In many of our training and consulting engagements we gravitate towards the use of archetypes to depict common behaviors, both constructive and destructive. Two that come to mind are: Facilitation Patterns and Anti-Patterns (ThoughtWorks) and The Requirements Super Heroes and Villains (Organic).
This morning, I really enjoyed this collection from the Dachis Group as related to location based services, The Mayor of Players and Other Location Based Services Archetypes.
In the article, Brad Kenney identifies a number of behaviors exhibited by frequent users of location based services, such as Foursquare, Facebook and Yelp. They include:
The “trend setter” … takes pride in being the first of social group to begin using a new service or feature.
The “time killer” … looks to alleviate boredom or fill time using mobile apps such as LBS.
The “social surfer” … sees who else has checked in to a specific place, enjoys voyeuristic exploration of other user profiles.
The “mayor of players” … enthusiastically engages in competitive behaviors such as “mayorship battles”.
The “scavenger hunter” … looks to create a collection of experiences, badges and/or other artifacts.
The “status seeker” … only checks in to the “right places” and is concerned with maintaining and enhancing personal brand.
The “knowledge miner” … searches for the most recent or relevant information from LBS services to improve customer experience by gaining the knowledge of regular patrons.
The “do-gooder” … is incented to participate by a perception that their activities are having a positive impact on others, the planet, etc.
The “social seeker” … announces location in order to facilitate real-world interaction with friends or enable serendipitous interaction and connection with friends or strangers.
The “trip planner” … facilitates social bonding or group cohesion by using LBS to plan group outings.
The “life logger” … obsessively tracks life lists, captures past activities/personal or experiential history for pleasure or for “quantified self” programs.
The “discount hunter” … actively searches for location-based coupons/deals to save money.
A final wild card archetype to consider in this LBS tarot deck is the “privacy activist”, who is so concerned about privacy issues that overly promoted check-ins, push notifications etc. may cause negative sentiment or hostile or aversive behaviors that then are relayed to their social network – which is the exact opposite of the intended effect of any social campaign.
How accurate do these archetypes seem to you? Does anyone in your social circles resemble one or more of them?