Do you have patrons who may be interested in checking in to your library as well as checking out library items? Perhaps you do, but just don’t know it. Check-in apps are getting to be big news. Foursquare may be the best known check-in app, though not the first. Nor will it be the last; Facebook and Google are involved in these apps, too, and who knows how many other companies may soon be jumping in to check-ins. These articles may give you some ideas for using check-in apps at your library.
- 5 check-in apps to check out (ReadWriteWeb/Richard MacManus) “The excitement started with the location check-in apps: Brightkite, Foursquare, Gowalla, Google Latitude and others. But over the past year the practice of ‘checking in’ has expanded to many other ‘things’ beyond location. You can now check in to TV shows, movies, books, food, events, and more.”
- 7 ways companies like Foursquare can hold off giants like Facebook (BNet/Erik Sherman) “It’s far too early to say whether Foursquare will overcome or succumb to Facebook. The company may adapt, as apparently 20 percent of its users already push their check-ins through Facebook. However, given that Facebook has created a location logo that looks like a ‘4’ in a square, it may be that the social network giant knows things will be tougher than people might expect.”
- OneTrueFan: check-in for websites (CrunchBase) “Only six to eight percent of a site’s traffic are ‘regulars’, defined as visiting at least once a week. These readers drive much of the real value on a web site, regularly contributing comments, sharing content with friends and clicking on advertising. OneTrueFan enables web sites to develop deeper engagement with these regular readers, encouraging them to visit and share content even more often.”
- Foursquare launching new must-have button for websites (ReadWriteWeb/Marshall Kirkpatrick) “If you own a business or publish a web page about any real-world location, this very simple button will allow visitors to your website to add going to your location as a ‘to-do’ item and receive a push-notification to their phones whenever they check-in anywhere nearby. This small button could deliver a substantial part of the promise of Foursquare—tying together our discoveries online with our experiences offline.”
Coming-soon Fact:
Within in the next few months, the Add-to-My-Foursquare button will be added to all OPLIN Dynamic Website Kits.
