I met up with a few hundred &quot;Internet Marketers&quot; .. none were checked in on @Foursquare

Sunday, November 7

I met up with a few hundred "Internet Marketers" .. none were checked in on @Foursquare

A friend asked me to meet him at a Vegas resort where hundreds of "Internet Marketers" were holding a big event.

Some of these people are very successful entrepreneurs, some quite successful, looking to learn from those making millions

I've often wondered just how much you can learn from someone who says social media is a passing fad. (the answer "PLENTY".. They know what works and the basics of business are the same

So I checked in on #FourSquare.. and I was the only one!

I'm only connected to a few thousand people on @Fourquare, so I made sure I checked the venue where many thousand of people, and all of these conference attendee were located. One from a few hours before.

I seriously thought my connection was broken.. that I had found a glitch in my phone's app.

So I asked around. "Why would I want people to know where I am?" was the common response.

My contacts there included dozens of "gurus".. people who speak at public events and have thousands of followers and students of marketing. Experts at "membership communities" and "local marketing" were on stage there.

I knew that Foursqure wasn't for everyone.. and I'm of the opinion that MOST people will never checkin as part of a game.. but what concerned me was the fact that these were marketers at a seminar looking for "the next big thing"

Several discussions about concerns of someone well known getting accosted by people, or women who don't want to be stalked. I think that is perfectly normal and appropriate thinking.. each individual choice is valid.

When one guru told me they had never heard of Foursquare.. I knew I was on to something. These are the same types of comments I was hearing about Twitter and Facebook back in 2007-08. I think planning on them being wrong is a pretty safe bet

Checking the agenda. Not one Social Media speaker at that conference. What does that tell you?

Contrast this with @Blogworld (#BWE10) or #pubcon.. at these events, there will be hundreds of users checking in. Laptops open, blogging and posting updates.. and another trend.. These are the types of conferences that are growing.

When asked why I declined to attend that event, I said "There's 200 people here talking "Internet marketing" Tomorrow, I'll be one of 200 SPEKERS at #pubcon"