Real-Time Foursquare Check-Ins

It has been something that had been bugging me for a while, being on a press trip or even just on holiday and tweeting, checking in yet not everyone was able to visualise the trip.

Non techie people that I knew just either weren’t on twitter or just couldn’t keep up with the commentary. People do find it difficult to visualise the trip as a whole and there was no way of getting a high level overview of the what has gone on.

This is usually why when developing anything for the web you really should put yourselves in your readers shoes, in reality not everyone is that savvy with social media platforms such as Twitter,  Foursquare, Instagram etc.

Sometimes we have to simplify things for people.

Twitter limitations

Tweeting on a hashtag is useful but not everyone follows and scrolls through the entire feed, a more likely scenario is that users pick up on the odd tweet coming through without bring able to visualise the trip as a whole.

Foursquare check ins are great but again how do people get an easy overview of where you’ve been on that trip?

Instagram Photos in Real-Time

The idea

It was only recently that I started to experiment with Instagram, having just purchased a new iPhone. I was pretty impressed with the apps ability to produce some stunning visuals with very little effort and I knew that it was the perfect travel app.

I began experimenting with instagram pages but soon realised that to give a general overview in real time Foursquare and twitter integration was needed. Our real-time pages bring together three slightly disjointed tools to paint an overall real-time picture of a trip that’s not only quite exciting for the traveler but also intriguing for the readers.

Twitter Hashtag

The Real-Time concept

For example, if you’re tweeting that you’ve eaten something amazing, let’s see an awesome Instagram photo, some tweets of your environment and lets actually see where you are too and in real-time on the same page.

Better Coverage

This real-time concept gives a extra dimensions to a trip,  adds more engaging content and coverage for a tourist board or travel company. This is valuable coverage that exposes the great work that travel bloggers are already doing on their travels and presents it in a digestible way for readers.

Potentially the real-time coverage can be generated by a group rather than just one individual, these pages can present the central landing page for a press trip where all coverage and content can be found.

Take a look at our first test of real time blogging when I tested it out in York, England.

You Too Can Blog in Real-Time

So your not that impressed? The average time on this real-time landing page was 19 minutes, quite a high figure especially considering it had over 350 page views.

On TravMonkey.com we are always looking to improve, to try new things and this is one if them. We are currently allowing existing users to sign up to try real time blogging on their travels, those that aren’t an existing user can express their interest by emailing editor@travmonkey.com.