Are We Headed Towards Checkin Fatigue?

Facebook Places is here and the net is once again abuzz with a flock of new happy users who are experiencing checkins for the first time.  But for the rest of us, the diehard early adopters who have been checking in for years, Facebook Places is just another fish in an already crowded sea of location-aware applications.  Maybe a little too crowded.  Personally, this author is now juggling 16 applications, including Foursquare, MyTown, Yelp, GetGlue, Loopt and Loopt Star, Gowalla, SCVNGR, and newcomers shopkick and Facebook Places.  I must admit, this is a bit much even for social media mavens such as myself.  It can take me between 10 and 15 minutes just to check-in at a location, often standing outside or rudely doing so in front of my companions.  Trying to manage this plethora of services, it's no wonder users are beginning to show signs of check-in fatigue, resulting in fewer check-ins, going off grid and abandoning less popular or newer services without giving them a chance to grow. Worse yet, if early adopters are suffering from fatigue, it won't be long before the average user does too, with more severe results.  There must be a better way to navigate this check-in process.  In this article we'll take a look at possible solutions by analyzing the following questions:

1. What types of check-in applications are out there?
2. Is it possible or necessary to check-in everywhere?
3. What is check-in worthy and what can we pass on?
4. How do we prioritize which applications we check-in through?
5. Is it possible to narrow down the playing field?
6. Is there a better solution for managing them all?

Types of Check-In Applications


There are three principle categories of check-in applications: social, rewards, and entertainment.


Social


Social checkin applications operate by allowing your social circle to know where you are and either join you, comment, or read your reviews of the location.  Primary players in this realm are Loopt, Facebook Places, Yelp, and Brightkite.  With the exception of Loopt, these apps function by telling the device you are currently located at a specific venue chosen from a list determined by your GPS location.  The application does not update your location again until you manually change it.  Loopt has two added features.  In addition to venues, Loopt gives you the option (read: you can turn it off!) to check in to a street corner and it can continue to track your location via GPS even after you close the app, the added benefit being that people can find you if you leave the venue.


Rewards


Rewards-based checkin apps aim to provide users with monetary or discount-based promotions in return for visiting select venues.  Most rewards applications contain a social element as well and many even started off entirely as social applications and later added reward elements.  Principle rewards-based checkin applications are Foursquare, Gowalla, Loopt Star, SCVNGR, WeReward, Whrrl, PlacePop and shopkick.  Business owners can register their business with these applications and choose to provide users with special offers based on completing certain criteria: being the person who visits the venue the most often (mayor), visiting the venue for the first time, visiting the venue a certain number of times (every ten visits), completing challenges, or scanning products.


Entertainment


Entertainment checkin applications are completely different in that rather than checking in to a physical location, you check in to a specific form of entertainment such as a movie, television show, video game or book.  The most prominent entertainment checkin applications are GetGlue, Philo and Miso.  Like social applications, users can write reviews and people can leave comments.  The benefit to using these applications comes from professional and social recommendations.  Users can rate the media they consume and receive recommendations based on their likes and dislikes.  In addition, users can collect badges and awards (although they possess no value) and aid water-cooler talk by letting your peers know in advance what you've been watching.


As can be seen, in addition to several types of checkin tools, there are multiple contenders in each space.  How do we know which ones to use, when and where?


Finding a Balance


To find a balance in our checkins, we need to analyze two things, our own lives and the checkin playing field.  While the former may seem more complicated, the latter is out of our control and thus requires more constant vigilance and risk.  However, the following guidelines may help to keep things in order.

1. Does your network of contacts use social checkin applications? Dedicated apps like Loopt and Brightkite require your friends to sign up for the service as well in order to receive any benefit.  If your network doesn't already use these apps, consider using Facebook Places, where your network already exists.  Our judgement: If realtime tracking matters, use Loopt.  If not, consider Facebook Places.
2. Entertainment checkin applications seem fun, but they're just a formal equivalent of posting what you're consuming on Facebook and they mirror the functionality of better services like Amazon.com.  Our judgement: if you're experiencing checkin fatigue, start trimming the fat here.  Just like what you're doing in Farmville, your network doesn't need to know every TV show you watch either.
3. How long can you hold out? As we previously mentioned in our post on Facebook Places versus Foursquare, new open APIs may allow for a single checkin to register with multiple applications.  SCVNGR has already integrated the Facebook Places API for read and write, bridging social and reward-based checkins.  Similar integrations to these are guaranteed to come in the near future.  Another solution is services dedicated to multi-site checkins.  Mobile site m.check.in has been around for a while now and currently has grown to function with Foursquare, Gowalla, Brightkite and Whrrl.  When you check in through the website, it automatically syncs with all four services.  This trend will continue to grow as well.  Our judgement: give m.check.in a try and hold on as long as you can.  Things are going to get easier soon.
4. What brands do you like? Your brand preference may play a role in your checkin behavior.  Gap, for example, has partnered with Loopt Star, giving users 25% off on every second visit.  AT&T is working with SCVNGR, Best Buy with shopkick and Starbucks with both Loopt Star and Foursquare.  This is just a minuscule sampling.  Our judgement: continue to support your favorites brands across your favorite checkin apps.  If you build it, they will come.  If you deliver the checkins, you will be rewarded.
5. Tired of hearing about every time a friend goes to the gym, grocery store, bank, or work? So are your friends most likely.  Furthermore, these locations are unlikely to yield you rewards.  Avoid the mundane checkins that don't benefit you or your contacts.  Our judgement: only check in to locations that will be interesting, like vacations, or potentially reward you with special promotions, like restaurants and retail outlets.
6. The last tip is for those business owners who are reading this article.  There are some applications that function better than others.  PlacePop is an amazing app; a beautiful example of tracking multiple visit rewards.  It never gets noticed, though, because none of the major brands have partnered with it.  Our judgement: do your homework.  Know which services are out there and what benefits they offer you and your customers.  Then, let your customers know about it!!

Is Check-In Here to Stay?


Unlike Google, Facebook's efforts tend to stick around.  So if Facebook decided it was time to enter the location game, chances are it's here to stay.  What that means for you the consumer is that things are bound to get more complicated before they get easy.  Your diligence will be rewarded in time, solutions will surface, winners will grow and losers will fade away.  In the meantime, manage your checkins using our guidelines.  If you're feeling fatigued, take a short break, drink some water and get plenty of rest, but don't jump ship.  These services are here for your benefit and early adopters will be the first to reep the rewards.