In the most recent episode of The New Mediology podcast, Nathan, Alison, Ray, and I discussed, among other things, the rise of a mobile phone-based location aware game called Foursquare. Alison does a good job explaining it (jump to the 14:15 mark of the podcast on the New Mediology page to listen to the Foursquare discussion) but the idea behind Foursquare is this: businesses sign deals with Foursquare and the people within a city who visit the business "check-in" with their mobile phones whenever they visit. By checking in, the person is broadcasting to his or her friends their connection to that particular business, resulting in marketing exposure for the business. The person checking in may get special offers from that business for checking in, visit frequency, or becoming the "mayor" of the business (person who's been there the most). At that point it's up to the business to decide how to reward people.
So what's this mean for you? It depends. Maybe nothing much. Maybe a lot.
Three Options For Foursquare And Your Business
If your company doesn't have any physical location in which business with customers is conducted, this may not mean much for your business. I may be missing something here (and if I am someone please show me what I'm not seeing) but locations are key to Foursquare, and therefore the absence of a location makes Foursquare less applicable.
If your business has a physical location of any kind you will want to know, at the very least, if anyone has claimed mayorship of your location. It would be interesting to find out if you have a mayor you never knew about. If you find out you do, you've got some connecting to do pronto!
If your business is anything retail oriented, you are really going to want to keep your eye on Foursquare. It appears to be rolling out its services slowly across the country, so depending upon where you live, you may or may not be able to sign your business up with Foursquare yet. Here in Nashville, for instance, it's relatively new. Frozen yogurt retailer, Tasti D-Lite, is using it locally along with several other bars and restaurants. You can see a full list of the businesses who have signed on with Foursquare on their businesses page.
In the end, the future success of Foursquare will depend upon getting enough people to participate. Whether players push retailers to jump in or retailers offer such good benefits to Foursquare players that it compels people to sign up, remains to be seen. At the very least it's time to pay attention to Foursquare and determine for yourself whether it's time to get in the game or not.
PS: As always, you can subscribe to the New Mediology podcast on iTunes.