A Little More Context With Location Based Social Networking

I'm a pretty private person. I'm very careful about the information I provide online. When I travel I try not to give any indication I'm out of town. If I've got things to post I usually wait until I'm back home to do it. I never give out when I'm taking vacation and I don't have my birthday posted on Facebook.

By now you've probably figured out I have not been a big user of location based social networking sites. That may be changing though. Here's a pretty cool video from foursquare.

Our First #4sqVid from foursquare on Vimeo.

So, what's this stuff really about? A recent post at The Social Media Marketing Blog says it's all about context. What's context? To me, its the circumstances that form the setting for an event. For example, the same words can have completely different meaning depending on the circumstances (location, audience, environment, etc). Context is also easy access to relevant content when a user needs it. It can be as simple as where to get the best cup of coffee or finding a place to eat nearby that serves really good fried clams (one of my biggest personal weaknesses).

Curating the most relevant subject knowledge, finding information that’s useful in real time. So simple and makes so much sense. It may be time to turn on my mobile device GPS radio and bring a little more context ( highly controlled of course :) into my life!