Yes the Twitter native retweet certainly may useful for certain situations and purposes. Still, I think it serves a different purpose than the original and it hurts the communications potential of the platform when it attempts to replace the more versatile original. IMO it should have be named something different.

I was very happy to see that Hootsuite now gives you a preference, I already went ahead and changed my preferences and will probably use Hootsuite more as a result. Now, if they allowed me to great groups in addition to lists, I would be ecstatic.

I now mix up my retweets using the old style and the new style and gradually get into the habit of checking the retweet button on twitter.com. Of course some apps have integrated the new style RT´s. Nonetheless I sense the community prefer the classic style. Only today Hootsuite launched v5 and one of the most repeated features is the ability to reset the RT in the app to the old style:

Look how popular this is:

http://search.twitter.com/search?q=HootSuite+retweet

Thanks for your comment. Point taken that I mention that you can turn off the broadcasting, but then what is the point? I am not sure that understanding is the biggest hurdle. If understanding is the biggest hurdle would it be understanding of the value or understanding of how to use it? I am not sure that mom’s can be converted because IMO it is not understanding of the product that keeps them away, it is their use case.

Just my opinion and I am grateful for the conversation.

Thanks for the well thought out and passionate comments. While many of your comments are certainly valid, and others we could debate till we both fall over. In the end we are both sharing opinions. My opinions came from my business experience, education in anthropology and most importantly, from speaking with people, small businesses, moms, etc. about Foursquare. Granted, I do not have a statistically significant data set, but my conversations have left me with an impression and I am sharing what I have gleaned. My intention in writing this article was not to trash Foursquare, but to put things in perspective and bring up important points that have been buried in the early adopter buzz. Certainly there are businesses that could really benefit by using Foursquare. For instance; national brands with local presence Like Starbucks, Best Buy, etc certainly could benefit and I am sure that some small independent businesses could as well.

That said, for a small business it is less clear as to if and how they should add this to the marketing mix. Small businesses in general have limited marketing budgets and resources. They often have to take from one area to give to another. Following shiny objects isn’t always the best use of budget and resources. That is why I wrote the article, to balance the discussion and get businesses to think about the if an how rather than just chasing the shiny objects.

Thanks again for the discussion

But as you note: mom’s are big coupon lovers — show them the money you said. Doesn’t Foursquare do that with it’s tips and Specials Nearby feature?

The biggest hurdle to Foursquare massive adoption is understanding. Those who are not the techie, younger social media mavens don’t have the time or inclination to figure it out. Yet, when exposed by others that know the platform and can show the value of a Foursquare, non-techies and yes, even Moms can be converted.

Lastly, you fail to mention that Foursquare does allow you to check in and cloak that check-in so that you are not broadcasting your location. Further, you only broadcast to your friends unless you specifically tell Foursquare to broadcast to Twitter or Facebook — so the “moms don’t want to broadcast their location” argument seems a bit hollow. They only need to allow friends that they know and want to keep tabs on or friends who they want to alert to their location.

The bottom line is that any new communication technology traditionally follows a common adoption curve – it’s called an Increasing Returns Curve and Foursquare like most other “new” communication technologies will follow it…we’re in the early days of the curve now… but if Foursquare and other LBS providers play their cards right and market/innovate to/for the masses and not just the early techies — there is no reason to believe they will not become the next Facebook or Google – IMHO.

@TomMartin

I would raise a few points though:

1) “If you are a local business that you think Foursquare is your salvation in these challenging economic times, think agai”
…which local businesses are thinking this exactly? I’m a massive Foursquare fan and user and it’s plain to me (and the other power users I converse with) that many venues just don’t “get it” yet. This is not a surprise though – hell it’s new. My guess is that many smaller venues will be “educated” as to the possibilities when the big players lead the way and set examples; and this is already happening with Starbucks etc.

2) “As a local business you need to treat every one of your customers, every day, like Queens and Kings”
Sure sure but if a coffee shop offers a loyalty card giving a free coffee for every 9 you buy does that mean that they are giving poor customer service to those customers that only buy seldomly or chose to not enter the rewards program. no. I think you may be confusing customer service and loyalty/rewards/incentive systems here.

3) “Believing that you can simply concentrate on the few customers who use Foursquare to build your brand, and business, is a mistake”
Agree…but are Foursquare or anyone saying that? Business owners are aware that they never rely on just one marketing channel.

4) “Foursquare is a tactic; a tactic that relies on a few loud customers who are more concerned about collecting virtual badges than they are in evangelizing your business”
I (and many of the people who I know use 4SQ) don’t use the service to simply get badges so I have to disagree with you here. In fact, I’m not too bothered about badges full stop (atleast the badges created by 4SQ). My opinion is that @dens etc dreamt badges into existence when they were fleshing out the structure of 4SQ in the early days and thought “wow! wouldn’t it be cool if all of these venues offered specials…but hey…it’ll take years before will be enough venues actively involved to reach critical mass so what can we do in the meantime? I know, let’s invent our own incentives to bridge this gulf between now and full scale, venue aware adoption of our service”.

5) ” but checking in really doesn’t tell anyone that your business is special.”
I dunno…if I found a great cafe I’d checkin (but with a meaningful “shout”) and make sure it propagated across my networks. I might even leave a tip/todo. So this does tell other folks that the cafe is “special” and does so louder and more reach than simply word of mouth.

6) “While it is true that Foursquare can connect local businesses to tech oriented and younger customers…”
To be fair, the whole arena or location based services is nascent. It is typically the tech savy which will always be the vanguard here.

7) “it misses the boat with women, most importantly “moms” – the demographic that controls 85% of local purchases”
I honestly don’t know the demographics of Foursquare and the number of mums (where do you get your evidence from btw?) but I would be surprised that, now that it is entering main stream media, its demographic does not grow more encompassing – moving away from the typical audience mentioned in the previous point.

“1- Moms are leery broadcasting their location”
We have to be careful of scaremongering here (i.e. pleaserobme). You can use Foursquare with broadcasting your location – i certainly do on a great many checkins. My wife raised privacy as a concern and when I explained it to her she “oh! that’s alright then!.

9) “2- Moms could care less about the gaming aspect”
I’d go further – most people couldn’t care about the gaming aspect. Most people want to know “what’s in it for them” or, at the very least, “if I go to the same shop every week why don’t I offer that activity up for entry into a rewards system”. I’m with your moms here

10) “I have never heard anyone who is not either a techie or scenester rave about it! Have you?”
Oh come on! It’s not properly entered main stream media yet – give it 6 months and that’ll change I’d say

11) “Make all your customers feel special”
You’ve focussed on the “mayor” aspect of 4SQ here but many venue’s offer rewards for simply checking in etc. And http://www.tastidlite.com/ use 4SQ as channel into their existing rewards system – not as a replacement to.

…I’d better leave it there before I break the world record on comments!

Really enjoyed thinking about your article!

Joel

Thanks for you comment Carl, I can count on you to bring a thoughtful voice to the conversation.

I like connecting with the authors of the tweets I retweet. When I use the older more personal style of retweeting, the author sees my tweet in his or her replies / mentions tab, and is likely to respond. When I use the newer more automated Twitter retweet button, the author is much less likely to see it.

I like connecting with my readers when I send out a retweet. When I use the older more personal style of retweeting, my readers see my picture attached to the retweet and can easily see that this is something I have selected for them. When I use the newer more automated Twitter retweet button, my readers see a stranger’s picture on the retweet, and it is more difficult for them to see that it is from me.

Carl Ingalls

Hank Wasiak