Location-based social network FourSquare describes itself as a “cross between a friend-finder, a social city-guide and a game that rewards you for doing interesting things. We aim to build things to not only help you keep up with the places your friends go, but that encourage you to discover new places and challenge you to explore your neighbourhood in new ways.”

FourSquare enables users to tell others where they are by checking into the site from wherever they are via a GPS-based app on their mobile. Once users have checked in, their “friends” know where they can find them and the site also awards users “points and badges based on your adventurousness.” FourSquare even pronounces users as “Mayor” of a particular place if they’ve been there more than any other users.

While FourSquare enables businesses to market users in their vicinity, the site has also helped spawn a spoof site PleaseRobMe.com, which reveals which properties are empty based on their occupants’ social network updates.

NMK caught up with new media consultant Stephen Waddington, managing director of PR firm Speed Communications, to gauge the true marketing potential – and danger – of FourSquare.

What is the business case for FourSquare?

Location-based marketing has been mooted for sometime as the panacea of customer relationship marketing (CRM). Foursquare may just have cracked it and monetised its income stream in the process.

How does it compare to other location-based sites, such as Qype? What makes it unique?

FourSquare differs from predecessors in that it allows a brand to overlay a sales proposition onto a social network and target potential customers that are in or nearby its stores or restaurants in real time. It is made possible by the mobile Internet and smart phones that integrate GPS such as the iPhone.

Will it catch on? If so - why?

FourSquare is currently a niche social network with 300 brands and 300,000 users worldwide. It’s the first generation of a platform that combines a mechanism for brand promotion with physical location and social networking. It provides a brand with the opportunity to extend promotional marketing activity directly to motivated customers through pop-up offers and vouchers. Consumers benefit from being on the receiving end of highly targeting location based promotions such as breakfast or lunchtime deals or clothing offers. And the gaming element is compelling and fun.

Do you think PleaseRobMe is just a bit of fun or does the information that FourSquare demands really compromise personal safety?

Issues of personal privacy have arisen with almost every new generation of personal technology: voicemail advertises that you aren’t at home; away-from-email auto-messages advertise that you’re on holiday. It’s right to be careful of course but in reality a criminal wants to rob you there are very easy ways of tracking down whether or you’re at home such as knocking on the door.

Where will FourSquare be in 12 months’ time?

History rarely favours the first generation of an innovation application. Whether it succeeds or fails alternatives will almost certain arise building on the basic proposition. FourSquare will almost certainly exist in 12 months time (remember that it’s already generating money) and it will almost certainly have been joined by a series of similar applications.