10 Ways GPS is influencing today’s social networking

We know that GPS technology is finding more and more applications to improve our day to day activities. For example, there are various GPS enabled apps which can be of great help to us such as school bus tracking, parent portal and school mobile app which puts emphasis on the safety of students and allow parents to track their children’s whereabouts. The application of GPS technology is therefore not just limited to specific objectives like finding the right path when we are stuck in a place or searching the nearest restaurant. It can be used for more distinct things that we could ever dream of. Now we will see how GPS influence today’s social networking activities.

1. Helping hands for veterans

How do we make sure that veterans understand they have a peer network they can trust on in a time of need? Today, apps have been created using GPS technology, exclusively for veterans to prevent them from feeling alone and without deep pockets. There are a number of social media apps which can be used by veterans when they move to a new place and are looking for friends, to locate people nearby and to find a health care while traveling. The support network these apps create will help fend off the worst outcomes of loneliness and mental sickness and support veterans in a great way.

2. Follow your friends

Most of us want to follow our friends and dear ones, once they step out of their homes for a cup of coffee, a stroll up the street etc. We see their photos and wonder when they would be returning. For those of us who are connected with the new generation of social networking sites that uses satellite positioning technology, it is now easier as never before to see and monitor our best ones. We can view the location of our friends using GPS tracking apps and get in touch with them through the system.

Also Read: 27 Best GPS Tracking Apps for Android and iOS

3. Let customers find you

If you have a website for your local business, wouldn’t it be immense if prospective customers can easily find your location? This can be made feasible with Geo tagging. You can use this technology to let your customers know precisely where you are. There are plenty of unique ways that Geo tagging can benefit your online presence. If you are a little local business, then you can really benefit by labeling your business in all of your content. You will be able to reach people that are close by, so when they go over your content or website, they can effortlessly find your location!

4. Fun games

Have you ever wondered how you could facilitate kids in learning navigation skills using a compass and following coordinates? If you haven’t, it’s high time you should have known more about fun activities which are specifically designed for assisting children of all ages to play and learn with fun. The GPS enabled fun games allow kids to search or hide items and share their adventures online. It is an exciting way to help children learn about the world around them.

5. Tracking teens’ whereabouts

Teens love to publicize their whereabouts using location services. Many of us think that it is potentially risky for teens to put themselves on the map. But we can help our teens balance the social aspects they want with the safety protections they need with a number of downloadable location apps. Nowadays GPS tracking apps integrate features that cover a wide spectrum of capabilities from simple street directions for social networking safety. These programs help us to track our teens’ whereabouts and give alerts immediately when they arrive at or leave a place.

6. Monitoring people for enhancing security

Did you know? GPS enabled software is aiding governments and security professionals to track individuals via social media posts. Yes, the use of GPS tracking technology supports law enforcers to ensure security and monitor individuals to locations they frequent. Mobile phone calls and social media posts are monitored and linked to CCTV systems to deal with the homeland security thereby bringing security tracking to a new level!

7. Know your customers

GPS tracking technology is now used to track the behavior of customers to improve digital marketing campaigns. You can now collect location based data and a wealth of information regarding your customer’s shopping activity, behavior and preferences of buyers, length of time the customers spend for visiting your website etc. This helps you to improve your insights about the local market & the consuming behavior of your target customers.

8. Share your adventures live!

Share your adventures with others live (or afterwards) as you are doing them! Share it on a map with embedded photos, audio, videos, tweets and other media. You can create a map of your route live and share it with your friends. Each map you create can either be publicly visible to the world or only visible to you – even though you can set a default privacy setting, this can be altered for each map. Using these excellent outdoor GPS apps you can find people and interact with them, meet friends who live on the route, track friends using the map on your phone etc. It is an excellent way of improving your hiking experience!

9. Tracing trivial things

We often have an urge to let others know what we eat, drink and shop. Today a lot of social mapping apps allow us to trace the trivial things of daily life in even more minute detail. These apps are really appealing as it sends real-time recommendations on what to drink, eat and buy once we check into a location. The features of these social mapping apps include:

• Simple privacy controls
• Temporary sharing option
• Parental restrictions
• Locating family and friends easily

10. Sharing real-time road info

Ever wondered if you could join drivers in your area to share real-time traffic info? Well, now you can know! It would help you to outsmart traffic and improve daily commuting for everyone. Millions of drivers out on the roads jointly work towards a common goal to get everyone the best route to work and back, everyday. A number of social GPS apps help drivers to share real-time road info, including traffic, speed cams, police, accidents and many more with each other.

Advantages

• Can navigate to the cheapest station on your route, report prices at the pump and save some gas money.
• Can see other friends who are driving to your destination, when you connect to Facebook.
• Can coordinate your friends’ arrival times when you pick up or meet up with them.
• Can get alerts before you approach accidents, police, road hazards, traffic jams, etc. shared by other drivers in real-time.