Is 2011 the Year of the Check-In?

With the recent slow down in the number of check-ins on applications like Foursquare, Gowalla and Facebook Places, it's probably easy to say that these location-based application have had their 15 minutes of fame and are on their way out. But digging a little deeper will reveal that this is certainly not the case.

Rather, the market for venue check-ins and the reason people are checking in is evolving into something more meaningful. More and more businesses are seeing the benefits of these applications to their businesses and offering discounts and deals for those who check in and share their location with their friends.

Now that Facebook has jumped on board with Facebook Places, people's purpose for checking in is becoming more functional and more social, and companies who can make their product as social-friendly as possible (in particular restaurants, cafes, theme parks, cinemas, universities, retail outlets) are in an excellent position to promote their venues through social media.

For an excellent and comprehensive overview of where location-based social media is currently positioned, have a read of this article.

It will be fascinating to see how the social location industry will trend throughout 2011. Have you seen any examples of businesses doing location-based social media well, or do you have your own campaign running? Just chime in down in the comments section.


Chris is a specialist in Social Media and Deputy Foursquare Mayor at Traffika. Follow him on Twitter @chrispahor.