Interesting to see how some retailers are starting to experiment with foursquare (the people who made the news recently with their concept of becoming the ‘mayor’ of a location by checking in the most often). It’s still too clunky though. Apart from having the software on your mobile phone (which means having the right kind of phone in the first place), you still have to log in to the programme, and then ‘check in’ to the location. And whilst the GPS on your phone might narrow things down a little, it seems to me it’s neither quick nor seamless.
What you could do is create a unique QR code for point of sale material in each of the locations. Bingo – point your camera at the QR code, and it will log in and check in as a single process. Job done. Well, assuming you have the right kind of mobile device …
picture: centralasian
On a train the other day, a man is talking on his mobile phone about a business partner. It’s hard not to overhear the conversation, because the man is talking in that strange way that people have on a mobile phone, as if there is nobody else in the same county. He’s discussing a business opportunity, and in particular one of the key individuals involved, by name.
My partner Lesley is one of the others on the train. She is sitting with a friend, and both are working on their laptops. As the overheard conversation continues, and starts to reveal some things that perhaps ought to be confidential, the friend twists his laptop screen around so that Lesley can see it. On screen is her friend’s Outlook contact information for the person being discussed. Lesley has her 3G card, so is able to look up the person on LinkedIn at the same time.
The world isn’t just small any more, you can actually fit quite a lot of it into a railway carriage.