How Nonprofits Can Leverage Geolocation Services

I am putting the finishing touches on another social media lab designed for arts organizations.   So, have been updating arts 2.0 examples.  I've also been trying to wrap my brain around whether or not Foursquare has value for nonprofits.  I had too look no further than Shelley Bernstein's blog over at the Brooklyn Museum to find some thoughtful experimentation and useful examples.

Back in December, the Brooklyn Museum started to experiment with FourSquare running a promotion
to get people to check in and get a free membership.  Shelley notes in her post the reason why they decided to explore FourSquare:

As simply as I can put this, Foursquare is about place and identifying yourself through that.  It is a celebration of the visitor—the people who crossed the river, who made it in the door and decided to identify themselves with us…right here at 40.67124,-73.963834.

In this first experiment, the Museum took advantage of the "tips" feature where users can leave tips about a location.   They had their staff, local experts in the location, add tips about what was interesting for visitors in the neighborhood.  As Shelley says, "as people explore our area, the Brooklyn Museum staff help them along in their journey pointing out the joys of pancakes at Tom’s Restaurant or the killer wine selection at Abigail’s."      Other ideas include a special Museum badge. In addition, the Museum has taken those tips and created a mashup with the YELP api.

The use of FourSquare fits in with its other experiments with mobile and playing with the idea of place.   Last week, the Museum released a mobile version of their website, joining other museums like the Powerhouse Museum and the Walker Art Center.  They've incorporated an interactive component, called Gallery Tag where visitors select a tag or create their own, go find works in the galleries that match, enter accession numbers and earn points and prizes.  (For more on creating mobile web sites, see Laura Quinn at Idealware's recent post)

Another interesting way that the Brooklyn Museum is incorporating social media, is its "Socially Networked Museum Membership" offers membership benefits. 

Incorporating the use of a location-based social networks seems a natural for museums, given the move towards more participatory institutions and how museums have embraced mobile.  Location-based social networks also offer opportunities for the performing arts and theatre.  It will be interesting to see how these early experiments scale within these institutions and their sectors.

Comments

[Shonali]

What a great case study, Beth - thank you for sharing! Foursquare in particular seems to have so many naysayers, it reminds me of the reaction to Twitter in the early days. Everyone's entitled to their opinion, but it seems to make more sense to me to at least experiment with the (or any) application before deriding everyone who does use it.

You share so many great resources that help so many of us as we continue to try to figure out this rapidly-changing world. Thank you.

[Brittany Vasseur]

speaking of geolocation tools - this is a great tool just launched by a StartingBloc fellow: http://openaction.org/

[J Maguire]

It is amazing me everyday how I keep reading about the many ways in which social media is generating a real awareness of culture and promoting change. Getting people to the museum, even through a social media ploy, is still getting them to expand their horizons for an instant and experience something new, which they will be more likely to do again.

You may really enjoy this interview series of social media experts. The interviewees discuss an broad range of topics surrounding the upswing of social media's current and future trends.
http://www.ourblook.com/topic/social_media.html

[Taylorwebstuff.wordpress.com]

Beth - talk about "6 Degrees" -- I was just introduced to FourSquare about four minutes ago!

I used to be very involved with nonprofit technology. Reading your post makes me want to think more about the usefulness of something like 4Sq for the one's I know.

Even though the idea is new to me, I can easily see the benefits for "for profit" businesses. For example, in a comment I wrote on the blog where I learned about FourSquare: "In this competitive climate, it makes sense to identify segments of the market, and if the entry cost is low enough, find a way to gain those customers who make up that segment. And if businesses who have a website are already using a map on the site, Geotagging, and stuff like FSq, should be an easy next step."

To me, then, it seems non-profits can take advantage of this kind of geotagging technology in pretty much the same way.