3 Reasons Students Use Location-Based Services

Tony Zanders

In the Higher-Ed Community, we get a lot of feedback questioning the relevance of telling the world where you are. Even moreso than status-updating service Twitter, it can seem pointless, vain, and unsafe to someone who doesn’t understand the value it adds. On our blog, we’ve been documenting the dialogue between those who believe location-based services have value in higher education, and those who don’t. And the verdict is still out. ReadWriteWeb’s Marshall Kirkpatrick recently wrote a nice outline of the various reasons people check-in to location-based services like Foursquare and Gowalla. Hopefully his points will add a unique perspective that we can glean on to determine if location-based services should be incorporated into college marketing strategies.

Kirkpatrick listed 4 reasons why people check-in:

• Service May Vary
• Serendipity and Connection
• For the Win
• As a Personal History

While all 4 of these can apply for college students, we think three of them are especially interesting for marketing and student life professionals seeking new ways to engage their students, admitted students, and alumni. Here are our reasons why.

“Serendipity and Connection”: Letting students discover new things

Discovering new things is one of the most exciting aspects of foursquare. When a student launches the foursquare application on their iPhone, Blackberry, or Android phone, it instantly finds venues for them to check-in to that are near them. This is great for students, prospective students, and admitted students to discover new aspects of your campus. And statistics show that students use check-in services for this purpose. This allows them to feel connected to their campus in a personal way, without the need of a tour guide or student ambassador holding their hand.

According to a data visualization project by independent group BitsyBot Labs, thousands of check-ins happen every week on college campuses around the country.

“For the win”: Rewarding their competitive nature

One of the most attractive aspects of foursquare and gowalla is their incorporation of game theory. It’s also what makes applications like Farmville and Mafia Wars so popular.  Applications that incorporate game theory are different from traditional social applications because they leverage the fact that your friends are also using the application in order to make it more fun. By rewarding users with virtual badges, and other collectable items for checking-in to venues, it creates a level of motivation that did not exist before, making your students frequent places around campus more diligently.

Foursquare badges

Imagine if college libraries incorporated foursquare into their strategy to increase attendance. I’d bet that it would play an influential role in increasing the amount that students study, and thus increasing grades for the students that participate in the experiment.

“As a personal history”: Keeping a log of places students have been

As we’ve discussed in previous posts, allowing students to check-in to various places around campus could be a great way to collect data about where students are frequenting. Whether it’s to the nurse’s office, or to the gym, there are several departments on campus that could benefit from knowing where students are spending their time around campus. It would also be gratifying if I were able to see all of the places I frequented on campus throughout my college career.

Are you interested in learning more about how students are using (or are willing to use) check-in services on your campus. Leave a comment below, and we may be able to help you out!