Recently I was involved with a terrific event put on by the Boulder Chamber of Commerce: Social Media 2010 – The Business Edition. It was a well-attended conference and colleagues such as Vococreative and Misty Montano really helped humanize a topic which can often be taken as the end-all-be-all to marketing. There is so much more to social networking and the use of social media tools which is unrelated to business and strongly woven into issues of personal use. Even during my own segment on the topic of “Geolocation: Foursquare for Retail Businesses”, I was only able to graze the other side of geolocation – that of the importance of personal safety. A couple of people in my sessions raised the question, “Aren’t you worried about people knowing where you are?” For me, it’s not as much a question of fear, but of common sense. Mine is not the first, nor will it be the last, but here is a short list of things to keep in mind when using your geolocation tool of choice:

1. Checkin when you’re leaving instead of when you arrive
2. Allow notifications to go to your connected friends, not all your social networking sites
3. Use the “stealth” or “off the grid” option when your location is a more private matter
4. When meeting your friends IRL  visually fix on them first, then checkin
5. Don’t checkin at all