Submitted by: Jennifer Flowers

Despite the increase in the number and type of checking-in services, people are still refusing to check in with mobile apps, Beyond Digital Agency and Social-Loco found. One reason could be that cheating partners don t want to get caught and checking-in is a sure-fire way to get caught out with your lover at that Chinese (or worse their home!)

Foursquare got there first, followed by Gowalla, Facebook, Yelp, Qype and a host of other social systems all offering check-ins via their mobile apps and yet there did not seem to be an increase in check-ins. In fact, there was a distinct decrease. Why was this? Were people no longer willing to expose to the world just where they were every minute of the day? I mean, why not what did we have to hide?

Apparently, we have a lot to hide. Not only do we refuse to check in using the friendly apps placed at our disposal but we re also now extremely agitated by the revelation that OS4 on the iPhone has been tracking and logging our movements. Uh-oh not checking in is no longer the only geolocation issue. Suddenly we are being tracked and traced and a savvy partner can spy on just where we ve been.

At this point, a number of readers have panicked and dropped their iPhones in a glass of water accidentally , hoping the genius bar can help them remove this data before they get caught. The rest of the readers are either innocent of the smearing brush of tar with which this article paints everyone or don t own an iPhone and are smug in their Android or Blackberry ownership. Well, there is, perhaps more to the story than initially indicated.

Of the 1000 consumers (and cheapers perhaps?) who are part of the Beyond Digital Agency Social Panel, just 17% have ever shared their location or checked-in using an application on their mobile device. While the biggest single reason mentioned was not having an Internet phone or smartphone (50%), 49% of consumers felt they had no motivation to do so. Possibly they were not just lacking in motivation but also scared of getting caught cheating. Possibly not the question wasn t posed (but should have been). Worryingly for the industry, almost half the sample (48%) cited privacy concerns as the reason for not disclosing their location.

The CEO of Beyond, David Hargreaves, posits an alternative scenario to one of a nation plagues by infidelity and that is one of moving on in the geo-location world where more and more people will forget their phones at work/home as they set off for that tryst. He says The results of this study highlights the huge changes that will take place as social location apps move from niche to mass consumer. Brands that can develop Glocal social media strategies, tap into the motivations of the mass consumer and leverage the reach of the Facebook and Groupon platforms will be the real leaders in this sector.

The study did look at factors outside infidelity because that wasn t a focus for the study. Discounts and coupons are by far the largest single motivator for disclosing location. Status rewards, such as badges and mayor, are of little interest to the mass consumer.

The online conversation about checking-in was overwhelmingly focused on restaurants, with seven times the amount of conversation online referring to restaurant check-ins compared to checking in at other types of venues. So that s dinner checked-in to before a movie and then home to the wife/husband.

According to David Hargreaves, CEO of Beyond, Because a lot of the conversation to date has focused on the opportunities for independent local businesses, there has been relatively little activity from big brands. However, this study shows that in the future, people are more likely to check-in to a global brand than they are their local restaurant. The challenge for global brands is to develop a strategy that enables them to connect with people at a local level.

About the Author: Beyond (

bynd.com

) is an international digital agency with offices in New York, San Francisco and London that specialises in online design, build and analysis.

Source:

isnare.com

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