Free State Social Re-Cap: Scott Raymond, Co-Founder of Gowalla

by | Apr 29, 2010 | Extra, Kelsey, social media

Here is my final re-cap from Free State Social – and it is fellow Kansas native, Scott Raymond, who is the co-founder of Gowalla. He spoke about Location Based Networks.

Here are his main points/quotes:

  • 3 Themes and how they can come together when starting Gowalla
    • Touch-screen technology
    • GPS on phones
    • Social media
  • It is basically an electronic passport- you’re ‘stamping’ where you’ve been
  • Greeting Rituals
    • Location is fundamental
    • It taps into something that is at the core of our identity and how we belong in the world.
  • Macroscopes: the way access the word at a social scale. Helps us see the aggregation of many small actions looks like when added together.
  • Recording the Passport
    • Looking at badges, you can tell (a snapshot) of someone’s life
  • Sharing with Friends & Family
    • Photos and stories make ‘check-ins’ interesting
    • Photos in GoWalla get attached to your passport and where you checked in- so others can see the food that is served there.
  • Discovery: hot spots and events
    • Can make physical and temporal (events) places, like Free State Social
      • This came from user input
    • Hot spots are kind of like trending twitter topics- when a large amount of people check in to somewhere, it gets pushed up to the top of the list
  • Putting Location to Work: From a business perspective
    • #1: Deals: driving foot traffic through promotions.
      • Had a onetaco promotion- sold 12 tacos for every 1 they gave away. People who had free tacos brought friends and came back on other days to pay for tacos again.
      • New Jersey Nets: win tickets at certain check-ins
      • Proximity marketing is traditional marketing x10- they are looking for deals because they are at your business or nearby
    • #2: Service: can provide data
      • Look at people who’ve checked into your business the most, and reach out to them- tweet them on Twitter or send them free coupons
    • #3: Presence: &branding
      • InCase has a contest to collect all of their 6 new products virtually on Gowalla so they could get a real product. People checked into Apple stores.
    • Questions
      • What’s  your difference from FourSquare?
        • We don’t consider ourselves a game. It’s more about camaraderie. It’s more about sharing your life experiences

Check out my other re-caps from Free State Social!

Kelsey Jones

Kelsey Jones

Founder/Chief Marketing Consultant at Six Stories
Kelsey Jones helps clients around the world grow their social media, content, and search marketing presence. She enjoys writing and consuming all kinds of content, both in digital and tattered paperback form.
Kelsey Jones
Kelsey Jones