January 6, 2010 126 Comments

Geopocketing- When Twitter Gets Cool Again

spinal planet I saw a missing cat poster at my local grocery store. Upon looking at it for a while, I thought about tweeting a picture of the missing animal. And then I realized just how useless that would be. 100,000 people would get the tweet and think, “I don’t live anywhere near you,” and that’d be the end of that data.

This got me thinking: if I could “pocket” my data, restrict certain tweets to certain geographies on the OUTBOUND side of Twitter, then that’d be neat. I mean, most smartphone apps of Twitter have my location. What if they could say to the API, “Only send this to people within 25 miles of this location?”

Then, at CES, I could opt for “geopocketed” tweets, so that you don’t get bored to death about hearing where I am, who I’m meeting up with, etc, but then I can tweet to the “unlocal” people the “news” that I find. See where I’m going?

What if we had a way to geo-restrict our OUTGOING tweets for certain uses?

Photo credit heiwa4126

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  • http://www.annelienaes.com Annelie Näs

    I really like the idea Chris, and I also directly thought about the follow-up idea by Mike Whaling, to be able to tweet only to certain lists. Personally, I would benefit from adding the idea to languages as well, as I'm Swedish I often get replys written in Swedish from people that only tweet in Swedish. Then I always have to decide if I should tweet back in Swedish and perhaps annoy my other followers, or be very impersonal by tweeting back in English. I could also use DM, but having the option to reply in Swedish only to my swedish followers would be great. Also, this could be a good way for me to have the opportunity to share more material from Swedish sites. Anyway, great idea, I hope they pick it up!

  • http://www.vmrcommunications.com Hugh Macken

    I'm sure someone else has probably suggested this but how about using geotags? I mean to say we use # for hashtags; we could use ! followed by the location as a geotag that would be part of the 140 character tweet (rather than affixed to one's profile). The obvious question would be what would you use as the location of your intended recipients. GPS coordinates? I would suggest that would be too narrow. I propose a new mapping system that is far less targetted but more regional in nature. For example, Chris, if you were in Marshfield, WI, and noticed a sign to that effect you would enter the zip code for Marshfield as your geotag. Something like !US54449+10. The plus 10 would indicate you'd want anyone within a 10 kilometer (or mile) radius to take note. If a child were kidnapped you could use !US54449+100 and then expand it to US54449+500 later in the day if the kidnapper was not caught immediately.
    Outside the US, other codes could be used. I'd be interested to hear ideas on this.
    Bottom line, I think geotagging makes sense because that way you still preserve the essence of twitter which is the public nature of the messages and the simplicity of use.
    Just a thought.

  • http://www.openworld.com Openworld

    Great idea. It fits with a related one — why can't Twitter offer the option for people to create (and subscribe to) “channels”?

    When creating a Tweet, I'd love to have a dropdown list appear with my list of channels. Then I could (multiselect) the channel(s) for that Tweet to go out on. Options might include local, family, humor, how-to, etc.

    Followers could subscribe to all channels – or just the one(s) of most interest. In the case of a local feed, this approach would let a person who lives in an area but is travelling outside of the geopocket to remain connected.

    What do you think?

    Best,
    Mark Frazier
    @openworld @buildership @peerlearning

  • shannonkharvey

    Great idea with geopacketing, but what about just targeting tweets in general? On tweetdeck I segment my tweets for groups like location, tweeting topics, friends, business partners, coworkers, etc. It would be awesome to be able to geotarget your tweets, but even BETTER to segment your list so that my friends will only get fed tweets that are interesting to them.

    I realize this makes Twitter a little more complicated, but it would be an awesome feature to have.

    And thanks for the post :)

  • stevepoppe

    There's a monetization for that.

  • gacconsultants

    Howdy Chris,

    Social media has connected us to the world – VERY cool indeed; funny how localizing the apps will make them so much more useful. Great idea… you should build the app : )

  • http://twitter.com/jnoche John Knight

    Great idea, this would take location awareness and Twitter to a new level. This could also be used in many different ways (ala Foursquare) for targeted Marketing, etc.

  • jenniferfrederick

    That is a GREAT idea. That would be very helpful to help us, tweeters, target our audiences.

  • http://www.mySeattleblogs.com/ Patrick Flynn

    That is a great idea!

  • http://www.theotherdrummer.com The Other Drummer

    Ummm… isn't that what hash tags are for? In the cat example, just use the hashtag for your city. If someone wants to know what's going on at a specific event or location like CES, just save a search for #CES2010.

    Or am I missing something?

  • http://www.facebook.com/mrgamble Mike Gamble

    Fantastic Idea! I see a lot of earlier comments from people who would prefer to adapt current capabilities like “lists” to “sort of” accomplish the same thing. But, personally, having the capability to perform a function directly is much more favorable than hacking some work-arounds.

  • http://www.createyourgreatlife.wordpress.com/ DeAnna Lynn

    Hi!

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    Check it out: http://createyourgreatlife.wordpress.com/

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  • edcallahan

    Chris:
    That is a great idea. Maybe Twitter should buy Loopt or someone who already does that “Who is Near Me” stuff.
    Ed

  • http://www.SpiritualShow.com/ SpiritualShow

    Great idea!

  • Bill

    I'd be interested in it also.

    Bill

  • danbrian

    One of my clients (PR) has a white label app that we built for Australian councils as ewn.com.au in 2008 for emergency alerting which evolved last year into custom apps for our corp clients only in Syd & Bris who love it. It does everything you mentioned except sort your lists real time – you have to let in “sync” then send. It's got text msg via applet at $0.05 (or whatever your wholesale gateway carrier oncost is) and indentifies location based first on current, if not avail then last known (ie. if not geo-tag tweets then user account location is default). Same thing for integration with all the social API's plus AIR and MS Exchange + MAC contacts. Just started to look into adding Batchblue to the mix since I heard you give props on Dishymix – it's sensational.

    Given mobile is such a messy device internationally we're still costing the sales potential for the smartphone apps vs potential etc.

    In the mean time we're talking to developers in the US and around the globe to get a partner or two in the US and Europe to finish particular handset codes and implementation.

  • spinhead

    Local-ness; it's not just for Twitter.

    Yeah, I wanna be able to choose whether I'm speaking to my physically close friends, my professionally close friends, my musically close friends; I need segmentation all 'round.

  • http://nathanhangen.com/blog Nathan Hangen

    That would be extremely useful, and sounds like a perfect way to start monetizing Twitter. I'd pay for that service.

  • http://twitter.com/dariasteigman Daria Steigman

    HI Chris,

    You're definitely on to something, and I think this is a big way to convince people that this data as useful to them. At the same time, ironically enough, it's likely to get people more comfortable with sharing geolocation data–which then makes it easier to target them for marketing purposes (and one reason why many people have been reluctant to allow this level of tracking detail up to now).

    Your story reminds me of that phone ad (not sure which one) about the little girl with the missing dog, and the big social network that helps a boy find it.

  • http://twitter.com/Iconic88 Iconic88

    Twitter 'silos' would be great based on location. The same applies to tweeting in general.

    Why can't we have a choice to tweet to a location-specific audience? THere's some tweets I'd like to send out to an Australian audience in general, some Sydney-specific and others suburb specific.

    Sometimes I differentiate my tweets by language. That helps too.

    Thanks Chris.

  • http://twitter.com/PhilipHotchkiss Philip Hotchkiss

    That is simply a GREAT idea. There are so many times when I want to Tweet only to the Minneapolis/St. Paul market and not bore my friends around the world. Currently, I use a #MSP hashtag to let everyone know it's a locally aimed Tweet, but that's a pretty lame approach and creates noise in everyone else's stream.

  • aprilmgeer

    Awesome idea. And thinking about the logistics – everyone will probably just create a list that is specified within twitter setting to be “geopocketed” – and when set up both users would have to agree to it working both ways – so that “geopocketed” tweets will appear in the streams of those who agreed to that users' local tweets. Seems totally doable… lets get on it Twitter!

  • http://www.russbroomell.com russbroomell

    Why should you restrict me? What if I run the “lost cat service” 20 miles away covering a 3 county area and you restrict your tweet to “people within 5 miles”. Better to just geo-tag your tweet and then let me decide if I want to read only tweets in my area in my search box or twitter settings.

  • http://www.onlineinvestingai.com/blog/ George

    Great idea. There are many ways that it could be useful. Like for real estate agents to let people know about new properties on the market.

    Location could be just one filter. Perhaps there could be others: topic (marketing, technology, iPhone, etc), online/offline (is it a blog post or a meeting in the real world), importance, etc.

  • http://twitter.com/GemmaWent Red Cube Marketing

    Yeah I was thinking something similar while using Foursquare the other day. It would open up a whole new game to Twitter and would allow us to really get creative with it.

    Someone, somewhere must be working on this already, right?

  • http://www.amander.com @amaaanda

    This would be fantastic. I think about this all the time when I'm posting local reviews or commentary on local events.

  • Danny J.

    Amen. This needs to happen pronto. Love the idea

  • http://suzemuse.wordpress.com suzemuse

    But…(there's always a “but” with me, eh?) The average Twitter user doesn't have 100K followers. The power in tweeting about a lost pet (or wallet, or traffic tie up, etc) is often in the reach, not the tweet itself. In other words, if i tweet that there's a lost cat in my neighbourhood, and people see that and retweet it to their networks (which are different than mine) then it just might get to the right person as the circle expands.

    However, it IS a good idea for location based events – you don't care that I'm at TEDxOttawa or IgniteOttawa necessarily…I may not care that you are at CES. To be able to direct tweets to a group based on location/radius etc….now that's clever. And useful.

  • http://suzemuse.wordpress.com suzemuse

    As long as the syntax-based system takes into account that not all zip codes are created equal (e.g. Canada's codes are alphanumerical and six characters). But I do like this idea.

  • michaelphipps

    Sorry if I repeat others comments, I just don't have the time to read through them all.

    From a “privacy” concern of marketers targeting people in specific locations, I actually think only genuine marketers with reasonable offers would use this method of targeting. The wannabe marketers responsible for most spam are too busy trying to get their message out to as many people as possible and wouldn't bother with this sort of intricate targeting.

    A++ idea. Looking forward to seeing this implemented! (It's too good to ignore, and as some people point out, facebook already does this)

  • http://www.lorandminyo.com/ Lorand R. Minyo

    Hello Bill,

    feel free to drop me an email.

  • http://www.facebook.com/endydaniyanto Endy Daniyanto

    That is a BRILLIANT idea, Chris!

  • askMariaTodd

    I would like to learn more about this segmentation technique. Where might I learn more please. Thanks and happy new year

  • http://www.southplattewebdesign.com Bill

    Haahaa – I knew you would push something like this out sooner or later.

    Interestingly enough I have something logically completed just the opposite (just need to package a nice UI on it) – find people in certain geographic areas on Twitter – example: give me registered users in Ny, Ny or in Tampa, Fl, interfaced with Twitter's search API (which already does geolocation to a degree) and you find all tweeters in that area – one would think it simple to accomplish the same thing. In fact – when tweeting, it would be necessary to geolocate based upon current location (ex at CES) provided users have updated their lat/lon or zip/postal/city/state within Twitter as they have traveled to the event/area – it would then would be very simple to find all your followers in that area, and only tweet them.

    Hmmm….anyone interested in what I have thus far and partnering? Yup, ok that was blunt, that's one of my 2010 strategies is to not be chicken in speaking up about ideas, projects, thoughts etc. . Don't have my keyword for it yet, other than blunt.

    Bill
    @southplatte

  • http://twitter.com/nehabebo ღ°•.♥.•°ηєнα•¯`•°•.♥

    Geopocketing tweets great as an option only there are tweets that aren't relevant to all but then again without geopocketing not everyone is always reading tweets all the time so I think tweeting in your time zone is also good enough till we have such an option

  • kellywsmith

    I am all for getting in on this too. This is a great idea and has tremendous potential for all sorts of marketing and informing others.

    Send it on over once you have it available.

  • Loki Nat

    hey, this is exactly the same thought as one company i'm following. i saw them on crunchbase.

    here's their url:
    http://www.shownearby.com

  • http://www.vitabits.co.uk/multivitamins/multivitamins-one-a-day/16481 multivitamins

    Hi,
    I really liked the idea.The tool is ideal for students who are used to spending their leisure hours playing hand-held computer games, listening to music on MP3 players and text-messaging their friends,

  • tomadeira

    Forgive me if this has already been said before but 86 comments seemed scaryto read through.

    But I always thought that this was where Twitter as a company was heading, it has its mass uses surely, but if it wants to compete with Facebook then the ability to use it as a tool to build community not just online, but offline too is so powerful. I remember hearing a keynote from one of the creators of twitter and he was talking about the implications of twitter. He mentioned something about getting information out to people about fires etc… That then made me think that is where they want to take Twitter.

    GeoLocations etc… is obviously a step towards this and soon they will be launching local trends surely? The ability to work on two levels will make Twitter a huge tool for people with lost pets, to emergency services.

  • http://www.russelldunkin.com Russell Dunkin

    Completely agree Chris & Mike. I use this feature A LOT on facebook, and have wished several times this week that I could do the same thing on Twitter. Many have lists based on geography, so that could be an easy (yet manual) solution. Especially during winter weather events, I wouldn't have to read Tweet after Tweet about the road conditions 500 miles away.

  • http://www.mikestenger.com Mike Stenger

    OMG that's totally genius Chris. I'm sure someone else has had a similar idea but it's the first time I've ever heard about. Things integrated into a Twitter premium account like this would make it well worth purchasing, you agree?

  • http://attractionmarketingandmindset.com/ Judith Atkinson

    Thinking about geopocketing with Twitter and local lost cats
    led me to think about other ideas for Twitter on a mobile phone. Great way to contact local people in an emergency – doctor or ambulance. What about a local event that you want to remind people about of special shopping event.? In countries like UK where the weather is currently snow bloced why not tweetingto warn drivers road that are blocked or icey roads?

  • http://twitter.com/kristinhall27 kristinhall27

    Geo-targeting tweets would be ideal. Perhaps it comes down to utilizing a mapping feature or having settings built in with an easy-choice feature. The settings could break down local, regional, national, int. Who knows – but I definitely think you're on to something here.

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  • http://www.joshchandlerblog.com Josh Chandler

    yeah, I would love to see Foursquare make that a “to-develop” add-on for their service! :)

  • http://www.joshchandlerblog.com Josh Chandler

    :)

  • http://www.joshchandlerblog.com Josh Chandler

    yes, and this is where people reckon Google and Microsoft will now benefit with local listings on Bing.com and Google.com (thanks to Twitter!)

  • http://www.tgapgeorge.com TGAPGeorge

    Heh, looks like you're about to start another small biz, Chris!

  • Jimmy

    That's a great “blink” idea Chris. Shannon – You nailed it! Yes!

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