Foursquare for Business and Location Based Targeting

Source: Microsoft research

Location based social networks allow users to interact with one another using their physical location as a basis for interactions. The most notable users of this technology are Foursquare and Yelp.  These applications allow users to to check in at certain locations and share information that anyone can view.  These functions are particularity popular with hotels, restaurants, shops and tourists attractions.  Users can write reviews and leave rating while at their favorite restaurant and even post photos on a user created business page.

With over 40 million users and 1.5 million business Foursquare has recently launched services for business that allows shops to claim their user created pages. Hyper targeted advertising gives businesses the ability to target advertising to people who are near their location allowing for greater effectiveness. Foursquare's system is similar to that of Google's where businesses bid on advertisement space based on user actions like check ins to a venue (Forbes).  Analytic tracking trough Foursquare is perhaps the most exciting prospect for business users, below are a few effective uses.

·   Low customer acquisition costs	·   Monitoring foot traffic	·     Enhanced customer segmentation
·  Location-based activity recommendations	·     New forms of location based loyalty programs	·    Push and pull advertising services
·    Fast and effective information retrieval	·     Experts/Influencers detection	·      Interesting locations /travel sequences detection
	·   Preference-aware location and friend recommendations	·      Unexpected/anomalous/unusual events detection

This new service is an excellent way for business to expand their online presence and interact with their customer base. With over 40 million users the potential to expand ones customer base is immense, tie in analytic s tracking businesses will be able to identify the best means in attracting new customers.

Sources

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffbercovici/2013/10/14/foursquare-launches-ad-platform-for-small-businesses/

http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/projects/lbsn/