I had the pleasure of being interviewed today by Time Warner Cable for their News Makers series. The interview was centered on social media with a focus on how our local Social Media Club here in Kansas City can help people become familiar with what social media is all about and how one can begin to use it. As is typical with on camera interviews…once the camera light goes on the interview takes a totally different path and journeys down unpaved roads.  Therefore, much of what I prepared in the copy below wasn’t actually discussed, LOL!

I didn’t want the prep work I did to go to waste so thought what better way to use it than to share it with you! I realize many of our blog visitors are social media die hards so if nothing else, maybe this will help you prepare for your own news interview or better yet, share it with your readers who may just be starting to adventure in to the online world. I also touch on some social media trends that you may find interesting.  Please keep in mind the purpose was to help me prep for the interview so it is a bit rough and unedited. You may also be interested in the resource links at the end as there is some pretty cool information and stats if you are a geek like me and in to that kind of thing. The interview will be shown locally in KC on ch. 113 KC On Demand and CNN Headline News throughout September…once we get the DVD we will be sure to share with you!

Be who you are and learn to be better, Lisa

Why/How are people using social media?
People are using social media for 3 primary purposes…to help evaluate a decision, to learn about something new, and to interact with others. They want to connect with not only people they know but with people all over the world 24X7.

1. To evaluate. Social media is a faster and more trustworthy way to find out information..from people you KNOW. Yes, we ask people about what to buy or where to eat most often but we are starting to use social media to evaluate even more important life decisions such as health care. Facebook allows you to quickly post a status..such as I’m looking for a new dentist..anyone have suggestions? All of a sudden you have this trusted network of family and friends letting you know the best dentist in town. More than 60 million consumers interact and discuss their health care online.
2. To learn. There is nothing like a recession to motivate and inspire people to learning something new. You mix in technology advancement and improved accessibility and the social media boom is a natural result. More people have access to the internet than ever before..almost 240 million internet users in the US alone. Wikis, forums and sites such as LinkedIn with their questions/answers section provide people information on just about any subject imaginable.
3. To interact. People like to talk to people…especially people who have similar interests. Twitter is great for interaction! You basically answer the question, “What are you doing” in 140 characters or less. It can take a little bit to get used to but once the comfort level kicks in it can become a valuable tool for you. I typically recommend people start by going to search.twitter.com and type in any word or topic you are interested in and hit enter. You will see all the tweets that are out there on that topic and the people who are talking about it…this is how I initially found people I wanted to follow and figured out how others were using twitter. It is a biological fact that people need people and social media makes it easy to formulate and grow those relationships that can make a difference in both your personal and professional life. I think what is really interesting is that 1 out of 8 married in the US met via social media last year. Social media removes barriers such as geography and time…you work, you have kids, you may not be able to interact socially until after the kids go to bed or before they get up in the morning…here is this interface that has people on it around the clock and there is someone out there who wants to talk to you about the same stuff you want to talk about.

Who uses Social Media?
The stereotype is social media is similar to your Trix cereal commercial…”Silly rabbit, Trix are for Kids” but that couldn’t be farther from the truth. Obviously, yes young adults are big social media users, in fact Gen Y now outnumbers the Baby Boomers and 96% of the Gen Y crowd has joined a social network. However, the fastest growing population on Facebook? Yep, the baby boomers! Every demographic and industry is represented in social media…my company has a client in the agriculture industry…you would be amazed at the number of online forums targeted to the farmer and just how many farmers are literally talking to other farmers during their day right from the cab of the combine.

As for companies, we are finding that businesses are no longer asking if social media is worth their time, they are now wanting to know the best practices and how best to get a return on their investment from participating in social media. Social media is more than just a marketing tool, in fact 80% of the companies in the US are using LinkedIn to actively recruit for open positions.

Trends and Future of Social Media
We are experience change at a record pace…Erik Qualman from Socialnomics presented a great look at historical technology adoption… Years to Reach 50 millions Users: Radio (38 Years), TV (13 Years), Internet (4 Years), iPod (3 Years)…Facebook added 100 million users in less than 9 months…and is now at over 500 million users…it would literally be the 4th largest country in the world!

What we are seeing right now is a growing focus on mobility location based services such as 4-square and Gowalla. These services allow you to “check-in” at a location…for businesses it is great free advertisement as most people automatically alert their Facebook and Twitter friends every time they “check-in”. For the consumer they can benefit as more and more businesses are offering discounts, freebies, and other gifts to every person that checks in.

We are also seeing the growing use of SMS text programs…if you recall the Red Cross saw huge results following the Haiti disaster by soliciting donations through texting…we are now seeing businesses adopting this very successful method such as Blue Cross and Blue Shield who are targeting the 20-something crowd to consider health insurance by texting a request for a health insurance quote.

Integration is becoming more important, especially for those of us who are participating on a variety of social media platforms. Finding ways to bring everything together in one place is becoming a priority as we try to improve our efficiency and minimize time spent online. For companies, there is a need to wrap all the social media conversations together around their brand identity so their consumers can quickly connect brand to buzz.

Finally, the last few weeks have been buzzing about QR (quick response) codes…these are the things that look like a bar code but typically in a square that you can scan with your cell phone. These codes can create quite the interactive event for the users connecting the offline to the online for almost a 360 surround type experience.

How can people learn more about Social Media?
Our organization, Social Media Club of Kansas City is a great place to start. We have almost 1,400 members and host a variety of educational, development, and networking events. We have a breakfast the first Friday of every month at Kansas City Café (except September due to labor day we will be on 9/10) and in September we will host an evening event focused on non-profit organizations and how they can benefit by using Social Media. In October, we will host an event discussing privacy and legal concerns with Social Media. You can learn more at http://smckc.com.

REFERENCE INFO

Reference Sites:
Hubspot Stats
Social Media Examiner
Social Media Marketing White Paper
AARP Global Network
Socialnomics
LinkedIn Blog

Now, I know what some of you may be thinking but we are talking blog post size here people… you naughty types may be disappointed but we hope you’ll still love us (we do love you after all! LOL!) Two of our favorite bloggers are quite different in style: Chris Brogan writes shorter posts, more often – sometimes daily, and Olivier Blanchard writes longer posts less often. Both work and both pose problems: sometimes we are left wanting more with a post that feels too short, or we feel rushed and don’t have time to read and absorb a longer post.

We did some quick research to see if we could get any fact-based data to determine if post length really makes a difference with organic SEO…and wouldn’t you know it? The facts are prey to the argument as well. What we found from blogbuildingu.com is there is a keyword density issue that may factor into post length and seo – there also might be a cap that search engines limit in terms of words on the page they search. The post says “it seems to be the best practice that you should create content with at least 250-300 words and avoid exceeding the 1000 words limit.”

On the other hand, smallbusinesssem.com asserts that there is no perfect length and that variety is optimal.  At the end of the day, what we found is there are a variety of ways to help improve your SEO results and size is actually of minimal impact. If you are desperate for SEO improvement and willing to try and manipulate the search engines (remember, if they find out they may boot you all together) you can get some good tips and tricks from the seoblackhat.com masters directly. This whole site is dedicated to exploiting search so enter at your own risk.

We decided to take a look at one of our more popular posts to see if we could come up with any possible reasons to persuade us one way or the other. Our WordPress vs. Tumblr post is one the search engines seem to love based on our google analytics report. After reviewing the post we came up with three possible reasons it has had long-term search success….

1. We believe the post title can make a real impact if it includes solid keywords and popular phrases. WordPress vs. Tumblr is a phrase that people seem to search pretty often…at least per Google Adwords analysis tool.
2. We use the words WordPress and Tumblr throughout the post multiple times feeding the search engines the keywords they love.
3. We populated the ‘all in one seo pack’ plug-in for the post with all the information fields appropriately filled in.

Our final analysis… we should focus on WHAT words to use vs. how many. We shouldn’t get hung up with the number of words we write and instead just focus on writing…often.  At the end of the day, don’t let quantity hinder your quality. A short meaningful post is always going to be better than no post at all. We would love for you to share your preference in our comment section!

Cheers,

Lisa

Alright, time for round #2.  In the first part of this series, I talked about what’s currently being done with social media in the health care field.  It was A LOT of information.  If you haven’t checked it out, do so here.  After researching all of the really innovative ways in which hospitals and healthcare professionals are using social media, I began to wonder about how they do it.  So that is where we will be going today.  Hopefully by the end of this post, we will be able to see why social media in healthcare is such a intricate topic and how those who are already using social media figured it out.

For various reasons, I’ve been to my local emergency room quite a few times.  After talking with the nurse at the desk for what seems like an eternity to update all of my personal information, I’m always handed a packet of information about the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, more commonly referred to as HIPAA.  Do I ever read this packet? Absolutely not.  Usually, I put it back on the counter so they aren’t wasting the paper on me.  It’s not that I don’t recognize the need for the information, it’s just not the most captivating read.  For those of you getting ready to exit out of your browser thinking that I’m going to try and explain every aspect of HIPAA in the next couple of paragraphs, don’t.  I’m not even going to give it a shot.  I searched around on the internet, trying to find a quick overview of the legislation and couldn’t find a whole lot that was short enough.  I did find one article that summed it up fairly well, but I still don’t want to waste anyones time trying to explain it.  You can check out the article here, and I will summarize HIPAA as legislation that protects your personal health informtation.  Basically, hospitals and doctors can’t share your information with just anyone.

HIPAA creates a headache for hospitals and doctors when it comes to social media.  There are so many regulations regarding the methods by which a doctor can share information with a patient, that tweeting medical information is enough to give a doctor nightmares.  I came across an interesting article in The New England Journal of Medicine. The article is written from the prospective of a doctor who was sent a friend request through Facebook by a former patient.  From the perspective of doctors and hospitals, it is understandable to question the appropriateness of such a situation.  What if the doctor has pictures on his or her Facebook profile that aren’t very professional?  What if these pictures hurt his or her credibility as a physician?  What if the former patient asks the doctor a medical question through a wall post?  Would answering violate HIPAA?  These are all legitimate questions to ask and risks to consider.  Check out these quotes:

“Caution is recommended . . . in using social networking sites such as Facebook or MySpace. Items that represent unprofessional behavior that are posted by you on such networking sites reflect poorly on you and the medical profession. Such items may become public and could subject you to unintended exposure and consequences.”- Harvard Medical School, Dean for Medical Education Jules Dienstag

“Programs/employers are increasingly gaining access to social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace to see what they can learn about candidates.” – Drexel University College of Medicine

These quotes may be alarming as they express concerns that all professionals should consider, in healthcare of otherwise. But take a closer look.  The one thing these quotes don’t do, is tell future doctors that they can’t use social media.  All that is suggested by these quotes is to use caution in what you post, something that is relevant to anyone using social media.  Take a second to look back over the previous post, specifically the 5 examples of how social media is already being used in healthcare.  Live procedures, training, crisis communications, research and education..important steps being taken by the industry today!  The potential benefits are extremely important to both healthcare professionals and patients.  It’s worth finding a way to use the platforms and still meet health privacy regulations.  I came across an interesting article on Top Rank Online Marketing Blog that attempts to make the case for social media in healthcare.  It’s definitely worth the read, check it out here.

So the fears are very real, that much is clear.  At the same time, use of social media in this field is growing.  So how are they doing it?  What type of guidelines are hospitals putting in place to monitor the activities of their employees online?  I found a post from Marketing Your Hospital titled Create a Social Media Policy for Your Hospital. This site has a lot of great information about using social media in a hospital, definitely take the time to read it.  This specific article has some great information about how to put together a social media policy for your hospital.  The writer suggests that hospitals should create a policy that covers both unofficial outposts such as personal blogs and official outposts such as an official hospital blog.  I’ve summarized the main points for each section below:

Unofficial Outposts

• Guide the employees on use of Social Media- You don’t want to scare them away, just teach them how to use it appropriately
• Remind employees that their posts reflect on both themselves and the hospital
• Work with your legal department to develop rules regarding the sharing of personal information
• Put a policy in place regarding discussions surrounding an individuals job (complaining or negative statements about the place of employment)
• Make sure employees understand what information they publish publicly and what information is private

Official Outposts

• Define the reasons for each outpost- what are the goals of the company Twitter account, blog, etc.
• Ensure everyone using a specific account understands how to do so
• Include the current policy for corporate branding and identity
• Teach employees how to handle negative comments/complaints through these accounts
• Put specific guidelines in place regarding patient information

This information should help anyone trying to figure out how to introduce social media into a hospital/medical practice and really any business looking to create a social media policy.  You can also check this list out for ideas of other businesses that have put social media policies in place.  You can also look through this list of Hospital Social Media Policies.

So that’s it for today, hopefully it’s easier to understand why social media presents such barriers for the healthcare industry.  On deck for next part 3 in this series is a deeper look into the benefits of social media in healthcare and the changes that are occurring with the doctor-patient relationship.  Look for that post Tuesday, July 13th.

Here is a list of links on this topic that may be helpful:

Top Rank Blog

ihealthbeat

PR Week

Social Media Today

Mashable

Social Media and HIPAA

Hospital Online Marketing Education

I.      Current Use/Statistics (7/6/10)
II.     Organization/Legal Issues/Fears/Questions (7/8/10)
III.   Doctor-Patient Relationship (7/13/10)
IV.    Recap/Look into the Future (7/15/10)

As I mentioned in the previous post, a lot of this information is drawn from a social media panel discussion hosted by Meers Advertising at Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, MO.  If you haven’t already watched the recorded video of the event, you should definitely take a look here.  There is a lot of information to get through in four posts, so I figured we would keep it somewhat simple with the first post. The goal today is to paint a picture of how social media is currently being used in healthcare. The plan is to stay away from a lot of analysis or predicting, and really just get a feel for what’s being done in the field.  This is going to require looking at a lot of statistics, but please hang with me… having a better understanding of the status quo is extremely important in understanding why or why not social media will work for healthcare professionals and how it can best be used.

When I first started researching this topic for the social media panel discussion, I watched a short YouTube video called, “Social Media in Healthcare” that had some pretty interesting facts (you can view this video at the bottom of the page).  The original video is somewhat dated, but it has been updated with some new numbers.  I’ll sum up some of the key points below:

• 60 million consumers interact and discuss their health-care online
• Roughly 1,200 Facebook pages advocate finding a cure for an illness
• 72% of patients say they researched their symptoms before visiting their doctor
• 93% of e-patients say internet provided them with health care information they needed
• 80% of internet users have looked online for health information

Source: Q1 Productions

These statistics highlight a very important point.  Whenever I speak with a prospective client, I’m usually asked, “Why does it matter if I participate in social media?”  I always try to help those who ask this question realized one thing:  Your brand, your product, your service is already a part of social media.  The question those people should be asking isn’t why they should participate, but whether or not they are willing to allow others to lead the discussion regarding their brand, product, or service. Most of the time, that answer is “no”, and it’s clear from the above statistics that the same situation holds true in healthcare, even though the goals may be different from a for-profit business. Even if healthcare professionals don’t use social media, 60 million consumers make sure the conversation continues to take place online.

I also came across a great presentation put together by Carolyn Grisko & Associates, Inc. called “Healthcare & Social Media: 2009 Trends and Strategy” (You can view this presentation at the bottom of the page).  The entire presentation is great, but the information presented on slides 5-7 is key.  Look at these statistics regarding how Americans search the internet:

• 36% want to see what other consumers think about medication or treatment
• 34% use social media
• 46% use health care portals

Source:”How America Searches: Health and Wellness“- survey by Opinion Research Corp.

These two sets of statistics clearly show that people are using social media to get their hands on healthcare information.  But how have hospitals, doctors, etc. responded to these facts?  I stumbled across a great blog post on Top Rank Online Marketing Blog called, “5 Examples of Social Media in Healthcare Marketing”.

The 5 examples mentioned are:

• Live Procedures (This is something that we have been contacted about.  A hospital wanted to use our Intefy product to allow medical students to watch a live surgery and ask an observing doctor questions via Twitter or chat)
• Train Medical Personnel
• Reach Mainstream Media That Use Social Media
• Communicate in Times of Crisis
• Provide Accurate Information to Patients (With With such a large amount of health information available on the web, it may be hard to determine the accuracy or trustworthiness of a source)

There has also been a growth in Twitter accounts, blogs, forums, and networks focused on healthcare. It is clear that social media is becoming more and more important for healthcare providers. There are resources available at the end of this post.

Now that we have a little better mental picture and understanding of how social media is used by healthcare professionals, we can look forward to understanding how these professionals go about organizing a social media strategy and what sort of legal and regulatory issues must be considered by the healthcare field in regards to the use of social media.  Look for that post to be available on Thursday, July 8.

Matt

Healthcare & Social Media: 2009 Trends & Strategy

Blogs

• Diabetes Mine Blog
• Health Matters Blog
• NYT Health Blog

Twitter

• @livestrong
• @stupidcancer
• @backusHospital
• @healthsocmed- hosts an online discussion regarding social media in healthcare (#hcsm) Sundays at 8pm CST

Social Networking

• OrganizedWisdom
• Patients Like Me
• Nurses Recommend Doctors

Podcasts

• Johns Hopkins Medicine Podcasts
• Mayo Clinic

Forums

• Revolution Health Groups
• Google Health Group

Since Lisa was speaking as part of the panel, we did a lot of research on social media and healthcare in the days leading up to the event, and have to admit, we were all blown away!  We’ve been doing more and more proposals lately for sites that involve something related to healthcare or disabilities, but have not been immersed in this segment of the social media space and it was refreshing to see all the many ways people are incorporating social media into healthcare: from advocacy to patient support, many organizations are discovering new ways to connect people with information about their health, wellness, or particular issues.

We decided to use this panel discussion as the beginning of a blog series. There was so much good information presented and uncovered in our research, that we think this is a topic that deserves more attention. So for the next few weeks, we are going to try and wade through all of the information available and share what we discover about social media as it’s being used by healthcare organizations, doctors, nurses, patient advocates, insurers, special needs, the government, and others that touch people via a health or wellness interaction.

The panel discussion was guided by a list of questions Sam Meers asked regarding the use of social media by hospitals, doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals. These questions will guide what we discuss in this blog series. We are avid students in this area and would love to see your comments and hear your stories. Have you had a personal experience related to social media and healthcare? One of the most innovative things we’ve heard of recently is from a hospital system that is thinking about using our Intefy product for online surgery lessons… they would have cameras in the room as doctors perform surgeries, and students watching would be tested later for college credit. During the surgery, a moderator would be present so they could answer questions and facilitate conversation about what people were seeing. We would never have dreamed of our product being utilized this way – it just goes to show the power of all these social tools and platforms in the hands of creative people who see how to use them to meet a need.

Hopefully, together, we can come up with some pretty awesome ideas on how hospitals, doctors, etc. can use social media to improve patient care, disseminate information or gather feedback and data. Be on the look-out for new posts on Tuesdays and Thursdays, starting tomorrow.

Meers Advertising has put together a great panel of local industry leaders for the event including:

• Ben Dillon (@benatgeo), eHealth Evangelist and Co-Owner at Geonetric, a web software solutions company out of Cedar Rapids, IA that focuses on healthcare
• Lisa Qualls (@lqualls4444), CEO for Fresh ID, a Kansas City, MO company focused on experience design and helping businesses integrate technology to expand their brand and improve operational processes and customer communications
• Mike Lundgren (@mglundgren), Partner and Director of Innovation Strategy at VML, a full-service digital marketing agency out of Kansas City, MO
• Mike McCamon (@mccamon), Chief Community Officer at Water.org, a Kansas City, MO based nonprofit organization dedicated to providing access to safe water and sanitation for communities in Africa, South Asia and Latin America.

Sam Meers (@meerskc) is responsible for organizing the event and will also be participating in the panel discussion.  Sam is President of Meers Advertising, a local Kansas City, MO agency dedicated to helping their clients grow and maintain competitiveness in the ever changing field of advertising.  A strong proponent of advertising and Web strategy to build a brand, Sam has developed his marketing communications beliefs through experience. Founding Meers Advertising in 1993, he brings over 25 years of consumer and business-to-business experience to the company.

Meers Advertising has worked with clients such as National Beef, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City, Kansas and Oklahoma, Multi Service Corporation, Axcet HR Solutions, McCownGordon Construction, Human Factors International, Weight Loss Surgical Centers, WageWorks, Children’s Mercy Hospitals and Clinics, TransforMED and Geonetric.  The Meers agency was recently mentioned in Target Marketing Magazine for its work with Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City.

The event will also be available live, online using our own product, Twitterface.  Those wishing to watch the discussion online can do so from twitterface.com/meersadv and join in the discussion!

So many of the lessons here apply to other industries as well, but especially if you have a restaurant, hotel, dry cleaner or other service-based business with regular clientele, you should check this show out and listen to the others as well. Also follow @JeffreySummers and @thebrandbuilder on Twitter for regular doses of social marketing advice!

That social media personalities have a touch of vanity that serves as a driver for participating in online antics could go without saying, but it should not. It is this underlying note you’re playing with when you seek to engage people using an interactive mechanism, so it’s important to understand how to work with the psychology of people like us if you want to get the most out of your social marketing efforts on Foursquare and other sites like it.

I read an article that says in some places, Mayors can jump to the head of the line if they’re present, and that is a perfect example of the type of elitist reward that should be offered to someone who visits a busy establishment so much that they earn the title of Mayor.

I was at Starbucks yesterday (Wayne R. I am coming for you, by the way!) and was very disappointed to see that their highly touted rewards program is nothing more than a push for the latest stuff they’re pimping at the drive-thru: right now it’s $1 off a frappucino. That’s just not good. What if the Mayor comes there everyday for a blueberry muffin, or a half-caf/half-decaf sugar-free soy latte is their preference? You’ve now said, with your flimsy $1 coupon on something unwanted or needed, that the Mayor’s presence is not really appreciated. At $3-7 a pop per visit (and let’s face it, some of us go daily or not at all), a customer who is Mayor of a Starbucks location is A Big Deal. So roll out the red carpet and actually REWARD them, or find some other game to play. The $1 coupon would be far better if it were on something the Mayor wants to have – do you see the difference?

My fabulous friend @bobbyrettew and I were just discussing how we long to open a little restaurant of our own on a beach somewhere and use Foursquare and Twitter to play games with patrons and also provide them services. For example, we would:

• offer a free beer to someone who checks in
• give a certificate to a random person who checks in and then sees the Twitter post telling them they won
• let people use Twitter to call our taxi service for a ride home
• post clues to hidden prizes on Facebook, like a scavenger hunt
• let people tweet their restaurant order from the beach or poolside and have it delivered
• let frequent customers pay their tab with no CC on hand because we have their info saved in our system
• give the Mayor a pitcher of Sangrita (Sangria-infused margarita) and pineapple salsa on the house when He or She arrives
• have our dry cleaning service pick up the partied-in clothing if needed, from a tweet request
• let people request songs from the band via Twitter
• have a live video feed of the band, the beach and the party piped online using our Intefy product
• have kiosks and displays of real-time festivities up throughout our outdoor and indoor areas so that people can get to know new people who are also there and see what recent guests have said

These are just the silly ideas of two dreamers who want to use these tools not just to talk, but for services and utility and entertainment – all at the same time.

But I digress… the point of this post is Psychology of Foursquare Mayors and Badge Earners and Those Who Aspire To Be Them. Think about this, when you are creating ideas for marketing games using Foursquare, Gowalla, Twitter or Facebook:

• What would a spoiled, pampered Princess expect? (Not WANT… they have expectations)
• What would the world’s hottest Rockstar expect? What would he or she demand?
• If this were the President of a country, what would you offer them for coming to your place or trying your product or service?
• If this were the CEO of a major corporation, would you offer He or She what you are claiming is a cool gift or reward to your Mayors?

You may find these examples extreme, but this is an important question: What can you do, that is an actual sacrifice, to reward your most loyal customer? Send them a gift? Give them a free product or service? Let them pick their own reward? Really GIVE something to these folks… what you will earn in loyalty, word of mouth and influence on others that these people will have, will pay you back many-fold. Foursquare is adding analytics so you can test and track and experiment until you hit the right mix of offers and options.

Are you playing with these new social sites or thinking about it? We’re really excited to explore the possibilities and have started pitching ideas in proposals to certain types of clients. This stuff can make retail, restaurants and even service businesses fresh and fun again!

These are very valid concerns and it’s great that Sarah is thinking before blindly jumping in, but I want to help alleviate some of the worry for her and others who are interested in playing with geo tools but not quite sure what they might get themselves into. You will need to signup online, but checkin from a mobile phone app such as the iPhone, Android device, Blackberry or Palm. I am on Foursquare, so the bulk of this post refers to it, but Gowalla is equally popular and someday I may be on it also.

Here’s a simple step-by-step process of some things you can do to protect yourself when using these services.

1. First of all, before signing up for an LBS, take a privacy inventory of ALL your social profiles. Twitter only allows a link to your site, but you may have private information on your background, if you’re self-employed or a business that operates from home. At Facebook, you may have listed your phone number, address, emails and other identifiers. Reconsider what fields you have filled out there or choose settings that prevent all but your closest friends from having access to that info. The same with LinkedIn, MySpace, Plurk, Plaxo, etc. Lock these profiles up if you want private info secured and then you won’t have to worry as much about your geo tools leading to more information than you wanted to give people.

2. Second of all, signing up is not in and of itself going to cause you any problems. You don’t even have to enter your last name at Foursquare. I couldn’t tell what the required fields are for Gowalla as they aren’t marked.

Foursquare displays your first name and last initial, Gowalla appears to display both names. My name displays as “Kristi C.” on Foursquare, instead of the more widely know “kriscolvin” which is both my Twitter and Foursquare user name.

2. After signing up, you can select different settings and you’ll notice in mine, I don’t even let Foursquare friends see my phone and email.

That’s because I want to be able to accept large numbers of people as friends and not have to be overly concerned about who they are (as on Twitter.)

3. You can select whether or not you want every single Foursquare checkin to go to Twitter or Facebook, or just reflect your activity on Foursquare itself.

These settings are important to consider from both an annoyance factor (to members of other social networks, who may not care you’re having waffles at IHOP right now) and from a security factor. If you’re like me an an active Twitterer who is often out and about in Kansas City and surrounding areas, you might not want every follower you have to know all your activity.

4. You may be alarmed when you see untold numbers of folks requesting to be your friend on Foursquare, but there’s no need for alarm. One of the settings allows your handsome mug to be shown on the home page of the site whenever you checkin, and folks hitting the page right at that time may elect to befriend you just to add more folks to their network. There’s also a “friend finder” that people may use and you may be in their address book, Twitter or Facebook network.

5. You can use some creative processes to play in Foursquare, yet not be stalked or found. For example:

• Checkin to a place once you get in your car to leave. That way you can denote being there, without actually having to worry about people finding you there.
• Checkin only to places where you are with other people, such as your office or a restaurant and not when you’re alone, like at the grocery store or hair salon.
• Never checkin your home address or let people know if you’ve gone home or left home. It’s just good common sense!
• If you frequent a place in any sort of pattern, for example, hitting Starbucks every morning at 8:30 am, either don’t checkin every single time, or omit that place altogether and never checkin when there. Should someone have nefarious designs on you, you don’t want to indicate patterns of behavior that will give them unfair advantages. Okay, this might include marketers! This may actually get harder once a lot more companies use rewards based on checkins, so be aware that’s coming.

6. There are some pretty awesome stats at Foursquare with a tempting offer to tweet and share them. If you’re worried about privacy or security, don’t do it. Just enjoy them as records of patterns about your own behavior.

7. You can add tips and to-do’s for others about venues, such as “Try the Nutella Crepes!” at a place which has fabulous nutella crepes. Keep your tips generic and not personal.

8. If you checkin to a place and instantly regret it, it can always be deleted from the website.

9. Avoid sharing travel details with pals on Twitter and Facebook, then checking in from all over the place you’ve traveled to, especially if this is a major vacation or something and your house is actually empty at the moment. Rob Frappier wisely points out that the key is intelligence and moderation, when playing with these geo sites.

Facebook and Twitter are both integrating with LBS sites or adding geo-information to their product directly, so be sure to examine your settings regularly and change whatever they set by default that you do not agree with.

10. There’s a little link that says “Currently in X place” on the website. If you travel between multiple houses or places like I do each week, refrain from correcting that when you see it. For example, mine right now says I am in Mission, KS because I last checked in there, but that’s not where I’m sitting as I type this.

Now, hopefully some of the concern has been addressed and we can discuss WHY you might want to use these services. We are literally only on the cusp of what can or should be done with these interesting LBS applications. If you check out this page for businesses at Foursquare, you’ll see some interesting things: specials for the “mayor” of a bar or restaurant, coupons for checking in, and other reward ideas are being envisioned everyday.

Starbucks has officially announced they will be developing a Foursquare checkin reward system, and will award visits to multiple locations with a special Barista Badge and they will be actively experimenting with other reward ideas.

When you look at the nature of recommendations and reviews, retail shops of all types stand to gain big by getting involved with Foursquare. How many times have you walked by a dry cleaner, dentist or nail salon and wondered if the service or quality of care provided was any good? As more and more people use Foursquare beyond the simple quick checkin (meaning, they spend time on the site to categorize entries and do tips and to-do’s and longer checkin recommends), the value of this business being found on Foursquare increases significantly.

This is the reason the Fresh ID team is on Foursquare – some of our clients are a perfect fit for the future potential of offering rewards and benefitting from reviews and customer checkins, so we want to be part of this global, social experiment.

If you’re curious, but still need more info, check out the Foursquare blog on Tumblr to learn more about what they’re doing right now, and let us know what you think about the LBS revolution. Are you #foursquareimpaired, or playing with these tools at all? Let us know in the comments and if you want to be mine and Matt’s friend on Foursquare, our links are below.

• Kristi on Foursquare
• Matt on Foursquare
• Foursquare
• Gowalla
• Foodspotting