I recently got around to claiming Indra’s various location-based social networking “places”. What is a location-based social network?  It’s based around connecting people and businesses in physical locations instead of virtually.  A person “checks-in” at a location using a mobile app.  Friends are then notified either via the same app or using services like Twitter and  Facebook.  Just another way to let everyone else know what you are doing and, now, where you are all of the time.

The big location-based social networks are foursquare and Gowalla.  Because of their popularity, Yelp, the local business search and review site, added a check-in feature as, in its quest to be The Social Network, did Facebook.

So, what’s the value of this for a business?  As the owner of a location you can see who’s checking in and offer discounts and specials to new and/or frequent visitors.

Of all of them, I think foursquare has the nicest tools for businesses.  You can set up offers that are automatically shown to the visitor after every so many check-ins, say every 5th, after a total number of check-ins, say 100, or if they are your most frequent visitor (The Mayor).  But the rest allow you to promote offers and verify visitors.   The Yelp and Facebook options are good if you already have a strong presence on either.   Gowalla seem to be more popular with the tech crowd, so if that’s your audience, it’s worth a look.

In order to keep people interested, all of the networks include some kind of gaming elements.  People get points for checking-in and can earn bonus points, badges, or awards for things like checking-in at more than X place in a day, checking-in more than one city/state/country, and so on.  Most have a feature where the most frequent visitor can become Mayor or King of the location.  Visitors compete against against friends and other people who frequent the same locations.

This sort of social network wouldn’t seem to fit well for a business like ours where most customer interaction happens through the internet or over the phone.  And yet, all of these locations came into being because customers visiting our offices created them by checking-in.  You may be surprised to find that a virtual location already exists for your business already

Of course, if you use these networks, keep your privacy in mind!  Sharing your location with your friends can be fun, but sharing it with the whole world, say via Twitter, could have unintended  consequences.

Check us out at the following Indra’s Net venues/places/spots:

• foursquare Venue: http://foursquare.com/venue/2086529
• Facebook Place: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Indras-Net/106421391161
• Gowalla Spot: http://gowalla.com/spots/223244
• Yelp Page: http://www.yelp.com/biz/indras-net-boulder

And if you’d like to visit us, have a tour, and check-in in person, get in touch.