ResearchGoddess

I’ve been reading a lot of posts lately from people who are concerned about the privacy of some of our new social technologies, in particular the geotagging services such as Loopt, Gowalla, Foursquare, Rally Up, and Brightkite. For example:

• On Geek.com, Christian Zibreg says of Twitter’s new geotagging feature, “There’s no doubt geotagging is a privacy advocates’ nightmare, especially for users who have their Twitter timeline set public.”
• On VentureBlog, a commenter wrote, “Many of my young women friends are not comfortable with LBS [location-based services] because of stalkers: it has already happened to some of them, and others are just wary. After all, think of what happened to Kathy Sierra just from blogging.”
• On ZDNet, Jennifer Leggio stated, “Any time you take to a social network you give up some of your privacy. This is especially true when using a social network that’s sole purpose is to tell your friends where you are at any given time.”
• The site PleaseRobMe.com‘s mission statement includes this statement: “The danger is publicly telling people where you are. This is because it leaves one place you’re definitely not… home.”

While I certainly share the same concerns over privacy of one’s whereabouts, I think there is another topic here that hasn’t really been addressed much, and that is the topic of taking personal responsibility for one’s actions…

There are good arguments for privacy surrounding location-based services, however I think it’s important to remember that every single one of these tools is opt-in. You don’t have to use them. In addition to that, once you register for an account you have the option NOT to send updates to Twitter, Facebook, or any other social channels, and you always have the option not to connect to other people and let them know what you’re doing.

People are so quick to point fingers at someone or something else when things don’t go right that they quite often forget that they themselves left the door wide open for misfortune to occur. I don’t think this is limited to geotagging, either. I see people who get upset over things that are posted to their Facebook wall as well. A little common sense goes a long way when establishing what you will and won’t allow to be posted to your Facebook wall – by others as well as by yourself. It’s pretty silly, in my opinion, to blame the creator of the site or service for invasion of privacy when you’ve been given the tools with which to make your profile or communication private. Instead of blindly using a service and not checking out its privacy customizations, take a moment to look at what you’re getting yourself into. Take responsibility for your own actions.

We need to educate people on responsible networking and connecting. These apps are much more personal than LinkedIn and therefore we should not just be accepting connection requests because someone follows us on Twitter. There are consequences to connecting with people and sharing your location. I personally would consider myself to be an over-sharer. (though I haven’t unlocked that badge on Foursquare just yet!) I admittedly check in a lot and readily share my locations with my network. However, I’ll also accept full responsibility for any consequences of my over-sharing. Nothing bad has happened to me yet. (knock on wood)

I think in the end it is really important to keep in mind that our hands are not being forced when it comes to any of these geotagging tools. We always have the option not to connect, not to share, and not to use.

How do you hold yourself personally responsible when you use location-based services? What are your personal policies on privacy when it comes to social media?

Last week at the ERE Expo, I had dinner at a very swanky restaurant called Suite and Tender. Upon arriving at the restaurant, I checked in via Foursquare. The following morning, I received this message on Twitter:

I was surprised to see this, and then I thought “What a great way to let your customers know you noticed them!” Obviously this interaction stayed with me, and I think there should be more companies taking advantage of these geotagging services in many different ways. For example, Starbucks recently partnered with Foursquare to create a new Barista badge and the chance to offer customers who check in special offers like invitations to events and other alternatives to just giving out coupons.

So, how can other companies really take advantage of this whole geotagging craze? Well – what about letting people who check in know that you’re hiring at that location? Or offer a special discount to the 100th person to check in? Or, like above, simply acknowledging that you noticed they had been to your business and thanking them? Catching your target audience off guard with your attentiveness to their interest in or patronage to your business will leave them remembering the interaction.

You can run a very simple search to monitor the geotagging of individuals to your location. Let’s say you’re Macy’s and you want to say hello to the customers checking in via Foursquare at a Chicago location: simply plug ‘4sq.com/* Chicago “Macy’s”‘ into search.twitter.com and see the latest customers to check in. Perhaps send them an @ with a request to DM so you can send them a promo code for their next check-in. Or, if you’re Seattle-Tacoma Airport – search ‘4sq.com/* (“Seattle Tacoma Airport” OR “Seatac Airport”)‘ and find all the people flying in and out of Seattle, and offer up some helpful information on ground transportation or perhaps some weather info if there are delays. The possibilities are endless.

I think as recruiting professionals there is so much more we can learn about prospective candidates from geotagging. I encourage all of you to check out Gowalla, Loopt, Brightkite, and Foursquare because I truly believe these services are going to be huge in the future of our job functions. Part of successfully engaging our target audience is understanding patterns, likes, and dislikes. When an individual uses a geotagging service, they are publicly providing us with that information about themselves. I’m surprised more companies haven’t jumped at the opportunity to use these services to reach out yet. Keep an eye out for more leverage of geotagging by companies over the next several months. I believe there will be a big increase in engagement thanks to them.