Foursquare is a location based social networking application and game for smartphones making a lot of noise in the media of late. It may sound useless to some, but the location based technology driving foursquare is here to stay. It is a fun way to understand more about your surroundings and an interesting way to attract and keep more business.
For those who don’t know foursquare, here’s a brief description from their website:
Foursquare is a mobile application that makes cities easier to use and more interesting to explore. It is a friend-finder, a social city guide and a game that challenges users to experience new things, and rewards them for doing so. Foursquare lets users “check in” to a place when they’re there, tell friends where they are and track the history of where they’ve been and who they’ve been there with. Read more >>
Foursquare seems to have risen to prominence over its competitors such as brightkite.com and gowalla.com according to site metrics data from compete.com
As a whole, my experience with foursquare has been entertaining, however I do feel apprehensive at giving away my location too often. Here are the elements of foursquare that appeal most to me and the features I feel it lacks.
NOTE: I am using the foursquare app for the iPhone so functionality may vary for your device.
What’s good about it?
For Fun
Earning badges and mayorships is a fun way to build status amongst your friends and the foursquare community. It is an interesting way to find other foursquare users with common interests. Once the application is installed on your handset, it’s quick to checkin and the rewards can be a nice touch.
For Business
Business owners on foursquare typically offer special incentives for checking in. For example, becoming a mayor of a Starbucks may earn you a complimentary cup of coffee. While checking in at the PunkLogic office may earn you a hot date with Matt Lawton. The main advantage for a business is that the customer’s location is communicated to their friends providing, in effect, free advertising. But it can also work as a loyalty driver of course.
How could it be better?
For Business
If business owners on foursquare could produce their own badges, they’d be able to customise their value-add. These badges could be offered as a reward for ticking off to-do’s. For example, if PunkLogic could offer a ‘SuperNerd’ badge for those who have checked in and implemented a new online strategy with us, it would be a fun way to engage our clients’ sense of achievement and help to promote us via their network.
For Everyone
Maybe I am missing something, but why can I not add an image to my checkin status? It also seems too tricky to automate an update to your twitter, facebook or linkedin status. Opening the application on your phone does not always automatically find the venue local to you and sometimes you have to spend time locating it in the list. As more venues are added, checking in to a venue might become harder. The value of the service relies to a large extent on the tips that are added by users themselves and without greater emphasis placed on that feature, there will be a softening in up-take.
Feature devleopment is all important in staying ahead of the pack, and I predict they will be enhanced in the near future. That is of course, if facebook places doesn’t blow foursquare out of the water in the mean time.
Here’s a short list of resources connected to location-based marketing that you might find useful:
A Field Guide to Using Facebook Places http://dlvr.it/3zdX7 (via @prgeek)
How To Use The Foursquare Dashboard http://bit.ly/9JXaX5 (via @mattsingley)
5 Simple Ways Your Business Can Leverage Foursquare http://bit.ly/b7KtBs (via @jangles)
Have you been using foursquare?
We would love to hear your experiences with foursquare for business and pleasure. When have you found it useful? Please leave a comment below.
Tags: location based, mobile, social media