Hands up who likes Facebook check-ins

by Mark Frary

The result of a show of hands during a conference session is rarely surprising. The idea is generally that it gives the speaker comfort that what they are about to say strikes a chord or that the results (“Anyone new to Twitter here?”) can be used to gauge the level at which the presentation is pitched.

A show of hands at the inaugural WTM Latin America exhibition did surprise me however. I was in São Paulo running a number of sessions for the conference alongside the exhibition and all were well attended. I suspected the last session of the week would be the most popular and so it proved. After all, everyone wants to hear someone from Facebook talk, don’t they?

We were lucky enough to have João Carlos Pastore, Facebook’s client partner for travel in Brazil on the podium, and the room was packed with people wanting to hear whether the omnipresent social network was a threat, an opportunity - or both.

His opening question to the audience surprised me. “How many people here have used Facebook to check in to the conference centre today?”

I turned to the audience expecting to see a small number of hands among the sea of faces. Instead, a good third of the room raised their hands.

I had known that Brazil was in love with Facebook - it is the second biggest nation on the network as we reported in our recent country report on Brazil - but I hadn’t realised to what extent the love affair extended.

It’s also worth remembering that checking in using Facebook is a relatively recent innovation. It only launched Places in 2010 before shutting it down in 2011 and moving over to what we have now - where anything you post can have a location attached. (It also bought and closed down geolocation network Gowalla during this period.) The vote of affirmation from the audience showed just how much people like the idea of geolocation - or at least have not opted out in their privacy settings. In fact, more than 250 million check-ins are made every month, according to Facebook.

At WTM Latin America, Pastore then went on to reveal the top ten check-in locations in Brazil. Eight of the ten were airports, showing just how important Facebook and geolocation are in the world of travel.

It is not just Brazil either. A look at this check-in ranking from Socialbakers shows that airports dominate the lists. The top place is Los Angeles International Airport, with more than 2 million check-ins (beating Facebook HQ in Palo Alto by a couple of hundred thousand - its high position presumably as a result of a company policy or extensive testing before launch).

The prevalence of airports is very telling. People have to waste a lot of time at airports, going through security, sitting at the gate and so on. Increasingly, there is free wi-fi at airports too. Spare time and ease of connection are made for check-ins.

Yet the bragging factor cannot be underestimated. Who doesn’t want to show off to the friends and colleagues they are leaving behind when they are heading off on a trip? And if social media isn’t about bragging, then what is it about?