Recently, the founder of Foursquare, the site enabling members to document where in the world they are in front of all of their social networks, has announced that they are in talks with major search engines, trying to negotiate a way to integrate search and Foursquare.
According to Mashable, Dennis Crowley, the site’s co-founder said, “Our data generates hugely interesting trends which would enrich search...We can anonymise data and use it to show venues which are trending at that moment. Twitter helped the world and the search engines know what people are talking about. Foursquare would allow people to search for the types of place people are going to – and where is trending – not what.”
Specifically, Microsoft has been incredibly interested in bringing the integrated application to it’s Bing search engine. The companies have already worked out a deal that places Foursquare tips on Bing’s maps.
Foursquare may see competition in this realm from similar sites such as Gowalla and Yelp, but it is no question that Foursquare is what’s up and coming in social media and could definitely have a place in the broader scope of the usability of the internet.
So what does this mean for marketing and your company? Well, right now, make sure you’re listed as a venue on Foursquare. If you aren’t it’s incredibly easy to add yourself, just navigate to the search bar and click “add new venue”. From there, encourage your clients to “Check in” to your location whenever they patronize it. If these deals between Foursquare and the search giants come to fruition this will help you become “whats trending” and ultimately drive sales and increase consumers on your site.
