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Lifestreaming (see The Conversation, Lesson 9) is when someone publishes content by themselves, about themselves; rather narcissistic one might think. Placestreaming , on the other hand, adds a layer of information and communication that lifestreaming lacks. Placestreaming apps enable us to become the publisher of our own Consumer Reports, Zagats and GPS all wrapped up in one. Think of it as location-based lifestreaming with more community engagement.

Some Placestreaming technologies, like FourSquare, have game-like qualities to enhance the experience. As the game is played, the application acquires more data, becomes more useful and makes new connections with people who have similar interests or experiences in order to enhance the whole social media experience for everyone participating. As a destination location you don’t have to play the game to reap business rewards, but you do have to add value to the game and you do have to sign up your business.

Here’s a few of note and why you should join:

FourSquare combines benefits of a review site like “Yelp” with game-like qualities.
• Businesses set up a page and sign in every day.
• Users “check in” when they enter a business that participates.
• People use “reviews” and comments that people have left on participating businesses to assess the value of the service or goods being offered at that location.

**We are fortunate to have an expert on FourSquare who is also an optometrist, Dr. Nathan Bonilla-Walford, creator of FourSquare Day. Nate is also a SightNation citizen - (nateBW - so say Hello!**

Business Application: Get your customers in on the game; let them know you participate using internal marketing and by posting the FourSquare label on your website. Include giveaways and discounts (which adds real value to the game for your patients) for those checking in from your location or writing positive comments after they’ve checked in.

Brightkite lets you "check in" at various locations in the real world, see who is there, who has been there and who is nearby.
• You can stream from a place or about a place.
• It integrates Google Maps and Twitter so when you check in, you can notify people where you are with both services.
• It is a great tool for the busy parent who wants their kids to know where they are or vice versa.

Business Application: Check-in or post at any Starbucks during happy hour and not only do you get a half-priced Frappuccino using Brightkite, but you also unlock cool features and rewards. Once you’ve picked your favorite Frappuccino, it is added as a badge on your Brightkite profile for all your friends to see. These features are only available if you are checked in at a Starbucks, or during happy hour. Now extend this to your brand on a local level, sign up your business and get creative with a Brightkite promotion – Starbucks is doing it so think of the value it could bring to your establishment. Brighkite is also one of the first applications to use the hot new technology Augmented Reality which alters your surroundings when viewed through your phone’s camera.

Glympse lets you share your dynamic GPS map location with someone for a preset period of time.
• Think about uses for family, for co-workers or employees you want to keep track of etc.
• Send a Glympse to your child when you’re leaving work and they can follow your movements in real time – gives a whole new meaning to “Daddy’s home!”

Business Application: Human resource benefits come to mind when I think of utilities for Glympse. You can track employee movements and possibly use it as a time-clock function in some instances. Want to track your business associate as she arrives from out of town or ensure someone is running on time to meet you? Glympse let’s you do that too.

Google latitude/Google Maps for Mobile is one of the most used apps out there. It allows you to see your friend’s locations on a map or in a list.
• With Google Maps for Mobile you have access to GPS routes
• You can see your location on a map on your phone
• You can search for any business or category of business
• You can have turn-by-turn GPS navigation
• One of the most interesting abilities is to view your information in layers. For instance, you can pull up your geographic location on a map, get a Wikipedia description of it and find the best transit route from place to place
• You can also program it to alert you when you are near someone you want to know about; great for autograph stalkers, or just stalkers in general.

Business Application: You want to make sure your business is listed on all of Google Map technologies. People will be looking for you, you better forget about that yellow page listing and get on the map.

Additionally, several placestreaming sites incorporate Yelp-like review benefits with location aware technologies:
• Buzzd.com - the first location-aware site aggregator
• Loopt - lets you find where your friends are, what they’re doing and message them. You can layer it with information from Zagat, Citysearch, Bing and some other ratings sites and you can update your Facebook friends and Tweet it out.
• iWant - is essentially the combination of three location based apps: Restaurant reviews (Yelp, UrbanSpoon), Movie showtimes (Flixter, Fandango) and Yellow Pages (Yellow Pages, AroundMe). iWant uses GPS, so you never have to enter your address or zip code. iWant is currently available for iPhones only.

Yelp has recently added game like qualities in order to compete in this arena, specifically with FourSquare, via an iPhone app. Twitter made a recent acquisition (Mixer Labs) that reveals a strategy to integrate location based service too. It is highly likely that Facebook will soon follow suit.

It’s not difficult to visualize where this is going; with augmented reality in play, you will walk through a shopping mall, point your phone in the direction you are headed and augmented reality banners will guide you to the products you want, discounts and specials that are in each store. It stands to reason you likely will be using it for your business as well.

Feel free to ask questions or leave comments in the section below and I’ll be sure to address them in future posts.

- Alan N. Glazier, OD, FAAO
Founder/CEO
Shady Grove Eye and Vision Care
Rockville, MD

Twitter Handle: @EyeInfo
Blog: eyeinfo.wordpress.com
Website: YourEyeSite.com

Copyright Dr. Alan Glazier 2010 – All Rights Reserved