us digital marketers out there utilizing Facebook Advertising.  The new feature, which is still in Beta, allows you to know if the really expensive Facebook traffic you paid for actually converts.

The implementation is simple, and if you’ve already set up your Google AdWords for conversion tracking (and you should!) then it’ll look familiar:

<script src=”//ah8.facebook.com/js/conversions/tracking.js”></script><script type=”text/javascript”>
try {
FB.Insights.impression({
‘id’ : 123456789,
‘h’ : ‘abc123abc123′
});
} catch (e) {}
</script>

This will enable you to track contact conversions within the Facebook interface.  Even if you have your web analytics set up to track Facebook conversions this will put the information all in one place and save time on report generation.

There is also a handy guide to using Facebook Conversion Tracking.  They’ve done a great job detailing just about everything- except a pesky thing called a “Conversion Rate.”  (Oh boy!)

Facebook & Conversion Rate

A conversion rate can really look at any two factors, depending on what KIND of conversion you’re tracking.  It’s typically calculated with the number of successes divided by the number of attempts.  Within Facebook reporting, a conversion rate is the number of times the desired action (purchase, signup, etc) occurs divided by a modified number of impressions- or times your ad was shown.

It’s not simply Conversions/Impressions.

Believe it or not, Facebook adds in “Basis Points” to your Conversion Rate calculation.  They do this because simply dividing your 10 purchases by the 800,000 impressions is going to give you a crazy Conversion Rate of: 0.0000125

Rather than make room in their reports for at least 5 zeroes, they modify the number of impressions by DIVIDING it by 10,000. The result on your 800,000 impressions divided by 10,000 is now a manageable 80.

Facebook then calculates: 10 / 80 = .125 or 12.5 %

While it seems sketchy at first glance, they’re really only making the report a little easier to read.  Just remember you DON’T really have a 12% conversion rate!

Happy Converting!

If you haven’t been advertising on Facebook, you should definitely test it.  I’ve seen it work both really well, and pretty miserable.  There are a lot of factors, but one thing is sure- you won’t know how your audience responds until you start testing it!  At least now you can see how those pricey, highly targeted Facebook ads are performing within their interface!

I wanted to share a presentation I gave at the Inaugural Event of the Social Media Club NH.  That night, social media professionals in a variety of industries shared their victories and frustrations.  From health care to gov, and non-profit to business, it was an excellent view into the expansive reach of social media.

I was the speaker for Business.  One distinction I made during my presentation became apparent as I was listening to the previous speakers.  Health care and especially government have a ridiculous amount of red tape they have to contend with when attempting to build social communities.  However, once implemented, their goals of user engagement and community are relatively easy and straight forward.

Business on the other hand, has few if any restrictions, but has to contend with the big social media ROI question: “Does this make sense- now or in the future, with dollars and cents?”

The bulk of my presentation centered around lessons learned and a few key best practices for social media implementation for businesses.

It was an honor to speak at the event, I’ve embedded my slides below.  Actual speaking notes are attached to the slides and are visible if you visit the presentation on SlideShare.

There are puppy robots who sit on command, human shaped robots who can climb stairs, and even robots that paint new art based on random mathematics.  Despite all of the advancements in computer behavior programming, and the fact that my Sims 2 character can be frighteningly realistic at times, 2010 is not the year for automated web chat.

I have had numerous sales emails and even calls from nice people trying to sell me automated sales chat on my company’s website.  The idea is to connect with visitors that are leaving your site without purchasing.  You find out their friction or pain points, identify an ideal offer, and lubricate their way back into your sales funnel with a hefty discount.

One email I received today highlights a 10%-30% increase in sales- and all without requiring you to do, well, anything except pay for the service.

Before you go sign some agreement and insert that little Javascript code on your site, let’s talk about this new experience you’re creating for your customers.

Human Chating is Caring

When taking a few chats for my company’s live chat implementation, one of the more frequent first questions is: “Are you a robot?”  Not surprisingly, no one is ever disappointed to hear that I am, in fact, a real live humanoid.  Skeptical, I’ve had one chatter then ask me what “infinity times infinity” was- just to make sure I breathed oxygen instead of positively charged ions.  My answer was “Why it’s 4, of course.”  And then a successful human-human chat followed.  There is a BIG plus to the customer experience when they realize that you care enough to be available.

Let’s take it a step further, why do they ask chat representatives if they’re human?  The chat window has my name on it, and I say hello.  They ask because of these automated experiences they’ve had in the past- and frankly, because not too many websites put their money & time where their mouth’s are about caring what the customers are thinking.

Wool is for Sheep & Sweaters

This brings us to the first big fatal flaw of most automated chat solutions.  They like androids of old, are on a quest to be human and they are presented as if they were.

In eCommerce chat, the goal of the chat is answering the tipping point questions that may be preventing a customer from completing their purchase.  They can be a simple question, or if your site is lacking- say, a comparison chart, they can be trying to figure out which product is right for them.

For some reason, I get the feeling that automated chat solution companies think their goal is to make their system as human-like as possible.  Trying to fool them with chat sets up the question: “If they misrepresent their chat, what else are they saying that isn’t true?”

A great point was made by @Rich_Kolb on Twitter:

“Does it mean they don’t care? I’m not sure, but if they admitted they were fake I’d be ok with it”

Pretending to offer someone a chat with a real person only sets them up for disappointment when they realize that the cute face wearing a headset in the photo is really just a collection of impersonal sub-routines.

The Turing Test Dooms Automated Chat

The Turing Test was another topic Rich hit on in his replies to my original Tweet ranting about automated chat.  For those of you who haven’t heard of the Turing Test, it’s a staple of survey level Computer Science courses in school these days.  The basic idea is that it’s a test of a computer’s ability to “think.”  What’s the easiest way to see if someone can “think on their toes?”  Why to talk with them of course!

The Turing Test puts a human in front of a computer with a chat window.  He or she begins chatting with TWO people (often 1 at a time) via the chat window- like Aim or Skype.  One of those people on the other end is a computer and the test- or game really, is to fool the human into thinking he’s chatting with another human.  Ever since it was proposed in a 1950 paper by Alan Turing (yeah, I’d name it after myself too!) the programmers of the world have been trying to pass this test.

While some programs have come closer to this goal than others, the reality is that it’s an *extremely* difficult test.  Many a Phd thesis and late night theory have been spent trying to map out practical theories and implementations.  In the end, your automated chat has a very HIGH chance for failing at some point in the conversation.

Boldly Go, Where No Program Has Gone Before

Get yourself a live chat solution, I’m a big fan of Bold Chat. For under $30 / month, you can get 2 operator seats and start interfacing with your customers.  Think of it as manning the phone, except that people are typing instead of calling.  Depending on the size of your company (and how confusing your website is  or isn’t) you won’t necessarily get inundated with chats.  It’s very manageable and there’s more value to it than just answering questions.

The customer experience insight gained through live chat is significant.  You’ll find out what your website isn’t communicating properly, how you stack up with the competition, and even new product ideas.

It’s really not so much about the dollar cost as it is the time investment. Sound familiar?  Social Media, buzzword for our decade, is also free.  Your cost is the time spent doing it.  While Social Media ROI tracking is still teething, live chat conversion results are build into most systems.  Additionally Chat can be turned on and off during the day based on availability of an operator.  It’s often a great idea to have the Chat button disappear when no one is available.

Allocate the time and get in front of your customers. You’ll be amazed by what you learn!

Once you’re aware of the thought process that goes into every element of Online Marketing, you begin take notice of other company’s implementations.  Everything from SPAM to the checkout process within an e-commerce store, there is logic (or should be) behind what you see.

I noticed a brilliant error today on a signup form for a webinar, that is ironically for E-commerce Trends & Strategies.  I’ve included a screen shot of the form below:

The challenge has been issued! Do you see it yet?  If it doesn’t hit you right away, you may want to attempt to sign up for the webinar. (Assuming it hasn’t been fixed yet.)

Post your answer as a comment below!

U p d a t e – Guesses have come in via just about every method other than as comments- haha.  Thanks Rob, you followed directions.

The answer to Quiz Question #1 is that there are no asterisks * or symbols identifying a Required Field.  If you filled it out like a QA tester, or a thorough fellow, you would not have caught this one.  But let’s say you’re a busy manager and have filled out one too many webinar registrations.  Naturally you want to register with as few fields filled out as possible.  You’d never know from this form, but the following fields are *actually* required: first name, last name, email, phone, and vertical.

I originally entered my name and email address.  It was not until after I hit the Submit button that I was told which additional elements were required. Now I won’t go off on a tirade about why they had so many required fields- vertical? Are you kidding me?  This form required me to hit submit twice- which demonstrates the friction you want to avoid in Online Marketing and E-commerce.  Shopping Cart Checkouts and Lead Gen forms need to be so slick you’d think you sat on a waterslide.  Every excuse you give someone to get frustrated and leave results in leakage from your sales funnel.

The insurmountable irony to the whole thing? It’s an e-commerce strategy & trends webinar!  But let’s end on a positive note:

Let’s give props to BoldChat for using GotoWebinar. They want your name and email- and they tell you that. Easy, smooth registration.  I’m a fan of BoldChat for it’s live web chat solution and GotoMeeting is my favorite web meeting solution.  Both solutions impress the hell out of me.

This weekend the Cheshire Family, minus puppy Charlie, was in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada.  We were happily surprised to find out that our weekend get-away was the same weekend as Quebec City’s Winter Carnival.  It’s like Carnival in Brazil, just with snow pants, ice sculptures, and a dancing snow man named Bonhomme.

It’s during this festival on a windy, snowy, cold afternoon that my wife and I entered a footwear store.  We were looking for hiking boots for her.

A quick (customer) background on this boot search: We’ve searched “everywhere” for Tina’s hiking boots.  She’s tried on practically every boot at both Eastern Mountain Sports & LL Bean- none have fit properly.  Hiking boots are one of those kinds of footwear that you need to spend a little time (and money) on getting it right.  Five miles into a trek, you don’t want your foot to fall off from killer blisters and sprains.

In summary, if we actually (and finally) found the right boot, we’d pay almost any price.  My Asolo boots were $199 and are the best boots I’ve ever had.  After all this frustration in searching for boots, we were ready to buy!

Tina had yet to try on a North Face boot, and gave one in this store a shot.  Unlike all of the other boots, she had no immediate pressure or pain points on her foot.  Soon both boots were on and she was walking around the store fighting a smile. The boots were $139 and had a 20% discount.

With the sale basically in the bag there was only one step left.  Naturally, you want to try the boots on wearing the thicker hiking socks you’ll likely be wearing.  We went over to the socks rack.  Would you believe it? They were out of Smart Wool size small hiking socks.  I’m a big fan of Smart Wool, but they were also out of the rest of the size small socks.

“Do you have kids sizes?”

Sorry no.  The mediums would be way too big, and there was nothing smaller available in the store.  With a purchase price of over $100, there was simply no way we’d just guess-timate how the boots would feel.

The sale went from “Go to No” in the 2 minutes it took looking for socks. The lack of a $20 product blocked the sale of a $140 product. Amazing!

It’s a beautiful example of friction points in the sales process.  Every product and service has it’s own unique elements of difficulty.  Physical retail stores would do well to examine how long lines, dressing rooms, and yes- supporting products generate friction and potentially prevent sales.

Found this project through AnalyticsPros blog Analytics Prose and it pointed me to this blog post on Yoast.

It’s a quick little Google Analytics project that shows you what page your site was on when someone clicked to your site from the natural search results.

Image via CrunchBase

So someone searching for “Casey Cheshire” would find CaseyCheshire.com on the first page and in the first position.  Google Analytics won’t be able to tell you position, but with this filter setup, it’ll show you what page you were on.  Testing on your own will give you different results because Google has personalized search.

Step 1: Create a new profile. (Always do this so you don’t screw up your main profile. Once data is filtered, it cannot be reversed.)

Step 2: Create a filter that Includes only Organic traffic. (Instructions here.)

Step 3: Create a filter that Includes only Google traffic. (There are fixes to include Yahoo and MSN, but you’ll need to already be properly tagging this traffic with custom utm data.  It get’s more complicated, but is doable. ) (Instructions here.)

Step 4: Create a filter that does the Magic (…grabs the page result from the url).

Click here for a photo of what the filter should look like.

An important fact about what you’ll see in the results.  If you don’t see a result it means it was on the first page, 20 means it was on the third page.  Below is the page number & what result will show up in results.

1. no result
2. 10
3. 20
4. 30
5. 40
6. 50

Not perfect or Apple iPhone user friendly, but provides a glimpse into the SEO effect on your organic search.

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