POTTY POSTING – Here and Now (with Foursquare)

We’ve got a new Potty Posting available for your reading pleasure! We take a look at location-based social networks like Foursquare and suss out whether there are fruitful marketing opportunities.

Spoiler alert: there are.

Click here for the full-color PDF, and please feel free to share with clients!

Or, if you’d prefer the text only version, continue reading below.

Here and Now (with Foursquare)

We know, we know. You just congratulated yourself after successfully introducing your clients to Twitter, but as you headed for the door, they causally asked, “By the way, what’s this Foursquare thing?” Yup, we’ve got a new tech du jour. With over a million check-ins per week, and everyone from Bravo to Harvard jumping on board, you’d better learn how to play nice with Foursquare.

Let’s say you found yourself at, oh, I don’t know, the Holiday Inn’s Cityscape bar. If you “checked in” using the Foursquare mobile app, your friends would be updated with your current location and could choose to join (or avoid?) you. You could also feed your check-in to Facebook and Twitter, which is far easier than climbing on the rooftop and screaming, “Hey! Everyone! Look at me!”

Oh, by the way, you just started playing a game. For every venue, Foursquare crowns the most frequent visitor as “Mayor” (we’ll let you make your own assumption about who’s “running” Cityscape). If the bragging rights aren’t enough motivation, a number of establishments have started offering discounts (or free drinks) to whoever “earns” their Foursquare mayorship. Got your attention now, didn’t we? Wait, where are you going? Get back here!

Oh, by the way, you’re also living inside a user-generated recommendation engine. For each check-in, Foursquare encourages you to offer tips, which are essentially brief reviews or recommended things to do at a given location (such as “bankrupt the bar via their frequent wine drinker card”). Foursquare offers links to Yelp reviews as well, in case you want more in-depth information.

Oh, by the way, you’re also competing against the entire Foursquare community. Each check-in generates points (with bonuses for trying new places, traveling longer distances, etc.), and Foursquare maintains a weekly leaderboard, despite Foursquare’s acknowledgment that they don’t know what they’re doing with it just yet. (However, they recently got Pepsi to contribute to CampInteractive for every point added during a specified week.) Plus, you can acquire “badges” based on different activities; for instance, check in to three bars with photobooths and you’ll get the “Photogenic” badge. (More on these in a second.)

But before we go any further, let’s address the two questions that are driving you crazy right now. First, isn’t this an insane violation of privacy? Insane, maybe, but not violating. The service doesn’t “track” your whereabouts; you choose to check-in (or not) at any given location. (As always, the best way to learn about – and stop fearing – these services is to sign up and experience them for yourself.) Second, is Foursquare more likely to be the next Twitter or the next Second Life? Actually, the prospects look pretty good. Someone is going to crack the code on real-time location, whether it’s Foursquare or Loopt, or Google Latitude, or Gowalla, or a site that’s bound to pop up tomorrow. (Foursquare just happens to have a head start.) Sure, these services are a bit invasive and self-absorbed, but they’re also easy to use, addictive, and admittedly kinda fun. Better yet, they use technology to get people off of the couch and interacting in real life, even if these folks are staring at their phones half the time. Still, this isn’t for everyone, and never will be. After all, it took your mom this long to get on Facebook, and that site doesn’t even reveal your location… yet.

Now, the million-dollar question: should marketers play ball with Foursquare? Actually, it’s not much of a question, ‘cause it’s already happening. We’ve got a boatload of examples on The Awesome Blog, but essentially, it’s all about the badges. For instance, Explore Chicago created a number of badges to encourage people to check out the city; their On Location badge lets you trace the trajectories of famous Chicago-based movies like Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, High Fidelity, and Blago Goes to Jail. (Wait, scratch that last one.) What’s the benefit of earning a Foursquare badge? About the same as earning one in Cub Scouts: impressing your circle of fellow dorks. But, we’ve previously noted that peer recognition can be an effective form of currency, so that’s not something to trivialize. For instance, if Corona created a badge highlighting the five most laid-back bars in a given city, consumers would probably be proud to display that to their friends. (Say, that’s a good idea!) Such badges work two-fold; on the one hand, it’s essentially free schwag for the consumer’s participation in a fun game. Plus, Corona looks like a Hometown Hero by highlighting some lesser-known spots in a consumer’s neighborhood.

Admittedly, though, the best is yet to come. We’ve corralled a number of emerging applications of these technologies on The Awesome Blog, as well as some hints about what the future holds. For now, at least you can say that you’re completely caught up on the latest in every social networking platf– wait, what the hell is Google Buzz?

Check out who’s checking in at theawesomeblog.net?