Comments on: Don’t make me a target

By: Ash Patel

Ash Patel — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 04:36:52 +0000

Hi Chris

Thanks for sharing your review of BrightKite…must admit, haven’t really tried it as of yet…I use FourSquare…but will check it out.

Cheers for now
Ash

By: SortiPreneur

SortiPreneur — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 17:31:21 +0000

Messina on Targeting…

One of the long-standing holy grails in mobile apps is location-based targeting and promotions. Chris Messina (via Ça?an) has a great post dealing with very critical nuances in this area. It’s worth a read….

By: ProjectVRM Blog » Intention Economy Traction

ProjectVRM Blog » Intention Economy Traction — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 14:41:42 +0000

[...] those same lines we have Chris Messina’s Don’t Make Me a Target, which brings up VRM this way: Doc Searls calls this consumer-driven leverage VRM or “vendor [...]

By: broadstuff

broadstuff — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 13:55:40 +0000

The contradiction inherent in the (Social Mediation) system …

Picking up on a post by Chris Messina on Social Media “Attention Brokers” whose business model is then to push commercial messages to teh aggregated audience:

Attention brokers, like Brightkite, therefore, need to remember their place in this ecos…

By: Charles Frith

Charles Frith — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 04:00:53 +0000

You raise a good point which is going to take quality thinking about the context for location based services or proximity communications. Also it’s important to remember that with a lot of services and the push for augmented reality (one more screen between us humans and reality) there will be an emergent issue of just being. The tools are subservient to us and not the other way round.

A thoughtful post. I enjoyed it.

By: Shannon Clark

Shannon Clark — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 03:25:37 +0000

Take a look at http://foursquare.com/businesses I think they are doing a lot of things right.

- offers are made via standard graphic in the app (“special offer”) which a user can choose to look at (or not) (for stuff “nearby” when someone checks in

- offers for the venue are shown after you have just checked into that venue – as a user I’m fine with this type of notice (the venue can customize the offer – on first check in, on fifth checkin, for mayors only etc)

- foursquare seems to be moving to a data centric offer to businesses – not just “hey buy some ads” but “hey get a lot of data AND make some offers/ads that could drive new & repeat business)

Unclear to me if Foursquare will reach critical mass (they seem to be growing but not as a crazy clip) but I do like where they are going a great deal.

By: brett1211

brett1211 — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 02:35:26 +0000

Great post. What are you thoughts on the advertisers ability to scale? As you noted, the data is there (location, demographics, intention) but how can proctor and gamble use that information to make a toothpaste add interesting and relevant? Maybe they would have to infer that you are going on a date, sounds difficult to do 100 million times a day.

By: Alex Leverington

Alex Leverington — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 23:24:57 +0000

Great post, I like where you’re taking these concepts. This is actually something I really don’t like about Amazon. Amazon suggest things for me to buy which have nothing to do with what I’m looking for, based on some assumption on my browsing history with their site. If Amazon first asked me “hey, we think you might be interested in this, are you?”, I wouldn’t be as disappointed, and maybe genuinely interested.

Btw, have you used Gowalla? It’s a great create-and-go location-based game as well.

By: Laura

Laura — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 21:10:40 +0000

That’s a tall order for a free website/app.

Perhaps for apps who charge, the ads are opt-in. Or, like hulu, they let you choose the style you prefer.

I’m happy to have well-targeted ads display to me. (NOT moms going back to college thankyouverymuchfacebook)