It’s amazing how fast paced the internet and in particular the social media / geo location / mobile app spaces are moving. Thanks to hackathons the companies who own these spaces are able to make adjustments, updates and new additions much more quickly than your typical website. While this is not always viewed as a positive thing by the users, it does lend the ability for flexibility and creativity. The days of saying, “wouldn’t it be great if we could do X” and then having to wait 6 months for that to happen are over. X now takes a week to be created by a developer and is then tested, approved and released.

Ok, maybe it’s not tested, which could be a part of the reason why there is pushback when redesigns happen and become more annoying than helpful. Then again, when Facebook went through a major redesign several months ago, the users pushed back initially, then accepted. Now they push back again with their most recent redesign, but my guess is that it will be widely accepted within a few weeks.

What’s more interesting is how quickly things are merging together. These new media are learning how a shared space is better than a separate space. Mobile and Geo-location almost always go hand in hand, but being able to add in the social aspect really starts to pay dividends for companies. In our latest book “A Strategic Framework for Emerging Media”, we provide some ideas for improvement between social, mobile and geo location media. Many of the ideas are things that co-mingle these technologies. Unsurprisingly, some of these ideas must have been common ideas because they’ve been mentioned or have been put into place by these technologies before our book was put into publication or is being released just weeks after our book publication.

I discovered an example of the types of ideas that we talk about in our book while checking in on Foursquare last night. Upon check-in I noticed that I had unlocked a deal. When I opened the deal, I was informed that there was a ‘Groupon Now’ deal for the restaurant that I was at. I was able to save $5 off my meal, just by checking in! Had I not checked in, I would not have known about this deal. I probably could have checked Groupon and possibly would have seen the deal without going to Foursquare (geo-location app). I could have even checked Groupon from home and possibly would have seen the deal without using my mobile device. But in this perfect storm, I checked into a geo location app, using my mobile device, and made a purchase through a social site.

I talked to the manager of the restaurant about this and told her how cool it was that all of this transpired. She mentioned that in a month I could repeat the process. This is where there is still a step missing which we talk about in our strategy section of our book. You most likely have my info through Groupon, so why not either email me in a month, or start serving retargeting ads with a new Groupon deal for repeat business? Most likely the people that use these three technologies are going to be comfortable with a company targeting them.

Find out more about these types of strategies in our book!