Practically everybody knows what a social networking site is and a lot of people are heavily involved in them. For this reason, they have become a major platform for online marketers with most companies now adopting some form of social media marketing strategy. There are many different social networking sites around now, with Facebook and Twitter being the most popular in most cases, however with a proven track record of such strong success within the social networking world, is there really room for another? Foursquare is the newest addition to the social networking family and although it has been around for less than a year, has been more successful than most people anticipated.
In case you are not familiar with foursquare, it is a cleverly designed application that has combined the popularity of mobile internet accessing and social networking. Foursquare is actually an application for mobile phones, yet at the same time a social networking site of some sort. The major factor of Foursquare is that it is based around geographical location and focuses on the idea of locating friends who are at the same place as you, recommending places nearby to friends and checking into specific venues. The idea does seem quite good and one positive spin on it is that it does bridge the gap a little more between the online world and reality as it incorporates tangible places.
The other part to Foursquare is the ‘game’ element. Basically, when a user visits or ‘checks in’ to a specific place they are awarded badges. A set number of badges enable a reward of some description, usually by the venue visited. This again is a good tactic by Foursquare, as it is mixing the real business world with the social networking world.
Now, the question which you may be thinking is that surely it is no use unless all your friends are on Foursquare? Well, the even cleverer feature is that the way in which you locate your friends is via your Facebook and Twitter accounts, so whilst users do need to download the foursquare app to their mobile phones, they do not need to go through the rigmarole of setting up a new profile and adding friends straight away.
The big debate is that from a social media marketing perspective, should we be getting involved in Foursquare? Well, the fact that it is already linked to Facebook and Twitter means that we are probably involved already to some degree. There is speculation that Yahoo, Google and Bing have shown interest in the social networking application and with an estimated 200 million users already, it is certainly one to watch. From a business strategy point of view, getting involved with the venue badges and rewards could certainly be a way to increase custom and profits and build up a loyal customer base.
All in all, there is not really anything bad to say about Foursquare, it is compatible with the majority of smart phones and if it gets the backing of one of the major players, who knows where it will end.
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Posted by Steve.
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