April 2010 Archive

Gotta Catch ’Em All! This well known mantra of the Pokémon fanatic became fever pitch in the late 1990s as legions of U.S children delved into their Pokémon Nintendo Gameboys to travel to far away islands and battle different Pokémon. Months were spent trying to collect badges and all 300+ Pokémons, which were in a sense badges themselves.

Fast forward to today, and we know that Pokémon was pretty much a fad—a sorry part of our history like the Macarena. When ex-Pokémon fiends are pressured to talk about their Poké past, most offer a sheepish grin and say “It was the thing to do back then”.

Well the thing to do nowadays is to collect a whole new set of badges. Foursquare badges. And instead of children, it’s adults that are clamoring to Catch’Em All! These badges instead of being gained by battling creatures are earned through usually mundane task: To gain the Barista Badge…go to Starbucks. Get the Gym Rat Badge…by going to the Gym… a lot.

My main question on all this excitement over Foursquare is: Is Foursquare sustainable? Specifically, is their “badge as a reward” system sustainable?

History says no.

Pokémon, Digimon, Yu-Gi-Ho! and any other highly structured games that involved collecting badges, etc. enjoyed tremendous engagement and buzz, but eventually went away like the dinosaurs.

So how long will it take for Foursquare fanatics to lose interest in collecting badges? All it takes is for one person to realize the cost-benefit analysis of hoofing it to a location for a jpeg.

As a social media account executive, one of my main responsibilities is to keep a tab on the pulse of social media news and trends. That usually means scouring the internet for social media case studies and slideshare presentations. Usually, its pretty fun work. I get the opportunity to see other digital agency flex their social media insights and capabilities, and examples of how brands are using Facebook or Twitter in innovative ways to connect with their audience.

However, I realized there is a set pattern to the information on “social media” that I find on the web. I realized there are two things you can expect on a majority of presentations about social media…

1)      The information is generic    “…it’s all about community”

2)      Abuse of industry buzzwords   “integration” “communication”

In other words social media “talking points”..[Examples of some of the slideshares I come across]

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