More on “check-ins,” Facebook Places and Location-based Business Networking

After digesting the news about Facebook "Places," the company’s launch of their location-based networking app that allows users to "check-in" to a bar, restaurant or wherever using their location-enabled smartphone, I have a few observations that I think are being overlooked.

One of the advantages that Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook founder, believes that "Places" will offer users is the ability to have "serendipitous" or "chance meetings" with friends and colleagues. Really? For those who are my "really good" friends, I pretty much know where they are on most days. A "chance" meeting is unlikely. For my "good" friends, a "chance" meeting is "nice" as I had last Saturday when I ran into another of my Assistant Scoutmasters at a Staples store. "Nice to see you, how’s it going…" Next. To have a "chance" meeting with a business colleague, like running into them at a airport, would be highly unlikely and yet if it happened the meeting might be merely superfluous. So, is just "checking-in" a huge deal?

I find Foursquare "fun" but the gaming aspect is getting old. However, to me, the real benefit is seeing what others have said or recommended about a particular place or establishment. For a restaurant, its the recommendations about an appetizer. Or, take the instance of checking into a specific airport gate (have you tried it?). I like the messages people can leave like, "there’s an electrical outlet at the Gate 11, not Gate 13" or something like that because as a business traveler I’m always looking for a plug for the laptop. I think these kinds of location-based "newsfeeds" as Facebook wants to call them are the true value of "check-ins." The seredipitous meetings are highly unlikely. Would the features added to Facebook along with their partners/competitors like Foursquare, Gowalla, et.al. spur more use and therefore begin to build a library of useful factoids? Only the market will decide.

I have the "Swarm" badge in Foursquare. I checked into a Yankees game this summer and 50 other people had already done so. If a really, really good friend from 20 years ago had checked-in to the game as well, I very might make the effort to go find them, maybe. Or maybe it would just be awkward.

I don’t think we quite understand where this will go, but I see a huge benefit in location-based business networking. Marketing and sales organizations have really just begun to tap the potential. But Facebook and the others are stuck in the social net game. When is LinkedIn going to location-enable its platform? I’d like to know where my business colleagues are staying if we are traveling to similar events. Sure, TripIt is useful but merely scratches the surface.

I’ll wait and hope for Check-in 2.0 and location-based business networking (and location-based advertising, for sure). That’s where there is real money to be made.