Working on a brief for a chain of restaurants, we’re currently looking at Foursquare once again. Now that the initial excitement has died down where are we at with this location-based app?

With Facebook, Twitter and an ever expanding digital footprint to manage and monitor, should businesses really get involved via Foursquare or (probably happily) pass it off as a momentary trend?

If you’re not in the loop, Foursquare is a location-based social networking software which allows users to “check-in” at venues, such as cinemas and restaurants, using their mobile via the internet or text. Users can earn badges, unlock tasks and if a user visits a particular venue frequently they are deemed the “mayor” of that place, winning them discounts and rewards.

It is by no means the first of its kind, as Facebook Places and Brightkite were already providing a similar service, however as the success of Twitter shows that often in the digital world it’s not always about being first, it’s about meeting people’s needs.

The appeal of Foursquare is that it builds a two way relationship between companies and their customers; the companies effectively get free advertising as users’ check-ins are updated onto their Facebook and Twitter feeds, whereas a recent update called Foursquare 2.0 helps direct users towards new companies and activities in their area.

However, with the likes of Bebo going down the swanny and companies getting their fingers burnt with redundant apps, does it pay to be cautious? Once the buzz has died down the product must continue to innovate or risk falling off the necessity radar; businesses considering whether or not to get involved with Foursquare can consider the following points.

Security and Fraud

For many internet users, one of the underlying concerns when going online is safety and fraud protection. A website called Please Rob Me illustrates the main issue with Foursquare, in that it’s very easy for users to put themselves at risk by providing too much information.

The website streams check-in data from the Foursquare website onto its own, highlighting not only how publicly available the information is, but how easy it is for credit card fraudsters to frame you or even worse, allow robbers or potential stalkers to know your whereabouts.

One of the founders of Please Rob Me, Boy Vam Amstel, states, ‘We saw people checking in at their home addresses, or even worse, those of their friends and family which we just thought was wrong.’

Although possibly a little over-panicky, this does demonstrate that businesses need to consider if they’re ready to associate themselves with a product that may gain a similar media response to that of Google Street View’s invasion war.

Mobile Coverage

If your company is in a crowded area or during times of peak network usage, congestion means that those with older mobiles or in busy places may lose interest in an app that takes time to load or is liable to crash.

Even on their own website, Foursquare warn ‘If you’re having trouble with your app crashing, first check to see if Foursquare is down (We hate when this happens but we do have occasional downtime! You can usually see if we are down by checking up with us on Twitter).’

The idea of Foursquare is that it’s instant and accessible whilst queuing for your Starbucks coffee or entertaining your kids ’til the food arrives: nobody wants the hassle of trying to ‘check in’ then having to find a company’s Twitter page during a process that is meant to be quick and easy.

The Culture of Apps

The top 10 list of the must-have apps are forever changing, showing that once everyone has downloaded an app, it is really dependant on the software continually meeting the user’s need or risk being deleted in favour of space for newer and better apps.

Another problem is mobile compatibility. For example, an app that may work on a Blackberry Curve may not work as well, if at all, on a Blackberry Bold.

Despite these points it seems that at a value of $95 million and with offers from various investors, Foursquare is set to expand.

The website itself is very user-friendly with no lengthy complicated forms to fill in as businesses can just tag themselves, and as of August 2010 Foursquare stated a sign-up of 3 million users worldwide.

Recent updates also assist users in maintaining their privacy as they can adjust the settings to control how their information is displayed.

In terms of whether Foursquare is a fad it remains to be seen if there is anything that can generate the buzz and game-like fun of competing for mayor at your favourite venue. Plus, nothing encourages new customers and compliments old regulars like rewards.

We’re always preaching here at All-Leo that you don’t have to do something just because everyone else is doing it. And online is just as complicated as offline these days – if you were launching a tin of beans, you wouldn’t necessarily consider every aspect of offline (print ads, billboard ads, radio ads, TV ads etc…)

So if you have time and resource to trial Foursquare then go for it. But the bottom line is that it’s still got a long way to go to be as ubiquitous as Facebook – 3 million on Foursquare versus 500 million on Facebook worldwide.

Pic thanks to Agent-X.