Facebook has finally hinted that it will be integrating some sort of Foursquare-like “check-in” functionality in the near future. My friends on Facebook would see my check-ins. However, Facebook would do itself a much greater service by leveraging a more valuable asset in its arsenal:
…the weight I place on my friends’ opinion in my personal network.
You see, it may be fun to see where my friends check-in. I can identify with the places that they go and may even be able to find some folks when I am out on occasion. This certainly can be used in various forms by marketers who want to leverage these announcements and turn them into loyalty programs or contests.
But I think that Facebook should really take a shot at looking at a total acquisition of Yelp.
Yelp and Facebook already have been integrated in the “social graph”, with Yelp becoming one of three of the first “instant personalization” services that Mark Zuckerberg announced at this year’s F8 Facebook Developer Summit. With Yelp and Facebook connected, you can visit the Yelp site and see which of your friends are on Yelp.
So why is Yelp functionality so much better than a check-in feature for Facebook
Because I value the opinion of my friends, not just their location.
Yelp is a great service for finding services nearby my current location. It’s extremely helpful in unfamiliar cities to find restaurants and other services. I can easily pull up a list of nearby restaurants and see how users have reviewed them on a 5-star rating system.
This is where Facebook has leverage.While I value the opinions en masse of people that I don’t know, how much more weight would I put on the opinions of people that I do know?
What if I could easily pull up Facebook on my mobile device, let it locate me and then see what my Facebook friends had to say about the services in the area?
Even “that guy” that you’re friends with on Facebook who you tolerate has an opinion and that opinion carries more weight than a stranger’s. Why? Because you know just how much you aren’t like him and you can make a choice based on what he likes and dislikes.
My network has weight. The network’s opinion has weight. And those opinions may be more likely to drive me to one business or another. In a recent focus group conducted at my employer, we found that when people need a service, they tend to go to “friends and family” first before looking in the Yellow Pages or even online.
My connections and their opinions matter. Where they happen to be, to me, is merely static.
So I suggest to Facebook something that they've already thought about time and time again and that Robert Scoble mentioned even back in March of 2009: go after Yelp.
Do you think that Facebook is better served with check-in functionality over "friendsourced" reviews?
