Sharing your location: the next big thing in social media (and an opportunity for mobile advertising)

Just five years ago, if you would've asked most Americans if they'd be willing to put a page on the Internet with detailed personal information about themselves, plus hundreds of their photos, a status update to tell others what they're currently doing, plus all sorts of other private info such as 25 random facts about themselves, I think they would've immediately said you were insane.  But today 45.3 million people in the United States are active Facebook users.  Its adoption was led by college students, and it quickly caught fire with other age groups too.  Facebook took posting detailed personal info online -- something that would otherwise be seen as creepy or scary to most people a few years ago -- and made it fashionable.

Likewise, many people today wouldn't be willing to share their precise physical location at every moment of the day with others.  It seems "stalker-esque" to us now, but I have a feeling five years from now, sharing this type of information might be commonplace among friends.  Google Latitude, announced earlier this month, is the first major step in that direction.  Here's a description from the Google Latitude site:

With Google Latitude, you can:

• See where your friends are and what they are up to
• Quickly contact them with SMS, IM, or a phone call
• Control what your location is and who gets to see it

First a few thoughts about the service itself, then how I see it impacting digital marketing...

Just like the way most people use Facebook, with Google Latitude you're only sharing your info with people you've friended.  And similarly to Facebook, Latitude also gives you various privacy settings -- including being able to stop sharing with some/all of your friends at certain times, or only showing your more general city-level location rather than your precise geographical coordinates.

I expect to see significant adoption of Latitude in places where physical proximity is often relevant to friends.  Colleges come to mind first...just like Facebook got its start on college campuses.  But tech-savvy young professionals who live and work in urban areas are also quite likely to be early adopters of Google Latitude.

I wanted to give Latitude a spin on my mobile phone, but unfortunately even though the site says it supports most Windows Mobile devices, mine wasn't one of them.  I tried the PC-based Latitude service too, but it couldn't automatically figure out where I was, even though it claims to use wireless signals to determine where your PC is.  You can still use it on your PC to see the locations of others, even if it can't figure out where you are automatically -- but to me it lowers the coolness factor quite a bit.  You can also set your location manually, but again, that's too much work to be useful.

From a digital marketing standpoint, I have a feeling mobile advertising might soon be getting the break it's been waiting for, thanks to Google Latitude.  Location-based mobile advertising is still in its infancy, thanks in part to consumers' qualms about the practice and marketers' inability to find the right formats that strike a balance between being effective and being too intrusive.  But that might change soon with Latitude and similar services that could roll out in its wake.  (I anticipate Facebook will end up on this bandwagon pretty soon -- whether it's through their own service, or 3rd party applications that tie Latitude into Facebook.)

Once consumers become more comfortable sharing their location data with friends, it's just a matter of time before Google starts offering advertising opportunities through Latitude.  (Remember, Google didn't launch with AdWords embedded, and Facebook didn't have ads early on either.  They built their user base first, then allowed advertising when they reached critical mass.)  I'm sure there's a group of people at Google headquarters in Mountain View, California who are working on the ad model for Latitude right now.

One of the most interesting things to watch will be how relevant the ads are, and how well they work.  Of course Google AdWords has become the darling of online advertising, with search's huge growth and powerful ROI.  But ads on Facebook have fallen short, quite possibly because the ads are not directly related to a user's task at hand, as Bob Gilbreath points out.  I'd expect Google Latitude ads could be more relevant than Facebook, if done correctly.  It'll be interesting to see how this gets tied into Google Mobile Search as well.

Perhaps Google Latitude could look at the user's status and current location, and try to serve an ad based on those two factors combined.  But serving a coffee shop ad just because the user happens to be nearby is not going to do the trick.

If Google Latitude can get a foothold among college students and early adopters in urban settings, I think the mobile ad world is about to get a whole lot more interesting in the next couple years.

Keep jargon and details from overwhelming your marketing

As marketers, we all know the importance of communicating effectively to our customers and prospects.  But we often become so absorbed in our own little world (with jargon, acronyms, and technical details) that our communications become unclear to anyone other than an expert in that field.

I see it happen quite a bit in the manufacturing industry:

• Sometimes it's a white paper that was intended to be an introductory look at a topic, but instead by page 2 it's discussing nitty-gritty detail that's over the head of most readers.
• I see it frequently on webcasts.  Presenters use TLAs ("Three Letter Acronyms"...see, I just used an unnecessary acronym!) without explaining what the acronyms mean.  When jargon creeps in, presenters tune out.
• Even companies' own websites can be guilty of this sin.  The executives and marketing people want the site to be perfect, so they put a lot of effort into it.  Too many cooks in the kitchen, plus too much time micro-analyzing every last word, often equals a poor end result.  They forget to step back and look at the site like a first-time visitor, someone who doesn't live and breathe this specific topic.

This comedy sketch -- a fake commercial about the digital TV transition -- illustrates the point well.  How often do your marketing materials come across like this to your readers?  (My favorite is the "300 ohm to 75 ohm transformer or balun" part!)



What can you do about it?  A few basic suggestions:

1. Don't write it all at once.  If possible, take a break and come back to it tomorrow.  Next week is even better.  Read it once with fresh eyes, making notes of anything that isn't immediately understandable.
2. Have a co-worker from a different area of the business read it.  This works if they don't have the same body of knowledge as you, but still have a basic understanding of the topic.  New employees are excellent for this task, because they have the desire to learn, but they don't have the same biases and "blinders" that veteran members of your team might have.
3. Have your spouse read it.  (You should've made sure "I promise to read his/her marketing text" went into your wedding vows.)  I've asked my wife to read things for me occasionally, and she's usually been able to give me at least one new insight each time.
4. If you're giving it to someone else to read, watch them read it.  Better yet, ask them to put their finger on the paper to follow along with what they're reading.  If you see their finger stop, you know they've hit something they don't understand.  Look closer at those areas.  Is it jargon?  An acronym?  Or maybe a poorly-worded sentence?

I'd love to hear about others' techniques.  How do you keep your marketing copy from falling into the "I have no idea what you're talking about" trap?

Marketing wisdom for 2009

MarketingSherpa just published their "Marketing Wisdom for 2009" report, which contains 94 best practices and ideasfor digital marketers.  I've been a big fan of this PDF for the past few years, since it contains actionable nuggets as well as bigger picture thoughts.

You'll find one of my tips on page 36 (tip #74) about how intermediate offers within your ads can help you drive interest in tougher-to-promote offers like webcasts.

Download a copy of this free PDF now (requires registration)