Category: Foursquare

Friday Five: FYI edition

Stuff every higher ed marketer ought to know about:

fyi-sm

  1. The American Marketing Association has issued its call for papers for the 2010 Symposium for the Marketing of Higher Education. This year’s symposium will be held Nov. 7-10 in San Diego. The AMA is looking for “proposals/papers that report on new and innovative strategies and tactics in higher education marketing. Popular topics include including image and brand building, buzz/viral marketing, marketing research, internal marketing, electronic marketing, new marketing channels, social media, Web 2.0 tools, emerging markets and trends, marketing organizational structure, marketing budgeting, web metrics, and marketing ROI.” Submissions are due April 9, and this year the AMA is even welcoming video submissions. (Hear that, Todd Sanders?)
  2. What do social media users want? According to research from online ad network Chikita (and as reported by Mashable), “Twitterers mostly consume news, MySpace users want games and entertainment, Facebookers are into both news and community and Digg’s audience has a mixed bag of interests.” Also, MySpacers “have no interest in news whatsoever.” (Hear that, news mogul Rupert Murdoch?)
  3. Virtual graffiti. No, that isn’t the name of a Led Zeppelin remix. It’s what’s happening, right now, on college campuses everywhere, thanks to mobile mapping apps like Foursquare. “Since Foursquare’s debut last year,” writes the New York Times’ Marc Parry, “students have diligently labeled, praised, and, in some cases, profaned college campuses. Take this note, easily Googled, that somebody calling himself Mock Redneck Jr. left at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte: The library has Free Wi-Fi, Barely Legal girls and a warm place to drop a deuce.'” Drop a what? (Via Mark Greenfield’s Delicious links.)
  4. The state of campus CMS. Good research results from a survey of content management systems as compiled by .eduguru’s Michael Fienen. Lots of data to sift through here.
  5. From the it-had-to-happen-eventually department: RandomDorm: ChatRoulette for the College Set, via @davewiner.

Can Foursquare save newspapers?

2009 was a tough year for newspapers, with all the cutbacks, closures, skinnier page widths and struggles with transitioning to the online realm. But maybe 2010 is off to a better start in terms of that last item — the online issue. At least one newspaper — Canada’s Metro News — is thinking differently about mobile media.

As Mashable reported earlier this week, Toronto-based Metro is partnering with the mobile check-in game Foursquare to provide editorial content to readers on the go.

“As a key component of the partnership, Metro will add their location-specific editorial content to the Foursquare service,” the newspaper explains. “People who choose to follow Metro on Foursquare will then receive alerts when they’re close to one of those locations. For example, someone close to a restaurant that Metro has reviewed would receive a ‘tip’ about that restaurant and the have ability to link through to the full Metro review on metronews.ca.”

As Mashable points out, this partnership offers interesting possibilities. “The partnership also serves as a symbiotic relationship that combines mobile utility with the bonus of print exposure for Foursquare as well as restaurants and retailers. Case in point, Metro plans to feature Mayor Deals every Friday in its publication. The deals are alternative ad buys for businesses looking to offer and promote mayor-only specials.”

Could Foursquare help save the newspaper business? And in the process, could it boost retail business, help stimulate local economies and even make mobile applications even more relevant? Looks like Foursquare and Metro are on to something.