So, we are working on building a (really cheap) Carl the Octopus costume to take out on the streets to meet the fans. The problem… it’s hard to make a Carl the Octopus costume. So in lieu of meeting Carl at BarCamp Nashville this weekend to win an iPad (we will do that another time) we decided to reward CarlSays users with Ten (10) $50 pre-paid credit cards to use at CarlSays merchants (or any store that takes credit cards I guess) :D

The Rules are Simple…

1. Register for CarlSays.com
2. Check-In at the Cadillac Ranch (foursquare, gowalla) during BarCamp Nashville (or the official check-in location for the event)
3. That’s It! Your check’in is your ticket to win!

Now, when you register for CarlSays.com, make sure you connect either your foursquare or gowalla accounts (or both) before you check-in so we can track you and enter you into the sweepstakes! This give away is limited to ONLY BarCamp Nashville attendees, so there is a great chance of winning.

So what are you waiting for? Register for CarlSays.com today and don’t forget to check-in this Saturday!

We are proud to be sponsoring this years BarCamp Nashville! If you are going to be in Nashville on October 16th, stop by this free conference and meet the CarlSays team, and take the day to learn about how to create awesome content and how to grow your online presence for business and personal reasons :)

Official “What is BarCamp” Info…

Mark your calendars and get ready to get to the good stuff: BarCamp Nashville is set for Saturday, Oct. 16, at Cadillac Ranch. BarCamp is a free, new-media focused “unconference” that’s equal parts networking, knowledge-building and fun. This year we’re focusing on getting to the good stuff: better content than ever before.

BarCamp is Nashville’s premier digital event, bringing together the brightest minds from the new media, tech, entrepreneurial and geek communities. But it’s only as good as you make it—to get to the good stuff, you gotta give up some of the good stuff. Attendees are encouraged to get involved through volunteering, presenting an insightful session, or inspiring and leading community learning through active discussion and networking.

You asked, and we listened! In this newsletter, learn about new CarlSays features (based on your feedback) and the new places that have come on board to offer you great deals!

Dozens of New Deals, Available Now!
Wow, there are really too many new places to announce in one email. So allow me to introduce you to a couple of our local favorites with awesome deals.

EdgeHill Cafe – First Timer? Come see us in the Edgehill neighborhood in Nashville now for a Special Deal on your first visit! Check-in and get 50% Off any Specialty Drink! Trust us, you will love it!

9 Fruits - Come enjoy one of our real fruit smoothies and take 50% Off! The folks at 9 Fruits Smoothies love their customers, so keep an eye out for more deals here!

Cupcake Collection - In the mood for sweets? Come on over to Cupcake Collection in Germantown - FREE Small Community Coffee with your purchase of a cupcake.

Our New Features, Check’em Out!
So you may be asking, “what have you guys been working on all this time”? And here is the list of some of the coolest stuff, well… other than finding you awesome deals of course :)

• Facebook Places - Do you use Facebook Places (more info here)? If so, we are pleased to announce we are the first company to provide deals to you for checking-in with Facebook! Connect your account on your settings page!

• Comment on Deals & Check-ins - Have you ever been on the CarlSays website and seen a check-in from a friend, or perhaps that they had redeemed a deal at a new place? Ever want to ask them what the deal was or what they got? Now you can. View & write comments, starting on your dashboard.

Another Big Thanks
We say it every day in tons of ways, but let us throw it out there again. Thank you so much for helping grow CarlSays, and for spreading the word through your blogs, tweets and by redeeming your deals. Merchants love to see you in their stores. Now get out there and check-in!

CarlSays exists to help local merchants (like coffee shops, restaurants, bars and entertainment venues) offer local people like you great deals. They can give them to you for any number of reasons, including scenarios like these:

• You registered for CarlSays and chose to follow them to get deals
• You checked-in to their location for the first time on Gowalla
• You checked-in to their location for the 5th time on Foursquare
• Tons of other reasons…

After you have registered the best thing you can do is connect one of your location based services (defined below). Once you do this, you don’t technically need to return to the CarlSays website again. When deals are nearby CarlSays knows, and will send them to you when appropriate. Easy.

What are Location Based Services?

According to Wikipedia, “A location-based service (LBS) is an information and entertainment service, accessible with mobile devices through the mobile network and utilizing the ability to make use of the geographical position of the mobile device”.

Gowalla, Facebook (places) and Foursquare are location based services that let you “check-in” at any location around the world. Checking-in lets people know “I am here now”. CarlSays uses these location based services to know where you are and then present offers to you from nearby places. These offers can be for 50% off or more on things like: food, drinks, entertainment, spas, and more.

Is CarlSays a Location Based Service?

Carl Says is NOT one of these location based services. When you check-in with those services (Gowalla, Foursquare, Twitter, Facebook, etc)  we help you find deals near that place! When you use CarlSays, you will not get deals from big chains. You will get awesome deals from local places who are willing to work hard to deserve your attention.

Just Hook Them Up!

If you are a CarlSays user and you have not yet connected your Gowalla, Facebook, Twitter or Foursquare account… you are missing out on lots of deals! Head on over to CarlSays.com now and click on SETTINGS in the top right corner to connect your accounts, and start getting deals, today!

Facebook Places & CarlSays

Just a few days ago Facebook announced a brand new feature called Facebook Places. This new feature allows their 500+ million users to check-in at places around the world and leave photos and notes along the way! At their launch event, they introduced partnerships with Gowalla, Yelp, Booyah and Foursquare to accept incoming check-ins from those services… very cool. But who is rewarding the loyal Facebook users for checking-in with deals from local merchants? CarlSays is!

CarlSays Offering Location Based Deals from Facebook Check-Ins!

Officially released yesterday, CarlSays now integrates your check-ins from Facebook and is able to provide you with deals from local places… an industry first! We already support Foursquare, Gowalla and Twitter and adding Facebook into the mix makes it easier for people new to “checking-in” to get awesome deals.

We are super excited to be able to offer this to our users, but there is a catch… you need to connect your Facebook account to CarlSays in order for us to know about your check-ins! Lucky you, we made it super easy to do :)

How to Connect Facebook to CarlSays:

This one is easy to do, all you have to do is the following 3 steps:

1. Go to www.carlsays.com and login
2. Click on the SETTINGS link in the top right corner
3. Scroll down the page and click on the Facebook Icon

Once you have completed the above 3 steps, all you have to do is check-in with Facebook like normal and CarlSays will send you deals when appropriate. If you need a quick primer on how to use the places feature, check out this tutorial from PC World.

As a final note, if you love the deals you are getting from CarlSays as much as we do, you may want to publish your deals automatically to your Facebook account. All you have to do is check the box on your settings page and when you deal, when you get an awesome deal it will be published on your Facebook wall for your friends to see.

Send Deals to Your Wall

12 South Concert Series

Are you heading to Sevier Park this weekend to see the Jack Silverman Ordeal as part of the 12South Concert Series? If so, make sure you check-in to Sevier Park (where the concerts are hosted) to get special deals for CarlSays users! Make sure you come hungry and ready to have a great evening, there will a number of local places offering sweet deals on good eats while there… not to mention a great lineup of talented local musicians.

So if you were looking for something awesome to do this weekend, head on over to the 12 South neighborhood for some great live music

What Is 12South Concerts?

12South Concerts is a partnership of 12 South area businesses and individuals, in conjunction with the 12South Neighborhood Association and Belmont Hillsboro Neighbors, will follow last year’s successful series with another four concerts commencing August 14th, with additional dates on Aug. 28th, Sept. 11th, and Sept 25th.

The concert series originated in 2008 as a way for residents in the 12South community to discover the talents of local artists, and connect with the unique character of local businesses investing in the neighborhood.

Who’s Playing This Weekend?

Saturday, August 14, 2010

• 6 PM – Sleepless Truckers
• 7 PM – Troy Brooks & Friends
• 8 PM – Jack Silverman Ordeal

I stumbled into an article titled The Best and Worst Campaign Deals on Foursquare’s Turf and thought to myself, maybe we should talk about some of the great check-in deals people are getting on CarlSays! Thanks to our awesome merchants and users, great deals are being delivered every day… and some of them are SO much better than simple mayor deals that plague Foursquare today. Let’s check out an example…

50% Off Deal from CarlSays.com

50% Off a Smoothie from 9 Fruits, a Local Smoothie Shop

One of the things we strive for at CarlSays is to work with merchants who are serious about their current customers, and finding new customers too. When you truly love your customers, you want them to have an awesome experience when they come to your shop. 9 Fruits on CarlSays agrees and are offering a number of awesome deals, including this one for 50% off of a smoothie, just for being in the neighborhood!

Compare That to Foursquare Deals

Let’s talk about what you have to do to get a deal at Starbucks using Foursquare, and what the value of that deal is. For those of you who do not know about their offer… you have to be the mayor of a Starbucks to get their deal. And the deal gives you $1 off one of their drinks. I’m not really complaining, $1 off does make it cheaper, but look at what you have to do to get it. You have to check-in a lot (i checked-in over 35 times in a short period and still was not mayor, thanks to the employees checking-in). But here’s the rub… They are also running the treat receipt deal which gives you a grande cold drink for $2 (when you buy your coffee in the morning you get a discount for that afternoon). You do the math, that is a much better deal than checking in 30+ times to try and get $1 off.

So What Am I Saying?

The point of this blog post is not to bag on Starbucks or Foursquare for that matter. Any discount I get is much appreciated. But the point of this post is to talk about commitment. Commitment to your customers and to your brand. Local places like 9 Fruits Smoothies in Franklin, TN are stepping up their game and offering awesome deals to people near their places. They value their customers time and attention. This mentality is indicative of all of the merchants who are using CarlSays to get the attention and loyalty of their local customers.

What Do You Say?

Who has got a deal from Starbucks (or any other merchant on Foursquare) and was it worth the energy you put into it? Did that brand do a good job of thanking you for coming to their place and checking-in? Please leave your thoughts in the comments, we are eager to hear about your experiences!

We have had a mobile version of our site that was VERY simple since the day our doors opened, and worked in tandem with the main website. But, thanks to a little bit of hard work from our developers (@matt_mueller) we now have a mobile version of CarlSays that is not only easier to use, but it adds some cool new functionality too! Here is the quick tour…

Nerby Places GPS

Nearby Places via GPS

Our first new feature in the mobile application is the ability to find nearby places! Of course you are already following your favorite places, but how do you know what places are nearby? Additionally, how do you know what places nearby have deals that you might be able to get?

The simple way is to just click on the nearby tab under places in the mobile app. This will look up your current location and show you all of the places that are around you. If this does not give you everything you are looking for, you can also click on the search tab. Searching uses your GPS location as well, but constrains places to the keywords you enter into search. For example, type “coffee” and it will bring up all the coffee shops currently near your location and show you if deals are available!

Places With Deals

Places You Follow… with Deals!

As you may or may not know, CarlSays is all about giving people deals based on a few criteria: where they are, time of day, where they checked-in at and a few other secret things too ;) Knowing that, there are a number of ways you can find places with deals!

The first thing you can do is follow places on CarlSays. By following a place, you are indicating that you want to keep up with what they are doing or that you want to be alerted of new deals when they are available at that place. So make sure you login to CarlSays.com today and follow your favorite places. You never know when they may send you a deal.

Redeem Your Deals

Redeem Your Deals!

Ok, so this one is obvious but worth pointing out. Since CarlSays is primarily about getting deals when you check-in using Foursquare, Gowalla, Twitter, etc it only makes sense that you can redeem your deals from your phone too. We have improved this flow, linking you directly to your deal from an SMS message so you can easily click the link, see your deal… and show your phone to the merchant!

From the phone you can now see all of your active, redeemed and expired deals so you can keep a history of all the awesome places you visited, and the great deals they gave you for checking them out.

Review Places

Review & Follow People and Places

Whether you are looking for a place you know, searching for a new place, or you got a deal from someplace near by you don’t know… you always want to find more information about that place. Now, you can view the profiles of merchants and people on CarlSays.

On top of basic contact info, you can see descriptions, luv notes from users, who is checking in and if they have deals available too! Remember, by following places, that is one of the many ways you can get alerted of new deals from that place. So make sure you are following your favorite places on CarlSays to get your deals!

Activity Feeds

Keep Up with the Activity Feed

There is a lot going on with CarlSays.com. You are following your favorite places and people, you are checking-in like normal with Gowalla and Foursquare, and you are getting deals. Great job! But how do you keep up with what’s going on with all your connections, and why would you? I’m glad you asked.

On your mobile phone you can now see activity from all of your friends and the places you follow too! Another interesting part of CarlSays deals is the game aspect. You don’t always get a deal from the places you are checking-in to. Sometimes, you can get deals from places near by! Imagine checking in for dinner and getting a deal from a place around the corner for a discount on dessert. Pretty awesome, right? By keeping an eye on your friends activity, you can see where they are checking-in and where they are getting deals. It’s not always the place you think.

What Else?

Well we can’t possibly tell you everything, but we have shared a number of the new features above! We have purposely left out some of the cool stuff from this review… so maybe you should head on over to CarlSays.com on your mobile phone to see what’s up, and start getting those deals!

Just a quick not to all our friends and partners (and potential partners) in San Francisco… We will be heading to this years GeoLoco conference and would love to meet you! We have a couple of meetings setup already, but please email carl@carlsays.com so we can hook up.

What is GeoLoco (from their site)?

• Learn: what the new breed of Geo-Location-enabled services and applications is doing for brands, for businesses and for consumers. Geo-Loco: Is it a Business or a Feature?!
• Experts Corner: Listen to experts talk about the best ideas for applications and features delivering “value” with Geo-Loco. We’ll hear from agencies, brands, businesses and consumers.
• Where’s the money in Geo-Loco? Who has “traction?” Hear from investors, entrepreneurs and the big brands who control the spend, and are leading the investment and innovation from all sides.
• For developers and entrepreneurs: Learn about the new breed of infrastructure companies helping drive the revolution.
• Who should come to Geo-Loco? Big brands and large franchises, small businesses and service providers, advertising agencies, advertisers and marketers, investors, venture capitalists, strategic partners and infrastructure providers.

We will be free all day Thursday and Friday for meetings, please email us to hook up.

From User FaceMePLS on Flickr

I had just finished leaving a comment to an article titled LBS: No BS, It’s Mobile Marketing’s Game-Changer and wanted a chance to expand on the comment a bit, because I found the topic extremely interesting. The article mentioned the term ”Opt-in messaging, 2.0″, and I hadn’t really thought about naming it that, but its true!

What people like Groupon have done in the “emailing group deals” business has opened an entire market for people who 100% WANT TO BE MARKETED TO in order to receive deals from places in their town! That’s right, people actually look forward to receiving the daily emails from marketers to see what deal is in store for them. And not just that, but almost everyone I know is involved in group buying sites… I can’t go to an event or party without the topic coming up and everyone knowing what I am talking about!

Here at CarlSays we have taken the same approach that Groupon has, but applied it to location based marketing. We whole-heartedly love being locals and being foodies. We also love supporting our community by shopping local, eating local and going to local events. We knew there had to be a way to help those same local restaurants, coffee shops, bars, etc compete against the big chains with the huge budgets. And this is where CarlSays comes from.

When people believe they are helping build their local community, while at the same time getting a great deal from local places to do it, it truly becomes “Opt-in messaging, 2.0″. People who use CarlSays LOVE local places and they WANT to receive great deals to help keep those places doors open. On the flip side, the merchants LOVE having new customers walk in the door every single day.

There is no love greater than the love between a person and their favorite local places. If you are a local looking for a way to help your local merchants, register for CarlSays. It feels good being marketed to when you know it helps your local community and that you will get great deals, too! It’s a match made in Opt-In Marketing heaven :)