Which geosocial site do college students prefer?

The technology remains untested on most U.S. campuses, but recent research shows foursquare is favored in higher education By Dennis Carter, Assistant Editor Facebook,Featured on eCampus News,Research,Surveys,Top News,social networking

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Students used Facebook Places most often at sporting events.

Social media check-in services that let students tell their online friends where they are havent yet taken hold among most college decision makers, but a West Virginia University (WVU) report shows where that schools geosocial loyalties lie. The website foursquare was used almost twice as often as Facebook Places, the geosocial program launched last year by the social media giant, according to research released by David Olsen, a WVU programmer who details the schools education-technology initiatives on a blog called Mobile In Higher Ed [2] . Read more about geosocial networking in higher education Facebook Places: Marketing tool or educational asset [3] ? Online students connect off line with geosocial networking [4] Foursquare was among the first location-based social media programs designed for web-enabled smart phones, which are armed with GPS capabilities. Foursquare members check in at sporting events, restaurants, and other locations and earn points for each check in. Launched in 2009, the website now has more than 10 million users. Sixty-seven percent of students who checked in to a location on or around the WVU campus used foursquare, according to the research [2] . Thirty-one percent used Facebook Places, and 2 percent used Gowalla, another popular geosocial option. Earning points and eventually badges and mayorships if they visit a place often enough is what keeps college students coming back to foursquare, making the geosocial site more attractive to campus decision makers, Olsen said. Foursquare provides a means where a user playing the game can stumble upon relevant information that your school provides, Olsen wrote. Its at this juncture of game and information discovery that foursquare shines for me. Olsen added: Facebook Places hasnt been around as long as foursquare, so foursquare could and probably does have a natural lead. WVU is also among a group of colleges and universities [5] that work with foursquare to promote use of the mobile service on campus. While foursquare usage dominated all other geosocial sites at WVU, Facebook Places won out at the schools sporting venues. At the campuss Coliseum, for example, about 3,000 students checked in using Facebook Placesmore than double the total number of foursquare users there. The two services received almost identical traffic at Mountaineer Field. Tricia Petty, a university relations employee at WVU, suggested in the Mobile In Higher Ed blog that Facebook Places is popular at sporting events because Facebook offers giveaways and promotions to students who register their location during games. There were 14,491 foursquare check-ins during the spring semester, and 6,757 Facebook Places check-ins at WVU, according to Olsens research [6] . WVU officials saw student foursquare use steadily rise from December through the end of May. On Dec. 6, the school had a total of 13,216 check-ins; on May 24, that number had grown to 33, 425.

Olsen wrote that after spring break, the university was averaging about 190 check-ins every day. Closely tracking geosocial data across the WVU campus, Olsen wrote, would prove critical to using the mobile programs to communicate with students online. This next year is where we see if we can really leverage the service, he wrote. Geosocial networking is also being used in higher education for specific student groups. Arizona State University (ASU), for example, has a social networking platform [4] that helps students spot each other on their laptops and smart phones. More than 600 ASU Online [7] students are connected to spark, a site that allows students to check in when they enter a library, coffee shop, or anywhere else in their community. The hope is that other ASU web-based students will see a virtual classmate in a nearby coffee shop and stop by to say hello. Spark is powered by San Francisco-based Double Dutch [8] . Instead of posting your location on a vast social network especially Facebook Places spark is only accessible to ASU Online students with university-issued eMail address, creating micro-communities based on place-based networks, said Lawrence Coburn, Double Dutch CEO. Were not taking the mega-app approach here, he said. We are starting to see more demand for single purpose niche networks because people dont want to tell 1,000 people that theyre at the gym.

Article printed from eCampus News: http://www.ecampusnews.com URL to article: http://www.ecampusnews.com/top-news/which-geosocial-site-do-college-students-prefer/ URLs in this post: [1] Image: http://www.ecampusnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/phones84.jpg [2] Mobile In Higher Ed: http://www.dmolsen.com/mobile-in-higher-ed/2011/06/16/more-numbers-foursquare-vs-facebook-places-vs-gowalla-atwvu/#comment-547 [3] Facebook Places: Marketing tool or educational asset: http://www.ecampusnews.com/top-news/facebook-places-marketing-tool-or-educationalasset/ [4] Online students connect off line with geosocial networking: http://www.ecampusnews.com/top-news/online-students-connect-off-line-withgeosocial-networking/ [5] group of colleges and universities: https://foursquare.com/universities [6] according to Olsens research: http://www.dmolsen.com/mobile-in-higher-ed/2011/06/14/the-numbers-foursquare-usage-at-west-virginiauniversity/ [7] ASU Online: http://asuonline.asu.edu/ [8] Double Dutch: http://www.doubledutch.me/

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