One of the Downtown Download bloggers did a great post on Foursquare, the location-based checkin service with apps available for most smartphones. On Foursquare, your phone senses your location when you visit a venue, and you check in from there. You can earn badges for certain types of checkins, such as “crunked” for checking in at four different venues on the same night, and “school night” for a checkin after 3 AM on a weeknight. If you check in at a location more than anyone else over a two-month period, you become “mayor” of that venue. You can also post “tips” and “to-dos” for a venue.
In cities like New York and San Francisco, many restaurants and bars offer specials to Foursquare users for certain types of checkins, certain badges, or for being the mayor. It’s starting to spread to Memphis. In the post linked above, blogger Brian C discusses Foursquare awards as a way for Memphis restaurants and bars to attract more business.
You can go here to see a complete list of venues across the US offering Foursquare specials. (Click on a venue’s name to see the special.)
For example, there’s a bar in Connecticut called The Pour House that offers $1 drinks to its mayor, and a free drink for the mayor on every third visit. Now, I don’t know if there’s a bar in Memphis that would be similar to The Pour House, but if there is one, maybe they should think about offering that deal to its mayor.
Business owners: Surf around the Foursquare business page, see what venues in other cities are doing, and maybe you’ll come up with some ideas on how Foursquare can lead to new repeat customers for you.