Predicting the future (2010) for businesses with twitter + GPS [kwiqq]

Posted on | September 7, 2008 | View Comments

As twitter is gaining popularity amongst non-geeks the possibilities for such services are opening up for businesses. In this essay I will try and outline the possibilities of twitter and location based services like twinkle (Twitter meets GPS) for businesses as soon as 2010.

For this to happen I’m assuming iPhone and other GPS enabled devices become as common as iPods in the MP3 market. The usage of Twitter continues to rise at the current rate and users update it using mobile internet. In the essay I refer to Twinkle, an application which shows all twitter messages around you. Think geo-tagging for your conversations.

So why we think it’s the future ? Here are some scenarios from individual and business perspectives :

1. Busy Individuals

Often as busy individuals we spend the whole week at work without planning for time we have off. Especially bankers, entrepreneurs and individuals spending several hours at work miss out on their social life. Having applications like Twinkle can allow you to interact with your friends even if you are not physically there.

Example: On a Thursday evening I’m working till 10pm whilst my friends are at a local venue. An example of the twitter conversations they will be having:

Friend1: quality cocktails at #localvenue
Friend2: At #localvenue should have seen @friend1 spilling his drink
Me: sounds like @friend1 and @friend2 are having fun. Would be cool to join you guys in 30 mins after work. Would you be around ?

Suddenly you are never home alone without a plan for the evening or at office feeling deprived of your social life.

2. Bars and restaurants

Often you find bars and restaurants empty over a weekend. Every hour lost without customers means wages being paid with no revenue. How about if venues could resort to twinkle:

LocalRestaurant: offering 2 for one meal deals for the next 30 mins. Reply to book table now quote twitter-meal.
Person 1: @LocalRestaurant what’s your veggie option?
Person 2: @LocalRestaurant 2 tables for mr and mrs smith

Similarly drink offers. Since the news is transmitted to everyone local, suddenly a quiet bar can be transformed to a very busy one.

3. Businesses (Online retailers + Local stores)

Just like search engine advertising, micro-blogging could become a lucrative market. Twitter like applications would allow advertising to be more targeted and personal. Unlike search engine advertisers will be able to see who they are selling to. Are they bloggers, investment bankers etc and start a one to one conversation. Lets try and explain this using an example:

Person1: Looking to buy gucci sunglasses. Any suggestion guys ?

<If there was a system to trigger an email for everytime Gucci sunglasses was entered on Twitter then it could be used by online retailers to start a direct conversation>

Gucciretailer1: Hey @Person1 we currently have 50% discount on our glasses tinyurl.com/glasses

This lowers the cost for a lead and as a retailer you are addressing customers issues instantly and gaining new clients. You can already search for terms on twitter using search.twitter.com but going forward there could be a market for twitter keyword alerts.

Similarly it could be advantageous for companies to crawl sites like twitter to recieve feedback on their product or look for people talking about a particular topic of interest and directly market their services/products.

4. Nightclubs/Gigs

If you enjoy occasional nights out there is nothing more annoying than paying £20 on the door and finding an empty club. Especially when you are in a new city. How cool would it be to get constant tweets from friends/random people in a club informing you of the venue from the inside. It could be a strategy for club promoters to actively encourage event tweets. As the night progresses the entrance fee goes up for a good night, more positive tweets = more price. This allows twitter to bring transparency to a business operation.

Disadvantages/Misuse

All technologies have their bit of advantages and disadvantages. The obvious issue here is privacy. Who is following whom on the web could suddenly make it a spot for stalkers and cause all sorts of issues at work. Similar to what facebook saw in its early days.

Another problem which is increasingly arising on Twitter is spammy messages. If Twitter goes mainstream spams will rise and so would shameless advertising. Another issue would be businesses employing people to spam location based social networks promoting their bars/restaurants.

How does twitter, twinkle control it ? The answers are not clear yet but like clever search algorithms these are things which will be solved.

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