Location, Location, Location.  – Old Hospitality Management saying

Locate & Engage

Location based services are really hype at the moment. In fact, they are becoming a major social media trend with innovative platforms emerging such as Twitter Places.

What started as urban viral games could well bridge part of the gap between online communities and real people. As Wired Magazine stated it recently in an article, shouting location details to friends is the next logical step for users who bought online, googled and tweeted statuses.

For marketers, user location is the base of 4C communication strategies (content, context, community, connection). Locating users and consumers is a good way to assess their social activities, look for focused audiences and engage them.

Foursquared Loyalty?

Gameplay based actually !

A major challenge today in social media is to empower users / consumers in a fun way to ACT. Services such as Foursquare and Gowalla – with their innovative gameplay – motivate users to check-in, win badges and get as many mayorships as they can.

Speaking about Loyalty building & Location, Foursquare’s business model statement comes to mind: “Helping users connect with local business and helping local businesses connect with their best consumers”.

Logically Foursquare launched this spring analytics tools and dashboard to provide local merchants & small businesses with more information about their customers, monitor registered loyal consumer check-ins and reward loyalty accordingly.

Connecting with their best & more loyal consumers will certainly be a major loyalty building challenge for brands and point of sales. So stay tuned for more posts to come on this subject !

What do you think about Location based services such as Foursquare or Gowalla ? Do you think they are creating a new way of communicating ? Do you think they are bridging the gap between online communities and real people ? Let me have your feedbacks !