Foursquare – Location based social media
I must admit when my colleague told me about foursquare, my first reaction was ‘Not another social media platform’. It takes a lot of commitment to maintain the ones I am already on and now to add another one, not sure if I wanted to. But I gave it a shot and to my surprise and a pleasant one at that I released it not competing with my facebook and twitter profiles and time but kind off complements it. Four square is typical location based social networking platform that can be downloaded in form of a software application for your mobile devices like iPhone, Android, Blackberry, or Palm and for any other Smart phone devices it can be used through their mobile website.Things users can do with Four Square
The app helps you find new ways to explore the city. You can meet up with your friends its lets you earn points and unlock badges for discovering new places, doing new things and meeting new people. You can also choose to have the Twitter and/or their Facebook accounts updated when they check in, unlock a badge or become a mayor of a place. Users of foursquare can also earn badges by checking in at locations with certain tags or for check-in frequency. If a user has checked-in to a venue more than anyone else, on separate days, and they have a profile photo, they will be crowned “Mayor” of that venue, until someone else earns the title by checking in more times than the previous mayor. Users can create a “To Do” list for their private use and add “Tips” to venues that other users can read, which serve as suggestions for great things to do, see or eat at the location. As of March 2010, the service had 500,000 users internationally.
How retailers and vendors can benefit?
Enterprising retail business owners can tap on the potential of foursquare which gets consumers to review their services and products. Better the reviews and more the check-ins they get, it adds to their popularity and gets people talking about it. Retailers and vendors can promote more check ins by offering discounts to customers with a top volume of check ins and even encourage free services for the mayor.
Jamshed Wadia is a technology Marketer with over a decade of experience in various Sales and Marketing roles in Asia region. He is an avid blogger and founder and chief author of the blog ’Corridor Conversations’. He is a social media enthusiast with penchant for anything digital. You can connect with him on LinkedIn, Facebook and follow his personal updates on Twitter @JamshedWadia
