A Couple of Thoughts on Foursquare

I’ve been using or should I say playing around on Foursquare for about five months. My initial reaction is that Foursquare is plain silly.  However, I keep “checking-in” and I keep accepting friend requests. Next thing I know, I want to be part of the 4SQ action. These guys are on to something.

For businesses Foursquare is rather simple, you have an easily accessible demographic profile that costs you nothing. You’ve got customers that have tried your products that you could potentially market to and/or incentives a return visit. You’ve basically got a low budget loyalty program. Because the information is real and the price is right why shouldn’t businesses get into the 4SQ action? They should. If you own a storefront get in now!

So individuals using Foursquare might get a small incentive for checking in at stores, and the lucky mayor of each store may get a slightly larger bonus for playing along. Does the individual 4SQ participant receive any other value from the experience? I believe they do. For one I find it fun tracking my friends, and it’s really awesome if you happen to check-in at a location with someone else on your friend list. I’m not even going to addresses the virtual badges, but you find yourself almost genetically wanting more of them.

The Foursquare API is enabling an even deeper experience for the end user. A neat add-on site to Foursquare is called CheckoutCheckins. This site allows you to see visually on a Google Map all the places you’ve proactively checked-in.  On our last vacation to South Carolina, I made a concerted effort to check-in often and frequently to document my vacation. Likewise, when I revisited my vacation path at CheckoutCheckins.com I was like when did we go to Columbia, SC? Oh yeah we went to the Columbia Zoo. I had forgotten about that.