Initial Impressions of Foursquare How About You?

Are you overwhelmed by technology, in particular social media?  For the average business owner trying to leverage the internet to market their business, it can be daunting.  Fact is, some of the most successful internet marketers are also the least active in social media.  I have been slow to test new applications because either subscribers haven’t asked for it, or there was no value to readers who are looking for leverage in their marketing.  While social media generates a lot of interest and traffic, social media success stories for business are still more the exception than the rule.  Last week I decided it was time to checkout Foursquare, and below are my initial impressions, and an invitation to share yours.

Initial Impressions of Foursquare How About You?

While at InfusionCon in Phoenix last week, I decided to finally get my feet wet with Foursquare.  There’s been a lot of buzz about this application in recent months, and since mobile marketing is the next frontier for small business, I decided to give it a peek.  Here’s what I’ve found in the few days since installing it.

Works well on Blackberry

The app downloaded and installed on my Blackberry with relative easy, no reboot required. This is good because for whatever reason my Blackberry 9630 takes some time to reboot.

Let’s Me Check In

Foursquare uses the internal GPS to determine where I’m at, and then presents several options.  One of those is ‘checking in’ at a location you are at or near.  Checking in also give you the option to notify your friends and add a brief message as well.

There is another feature called “Tips” from what I gather, this allows me to me to read others tips, and present my own for a given check in place.  One might recommend a particular dish at a restaraunt, or even a server.  Whatever tip you think would help others regarding a given check in point.

Let’s Me See Others Nearby

Pretty self explanitory.  You can see other Foursquare users near you.  Unfortunately, the event I was at, only had two others who had ‘checked in’, not so good at an event of 1000+ people.  Yet I wasn’t too surprised, as this is a relatively new technology.

There was also a Twitter option, “View Tweets Nearby”.  It passes search parameters to Twitter for others nearby (within 1 mile) your location.

Adding Friends

There are 4 ways to add friends:

• Scanning the local address book on the device
• Twitter friends (enter Twitter ID)
• Search by Name
• Find using a phone number

I used the address book, as the next most appealing option was the Twitter ID, I was surprised how quickly it returned search results for friends on Twitter, wow.

How Will This Add Value

Considering Twitters lethargic path to profitability, a company like Foursquare needs to monetize quickly.  There are two primary areas where value could be added.

Location Based Mobile Marketing for Consumers
Getting coupons and invites for promotions of businesses near where you are.  Saving money just by driving around town!  Being rewarded for being a customer at a place you checked in, get a coupon for coming back to an establishment you’ve given business to in the past.
Location Based Mobile Marketing for Businesses
Encourage others to ‘check in’ with incentives, coupons, and raffels.

Sidenote: a location has a “mayor”.  Mayor’s apparently have some clout (not sure yet just what that is).

Small businesses can work with mayors of their establishment to encourage activity, for example, a coffee shop could have an incentive for the mayor such as “Check in once a week for a free latte.”  Their friends see where they hang out and create a social magnet, crowd customers, or however you’d want to reference it.

Have Your Own Impressions of Foursquare?

Using the service?  What are your likes?  Dislikes?  Chime in below.