Generation Nerd

Businesses and social media can work together like chocolate and peanut butter. It may not always seem like a fit at first, but when it clicks, it’s genius. However, the question of measuring ROI always arises. What can be measured in future sales against intangibles like the audience engagement and brand goodwill engendered through social media. But what if the answer lies in integration with social media tools?

American Express just made it work with Foursquare, and it might just illuminate the future of social media marketing. The deal is this: You go to a store, “check-in” on Foursquare, and get offered a surprise store special only redeemable by paying with AmEx and applied straight to your card. No fuss, no coupons, and a great incentive to “check-in” everywhere you go.

Amex and the vendors who sign on to the promotion gain measurable results in the dollar amounts spent by card users, who also tend to be a desirable demographic. Previous successful deals with large brands like Pepsi prove Foursquare may actually be worth their outsize $600 million valuation. If currently only 4% of adults are using location-based services, will such big name partnerships drive their adoption? (more…)

For those of you who thought Foursquare was annoying (including myself), you may want to hide for the next decade or so. The social media giant, Facebook (more than 400 million users strong), is launching a new application that will combine status updates with physical locations. The large nation of Facebook users will ultimately take geotagging to the next level.

Location updates have been an increasing trend among social media. Foursquare is everywhere and seems to be growing at a steady rate. Gowalla, Brightkite and Loopt are also jumping in on the success of location based messaging. Even Twitter has an option for sharing locations through tweets. So, what’s pushing this application? Is it the users or marketing?
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