Foursquare, the location based social network that lets users connect with friends by regularly updating their location, is taking steps to ramp up the numbers of local advertisers featured on its network. So far there are only about 2,000 live offers from local advertisers (stores, restaurants and local bars) worldwide.
Now most unclaimed business venues are adding a link asking “Are you the manager of this business?” Managers click on the link and submit proof that they are indeed managing the business. A sales rep from Foursquare then makes a follow up call to explain and set up the tools for managing the business’s offers.
Foursquare launched a page on their website explaining how the tools work and how it can benefit a local business. Included in the Foursquare toolset is a dashboard that lets a manager track the number of check-ins, the times of day users check in and the most recent and the most frequent visitors. The dashboard also manages special offers such as discounts for users that frequently check in at the business location.
If a local business puts up frequent offers it should generate enough buzz so that more users will check in at that location. More check-ins should boost revenue and could give local businesses a valuable data mine that they can analyse using the Foursquare dashboard.
VC’s are valuing Foursquare at $80m+, which puts some degree of pressure on the company to prove that there’s a revenue stream on the horizon. However Yahoo and others are already showing interest in buying the company at a price far higher than $80m.
