A Wider Net

GeoTagging is a relatively new process of tagging media with geographical location information. This allows, for example, viewers of photos to determine where they were shot, and even the angle from which the shot was taken. Tracking media, or users, by geographical location has obvious benefits for social media sharing. But are the benefits to marketers as obvious?

GeoTagging can be seen in action at several sites like Frappr and the popular Yahoo-owned photo sharing site Flickr. The attached photo is an example of what you can do with Flickr - I quickly searched for photos shot in Vermont tagged “Fall Foliage“. Believe me, it’s a LOT easier than driving around dodging distracted leaf-peepers! Flickr added this feature only a few weeks ago and already there are over 5 million images GeoTagged.
You can also see how one advertising blogger has used GeoTagging to plot the locations of his readers.

Devices are starting to arrive that provide easy ways to incorporate GeoTagging into photography, blogging, and other media logging. Sony’s GPS-CS1 stores GPS coordinates every time you take a photo using a compatible Sony camera. I’m sure there are cameras already out there that do this internally, and several PDA’s are equipped with GPS devices that allow you to GeoTag blog entries or photos. This process might be called GeoMoBlogging (I’m honestly not sure) but it hurts to even type something that goofy.

Steve Rubel (Micro Persuasion, AdAge) shared an interesting view of GeoTagging, offering a glimpse into ways marketers will eventually use GeoTagging to target consumers. His examples refer to advertisers targeting users based on their locations, or based on the locations of the information they request. This has exciting potential for advertisers, especially for advertisers of regional events.

I think the potential for GeoTagging is still being sorted out, as are many different technical conventions, but it’s a fascinating phenomenon and I look forward to updating you as we spot new uses.