Location based social media platforms

When I first realized there were location based social networks, I honestly thought it was a little bit creepy and really hinders your privacy. You can “check in” on different platforms such as Facebook and Instagram but of course that's only if you want to. That is one reason why I really like Facebook and Instagram, its not like people can constantly stalk you and find out where you are, unless you actually give the information out. It is basically an extra feature if you choose to use it and “check in”. On that note, if you are someone that likes privacy and does not like to tell the world where you’re at all the time then the App Foursquare is not for you. The entire app is based around your location which many people have no problem with but I am not a fan of.

Until May 2014, if you had a foursquare profile anyone could see where you were if you were nearby but they recently removed the “check in” and location sharing feature entirely. Now, they focus on personal local recommendations. If you want to find out the best place to eat in your area, you can find reviews of a certain restaurant and base your decision on others comments about it. Now there is a separate app that foursquare created called Swarm that is strictly for location sharing. This basically just split the foursquare app in half and changed the whole design. The overall consensus of the creation of two separate apps is that people are really upset, one of the quotes i saw said: "This will be studied years from now as a textbook example of how to ruin a prominent brand."

I don’t have a foursquare or swarm profile and don’t ever plan on getting one, but the people that were daily active users are not happy about the change and understandably so. It reminds me of the very recent change to Snapchat. You can no longer see your friends’ top friends which people are not happy about. I think if you have something good and successful, why change it?

Location based platforms can have many benefits such as getting real time location based information which is trending right now.  Though, it may also have down sides such as privacy issues and what is known as “check in” stress which is pretty self explanatory. It just depends on your personal preference when it comes to social media platforms. CHOOSE WISELY!

http://techcrunch.com/2014/08/06/this-is-the-new-foursquare/

http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/business-career/communication/what-are-location-based-social-networks

http://www.convinceandconvert.com/social-media-strategy/why-location-based-monitoring-is-critical-to-your-social-media-listening-program/