Chris Thorman from Software Advise called me a few weeks ago to check out a blog post he wrote. Since he took time to call, I did so and oh my did he get me excited! In his post, “Searching for Real Estate Made Easy: Geo-Fences Plus Mobile Phones“, Chris talks about how realtors can use this technology called Geo-fences to notify home buyers about the property when they are near the home’s vicinity. Brilliant!

But let’s back up a little bit. What is a Geo-fence? You’ve probably heard or seen of products where a parent receives a notification if their child goes beyond a certain distance from a location. That’s Geo-fences in action. It is a virtual perimeter. With the right software and service, anytime someone or something is removed or enters this perimeter, you get a notification.

I think Chris did an excellent job outlining and explaining how this technology can be so valuable to a realtor. I encourage you to check it out. One thing that struck me is the many requests – where to find a solution who can do just that? My searches have come up empty – at least for a real estate industry. But I did find services that might be of interest and maybe with a little creativity can be adapted to any business.

• ShopAlerts by placecast. ShopAlerts seems to be the closest option to something that can be used for Realtors or any local business. Not knowing the ins and outs of the process and software I can’t say if it is the solution or not. Definitely looks promising.
• Foursquare. This is not a service like ShopAlerts. But it’s a sort of alert plus game all rolled into one. You tap into the Foursquare user base by listing your business and perhaps sweeten the pot by offering a goodie to them. Whenever a Foursquare user is around the vicinity of your business, they get an alert of the special you are running. As users visit or check-in to these places, they begin a ‘count’ and earn badges. That’s the game element. It’s all pretty interesting and I can certainly see how attractive this is.
• BlockChalk. This is is also user centered. Anyone can leave a message anywhere. For example, if you are a local coffee shop and really loving it, you can ‘chalk’ it – write a short message about it. Other users who are in the vicinity or enters the vicinity will get to see what you’ve written about that spot/area etc. There is no sign up and completely open.

For businesses like ours who are completely online without local presence, it may not always be clear how one can apply it. Yet, I think we need to start getting more local. Maybe Foursquare may not be the right one, I can see BlockChalk being an interesting springboard for offline workshops and stuff like that. If you’ve put this technology into action in your business, let us know and share your experiences below.