The other day a friend of mine became the mayor of his house on Foursquare. A bit of tongue in cheek hopefulness on his part, because everyone knows his wife is the mayor. Perhaps it was the only way he could achieve mayor-hood given that everyone seems to have grabbed the good mayorships for local Starbucks, Borders Books and other prime real estate.
Location-based social networks have really started to find their niche. This is a far cry from the early days of Loopt or Yelp, which remain on the landscape even as Foursquare and Gowalla duke it out for supremacy. Connections and partnerships seem to pop up everyday between a location-based service and a local business or national brand. For instance, the Independent Film Channel (IFC) and Foursquare have announced a partnership where the social network will uncover cool places that people who subscribe to the 'indie' lifestyle can meet up and presumably talk about independent film. It adds layers to the check-in experience; imagine a neighborhood linked up with incoming news and information.
The implementation that I like is the slick Snack Square, powered by Four Square, which is a cool way to demonstrate how local businesses can tie in special promotions with social networks. For instance, a bachelor in Las Vegas might want to spend some time working on become mayor at the Playboy Club to earn the reward of two VIP passes for himself and a friend. There are also great offers for local restaurants.
All of these social networks are coming closer to the notion of being able to offer a special promotion to customers as they walk by a store. There is a lot of potential in being able to reach out to a willing and eager customer. And having those customers brag about the experience doesn't hurt either.
Location-Based Social Networks