In the world of social media, there are many social media applications like Facebook, blogs, social bookmarking, video sharing and so on. There’s also this growing trend of applications that are called location-based applications, where people can “check-in” at the particular location that they are presently at. Some well-known applications are Yelp, Facebook Places, Foursquare, Gowalla and Neer, Loopt, SCVNGR are probably the lesser known ones. What makes location-based applications interesting, is the fact that you can let your friends know where you are in a city and if they want, they could join you at your location. Another cool feature of location-based application like Yelp, is that people can leave comments or reviews about the place that has been visited. This allows their followers or friends to know what’s good and not so good at the particular place.
One of the most prominent location-based application is that of Foursquare. Started in 2009, the number of users of Foursquare has increased exponentially over the past two years and now has 10 million users utilizing this application. Foursquare allows people to check into places to share with their friends as well as write reviews of places that they have just “checked in”. Users of foursquare can check into places using smartphones, and while doing so, they can even earn badges, points or even become the “mayor” of the location. Users can check into places like restaurants, cafes, grocery stores, museums and so on.
Here’s a short video for you explaining what Foursquare is about:
[howcast url=’http://www.howcast.com/videos/386406-How-To-Unlock-Your-World-With-Foursquare’ height=’240′ width=’360′]
I think applications like this is fun because it allows you to meet new people, discover new places, and allows you to appreciate your surroundings.
Here’s an interesting infographic about Foursquare and details the usage of this application all over the world. Looking at it, it seems that location-based application is a powerful tool. [Click the infographic to see animation]
In addition, I think businesses can stand a chance to benefit from location-based applications such as Foursquare or Yelp or Gowalla. It would be an attractive way for them to attract customers and retain loyal customers. For instance, as many of these applications already have in place, is the use of discount coupons for users of these applications. In a way, it allows the user to benefit obviously because of the discount coupons, but also allows businesses to jump on the social media bandwagon. I think this applications will allow the businesses to know more about their audiences and hence probably develop products that will cater to audiences tastes.
Some successful companies that have jumped on the Foursquare bandwagon are Dunkin Donuts, where it allowed users who overshared on Foursquare to win the chance of being the President of “Dunkin Nation”. Other such businesses that ran similar campaigns are Pepsi which revealed sweepstakes for badge users and allowed them to have a chance of attending a world series games.
Recently, there was this campaign in which Foursquare and Monopoly joined forces and created this mash-up called “Foursquarepoly.” I believe that it will allow monopoly lovers to check out Foursquare to play the game. What’s awesome about this campaign is that it may help to revive people’s love for Monopoly as well as attracting new users to Foursquare, and this is a win-win situation for both companies. It allows people to interact with one another in a fun, delightful and interactive way.
Here’s a short video showing how “Foursquarepoly” works:
Here’s another video for you to enjoy. Pee-wee Herman using Four-square for a day! 🙂
Enjoy and have a great week ahead! 🙂
Cheers,
Vera
Sources/Credits:
Foursquare: https://foursquare.com
Mashable: http://mashable.com/2011/06/20/foursquare-10-million/
All things about Foursquare: http://aboutfoursquare.com/category/fun/
Videos: http://www.howcast.com