In a huge win for geolocation services like Foursquare and Gowalla, Facebook has quietly said they will be stepping out of the check-in game. Facebook launched it’s checkin service a year ago and it just never caught on like other services had. Facebook users will be able to update their status and tag a location instead of ‘checking-in’.

Some users may be upset but Facebook was reporting that only about 6% of users were using the application the way they had hoped. Early adopters of geolocation say that they weren’t using Facebook places because they were already invested in another geolocation service that offered them more functionality. Some have even said that they didn’t use Facebook check-ins because they were not as close to their Facebook friends as they were to their Foursquare/Gowalla friends and they weren’t sure they needed all of their Facebook friends knowing where they were at any given time.

The takeaways:

1. Facebook can’t destroy everything. Facebook Places was supposed to destroy Foursquare and Gowalla but they seemed to make it through unscathed. Actually, Foursquare is thriving. Many feel Facebook (and Google) wait to see what applications become popular and then they just launch it themselves.
2. Being the biggest doesn’t mean you are perfect for every application. Facebook may have the problem of being too big. Adding a geolocation service made a lot of people uncomfortable. An online community that has your significant other, best friends, old high school friends, neighbors, old professors, your grandparents and an ex or two – may not be the right audience to tell where you are located at all times.
3. Early adopters are no longer on Facebook. A service like geolocation gets momentum from early adopters but now Facebook is the norm, not something new. Trying new advanced functions may turn off the general Facebook population.

What do you think? Did any of you use Facebook check-ins a lot?

Not sure if anyone else is keeping an eye on this internet all-star battle of words and blog posts but this is definitely an issue that a lot of people seem to have an opinion on.

Locally and globally, businesses are trying to figure out how to ‘cash in’ on social media. I know quite a few social media coaches and professionals. I also have to admit, some people I have met in my travels are a bit out of hand.

Over a year ago, LinkedIn told us about the rise in professional Social Media Ninjas. We all know about the rise in social media agencies, conferences, how-to books, articles and programming. Many of us are aware but others seem to have had enough…

Much ado about social media experts

This recent trail seems to have started when Gary Vaynerchuk, while promoting his book, The Thank You Economy, on TechCrunch said:

”99.5 percent of the people that walk around and say they are a social media expert or guru are clowns,”

That interview and one line made it to the end of the internet and back in record time. To see the full clip from the interview you can view it here.

The next big name to get in on the action was Peter Shankman, from HARO, who wrote a post called I Will Never Hire a “Social Media Expert,” and Neither Should You. Peter definitely lets his readers know exactly what he is thinking here. You should check it out and be sure to read through the comments (pro-tip: sometimes in these big famous bloggers blogs the best content is actually in the comments).

Phew… end of story, right? Social Media Experts are bad?

Not so fast… in comes Rand Fishkin from SEOmoz Everyone Should Hire ‘Social Media Experts’. Know why I like Rand? Data. This man has access to some really robust data thanks to his own tools but he uses it to back up his points and I totally appreciate that.

Oooh boy! So what say you? The big guys are coming out of their corners and stating their opinion… what about you – the independent consultants, the social media managers of businesses, the marketers, the small business owner – do you have an opinion? Are we headed for a dot com burst or will it all sort itself out?

Read Carl’s full recap here.

Read more about SMBME #7 on our archive page

Carl Natale, blogger at large on small businesses in Maine, wrote a great summary of the last breakfast where we covered using social media in the travel, tourism and recreation industries. Read his whole article here.