Its local, direct and personal. I love foursquare for marketing!

Any one that follows me on twitter or is a facebook buddy will know I'm a regular at the Sainsbury's on Clapham Road Bedford or that I frequent the Luscious Fruit Bar on Lime Walk (both historical Bedford monuments for those not in the know), the reason for this phenomenal geographical commentary that allows mere mortals to feel they are in the presence of greatness is the wonderful little social network/game of foursquare.

I'll be honest, I'm not sure the real purpose of this post other than to say I think its a cool service which, when used correctly should enable companies to engage really well with their potential customers at a local level with a direct communication that ilicits a response for very little expense on behalf of the business - a retail holy grail?

Last week Domino's credited its use of foursquare with increasing pre tax profits by 29% (along with a range of other social media initiatives) which alone is an excellent example of a UK organisation taking advantage of location based digital integration but combined with the rest of their social mix makes for some really interesting reading (and a good case study for a few agencies I suspect!)

There is some good analysis of Domino's social activity here - Wavematrix

Another thing I like specifically about foursquare is its seemless integration with facebook and twitter rather than being a rival it syncs superbly and I've a nice little

piece of personal experience on this from a few weeks back. I decided to treat the wonderful Mrs Dutch to a wild night out and went to see Predators at my local Cineworld. Being the social media pioneer I am I let the world know I was there and what film I was going to see with my foursquare sync to twitter... the next day I was tweeted by cineworld asking me what I thought of the film...

I'm still waiting on the years supply of free cinema tickets for my insightful response but in the mean time I'll revel in the warm glow generated by a local, relevant and direct communication I had with a national brand.

For those more interested in making foursquare work for their business there are 7 Quick Steps to Foursquare Marketing here because its clear I've not given up much in this post... I just think its cool and has a lot of potential!