A New Generation Marketer

If I Owned Foursquare…

If you have not heard of the checkin mobile service called Foursquare, well check out http://foursquare.com.
The fact that they can compile social habits of their users and their friends could be potentially worth a large amount of money to a few types of people. My background is in the nightlife industry, and being able to predict which sorts of people will end up at a venue at a certain time would be worth alot to high bidders promoting nightlife events.

Here is an example of this expensive data. Boy takes girl on date. They begin by checking into a tapas lounge, followed by drinks at a tourist bar where checkin number two occurs. Finally, they check into nightclub number three where their final checkin occurs. If a nightclub promoter could target market all of the users who checked in to tourist bar number two who may have overheard our couple talking about the club, more patrons were just created.

While target marketing has occured in the past, social media allows for inbound and passive advertisements. Foursquare could also be used to create a ‘three of a kind’ special where checking into three locations(coincidentally owned by the same restauranteur) will create a discount, promotion, or upgrade. This promotion would also be promoted through the foursquare network, which would increase the number of patrons to the location.

I am waiting for Foursquare, or any of the other locational applications to finally find a way to use their immense databases to monetize a previously weak industry.