Large investment and ratcheting memberships are pushing Foursquare to the forefront of the social network world, with local and national retailers fond of the model.
Leading the location-based social networking services, the free Foursquare application and membership allow people to flag where they are and interact to shop, communicate or play games.
Services like Google”™s Latitude, Gowalla, Loopt and Where are all chasing the heels of the geo-positioning model of Foursquare
This year, New York City-based Foursquare was rumored to be in acquisition talks with Yahoo and Facebook, but decided it was too soon to sell. The company recently finished a $20 million round of venture capital funding.
Ashley Kane, manager of Wishlist, a clothing retailer with locations in Westport, Greenwich and Darien, is utilizing Foursquare to create a contest. By showing up at the store you can earn points to becoming a ”˜mayor”™ of the location, the winner of the contest receives a gift card.
“On a national level, Starbucks is really one of the only companies using Foursquare to their advantage by offering various discounts via this platform to drive people into their stores,” said Kane. “On a local level, Wishlist is one of the first to do the same. It will help drive traffic into our locations and we get a ton of information out of it. You get rewarded for coming in; you don”™t even have to buy anything.”
Such services are part of a rising wave in mobile advertising, which is expected become 10 times the size of the market it is now by 2013.
“Being of this generation and watching it unfold, I think it”™s a really big thing,” said Kane.
Kane said getting Wishlist involved in Foursquare is in great part due to the work of Fairfield County blogger Arax-Rae Van Buren and her blog Kissandtype.com.
“We were looking at other ways of spreading our name through media,” said Kane. “Every business is on Facebook and LinkedIn but this is different and new.”
Kane said being on Foursquare also pulls in new customers by being part of the Foursquare community. Wishlist even hired an individual who had just moved to the area and found the store solely through Foursquare.
“It really does have that kind of power,” said Kane. “They can see that we”™re on it, it gives people a reason to come in.”
Kane said one of the best features of Foursquare is its analytics system, allowing her to see a detailed analysis of demographics.
One of the largest drivers of Foursquare access is how many “smart” phones are out there. According to the market researching company Nielsen, Internet connective phones are expected to account for the majority of all cell phones in the U.S. by the end of 2011.
Since it began last year, Foursquare has established partnerships with more than 15,000 businesses, including Starbucks and CNN and is adding up to 15,000 users every day.
