A New User's Guide to Untappd

Untappd is social network for beer lovers. The network is similar to Foursquare, but you check-in to beers, rate them, and share your location. Based on your reviews, Untappd will recommend new beers for you to try. You can also request friends to keep track of what others are drinking, where they are, and see how they have rated beers.

Untappd will only appeal to a very specific market. For what the app offers, I think it does an excellent job. The app is very similar to Foursquare and easy to use. Additionally like Foursqaure, Untappd uses gamification to reward users with badges for their check-ins. For example, you’ll get the “Land of the Free” badge for checking-in to five different American beers. To make the service available to everyone, Untappd was built as a web app so anyone can access the service without downloading the app. Mashable called the service, “one of the most well-done mobile web apps we've seen.”

The app allows users to share their updates to Facebook, Twitter, and Foursquare. This functionality will help get Untappd in front of more potential users, similar to Instagram's technique. Upon further inspection, it’s doubtful that users will share all of their activity on their social networks. As Simon Sage smartly points out, sharing the number of beers you have one night may do damage to your image on Facebook or Twitter where potential employers may lurk. This rule may not apply to everyone, but it is something to consider. If you are interested in keeping your drinking habits to yourself, Untappd has a feature to keep your account private.

The future of Untappd could hold a lot of potential for bars and restaurants. The beer social network could introduce a few proximity-marketing techniques to really serve businesses that serve beer. For example, if a user walks by a restaurant, Untappd could send that person an update of that business’s seasonal beers or their happy hour deals. It would be a great technique to get people in the door. Additionally, if a user lists a beer as their favorite, Untappd could send the user a notification letting them know that their favorite beer is on tap nearby.

Beyond their app, Untappd keeps a presence on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram up-to-date. After some quick browsing, they use these other social networks to promote their products and answer user questions. It just shows that they care about their users and are actively trying to make their product better. I haven’t been a member for very long, but email communications could work very well with the service. Breweries or bars you have visited could update their beers and Untappd could send weekly newsletters updating you on the newest beers in your area.

I downloaded Untappd and think I'll keep it for awhile. We'll see if this app gets to keep the prime real estate on my phone's homescreen.

What do you think of Untappd? Are you a big enough beer fan to enjoy it?