I’m checked in! …anybody here?

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First off, I’m a fan of Foursquare. I like the idea, and I like the app when it works. I’ve checked in at 42 different venues in a dozen cities… most recently about 20 minutes ago. So this isn’t about critiquing Foursquare, it’s about considering what Foursquare really is, why it’s getting hyped so much, and what if any opportunities it creates for retailers.

Foursquare’s Big Idea was location sharing: a new kind of social network, really, that’s all about letting people share where they are with their social circles.

Initially Foursquare thought it was a game. But people don’t care about earning badges or being a virtual mayor. Or at least I don’t know anybody who does. As a game it’s not long-term interesting to users.

Foursquare is useful as a way to add location context to updates. By overlaying places on the map it created a way for people to say something meaningful about where they are and what they are doing. Simple, obvious, and powerful.

But what about the places themselves? Is there a retail angle, for instance?

I think the answer is maybe. Not now, because there’s just not enough people using it. CEO Dennis Crowley says that “almost half” of Foursquare users check in “at least once a month.” Being generous, that’s 25,000 users checking in each day across the entire planet.

But back up and look at the forest: there are a dozen “check in apps” out there. Yelp is 15 times bigger than Foursquare. Twitter, which is 100 times bigger, has added support for places. Tweeting from a specific place is no different than checking in.

If I’m a retailer and my customers and prospects are checking in, then that’s certainly interesting. I don’t care about the platform, as long as I can plug in to wherever my customers are.

To my way of thinking, Foursquare is TiVo. Even though the unbelievable hype machine behind Foursquare keeps it in the spotlight and probably has many believing that world domination is imminent, the reality is there are no real competitive barriers and as a result more capable platforms are poised to eat its lunch.

That’s ok though. What Foursquare has done for retailers is opened up a new world of possibilities for connecting with customers locally. After all, it’s about connecting with customers, not connecting with Foursquare.

I’ll keep checking in on Foursquare. Today, with my Twitter account linked, I’ve got a perfect way to combine the Foursquare application interface, which I like, with the Twitter network, which is real.

——
more funding for Foursquare
Starbucks experiments with Foursquare
Carrabba’s does, too
Twitter adds places support
Yelp is not afraid of Foursquare
me on Foursquare
TiVo is still the best DVR