Posts Tagged ‘Gowalla’

The year 2011 is safely behind us, and it looks like the future of social media is all downhill from here.  It seems the bigger companies are consolidating, either by buying out competitors or enhancing their own services.  A new infographic looks at the major events of 2011.

Join Baratunde Thurston (left), The Onion’s Director of Digital and author of How to Be Black, for an entertaining look at creative social media campaigns in our Social Media Marketing Boot Camp starting February 16. Other speakers include Morin Oluwole (Facebook), Tim Devane (bitly), and SocialTimes' writer Devon Glenn.   Register now.

FYI check-in fans. There’s no official Foursquare app for Windows Phone 7. But, there is an official Gowalla app now. Gowalla for Windows Phone 7 is here! The app has a number of features that are unique to the Windows Phone version: – Photos taken nearby – View all the spots visited in a Microsoft [...]

Twitter continues to beef up its not-so-new-anymore New Twitter homepage, announcing the integration of Amazon, AOL Video, Gowalla, foursquare, Meetup, and Plancast.

Location-based mobile app Gowalla added a CNN iReport option to its Highlights, allowing citizen journalists contributing to the cable network’s initiative to use Gowalla Passport Holders to highlight important locations.

When the Gowalla Passport Holders are added, messages will automatically be uploaded to CNN iReport, and highlights can be shared on other platforms including Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr.

CNN producers will be able to choose reports highlighted via Gowalla for use in the network’s reporting, and users whose content is chosen will receive CNN iReport pins on their Gowalla passports.

CNN.com participation director Lila King said:

Opening up iReport to the Gowalla community is an exciting step for participatory journalism. By bringing the power of location services to our iReport community, we are connecting our audience to the precise places where news events are happening.

Brush up on your knowledge of location-based applications including foursquare and Gowalla with Understanding foursquare and Other Geolocation Applications, a one-hour Webcast from WebNewser parent mediabistro.com Thursday at 2 p.m. ET.

The Webcast will cover: the basics of foursquare, Gowalla, and similar apps; what these apps mean for how you present yourself and distribute content online; dos and don’ts of geolocation networking; using check-ins as valuable analytics; and how your company or business can engage users in real-time with simple social-networking techniques.

Instructor Sree Sreenivasan teaches social-media workshops at CNN, WNBC, The Boston Globe, and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. He is also a judge for the Shorty Awards, and he was named one of AdAge‘s 25 media people to follow on Twitter, and one of 22 professors in the “Top 100 Twitterers in Academia” by OnlineSchools.org.

Sreenivasan will be joined by Shane Snow, who has covered geolocation applications and other new-media technologies for outlets including Wired, Mashable, Gizmodo, and Fast Company. He also designs infographics for companies including Mint.com, MTV, and Gizmodo.

The fee for Understanding Foursquare and Other Geolocation Applications is $30 ($25 for AvantGuild members).

In the military, badges are a sign of accomplishment and prestige, just as long as they’re not from Foursquare. So says the U.S. Air Force, which has issued a warning to troops that using the popular location-based social networking site, and others like Facebook, could reveal their location to the enemy.

“I’m going to Disney World.” It’s the chant of Super Bowl champions and award winners alike, and now Gowalla users too. For Disney fans it’s a new, virtual way to share memories. For Gowalla, the partnership with Disney could be a game changer.

Location-based mobile app Gowalla is officially a Mickey Mouse operation, as it announced the launch of Disney Parks on Gowalla, an initiative with Disney that adds more than 100 featured stamps to the app, with more on the way.

Gowalla added that it will retroactively issue stamps to the passports of users who have already visited Walt Disney World Resort in Florida or Disneyland Resort in California and checked in.

Director of business development Andy Ellwood told The New York Times‘ Bits:

That idea is not something that is isolated to urban hipsters in New York City and San Francisco: It’s open to anyone who wants to tell their story. Disney is a fantastic example of a place where people might begin to use Gowalla a little bit, and then understand the idea.

And co-founder and CEO Josh Williams wrote on the Gowalla Blog:

When we started building Gowalla a couple of years ago, there were three concepts that I was fascinated with. First was the idea of a digital passport that served as a travelogue of your life’s journeys. The second were the ski-area pins I had collected as a kid growing up. The third were Disney Parks, their attention to detail, and their ability to make a place seem rich with story. In fact, the collectible pins amassed by Disney park-goers were another metaphor we drew upon when imagining the concept of Gowalla.

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Social networking giant Facebook just announced an expansion of Places, its location-based networking feature, but perhaps it should have “checked-in” with Main Street first.

Eight days after its public launch we had the opportunity to sit down with PlacePunch’s Co-Founder, Adam Steinberg. PlacePunch is a full-service location-based marketing platform for retailers and businesses to harness the power of the “check-in”. It allows businesses to set up unique marketing campaigns that use location-based services like Foursquare and Gowalla as their [...]