By Sabina Kadic-Mackenzie

Smart-phone users in Edinburgh will be the first to test-drive the network which allows visitors to Shelter Scotland shops across the capital to ‘check in’ their location while checking out the merchandise and earn special discounts, and win prizes.

Visitors to the charity’s eight Edinburgh shops will have exclusive access via Foursquare to make lists of their favourite places, write reviews, take photographs of items and share them with friends. In return Shelter Scotland is teaming up with social networking giant Foursquare to offer free rewards and discount offers to shop visitors, as well as the chance to collect eight limited edition badges by renowned designer Stina Jones.

Gordon MacRae, Head of Communications and Policy at Shelter Scotland, said: “This is an innovative and fun way for us to appeal to a new generation of supporters. Social networking has become part of everyday life and Shelter Scotland is proud to move with the times - becoming the first charity to engage digitally with supporters through Foursquare.

“Our shops offer an array of fantastic high quality second-hand items and play a vital role in raising funds to help in our fight to end homelessness. Our hope is that Foursquare will enable us to spread the word to a new generation of Shelter Scotland supporters.”

Shelter Scotland’s eight Edinburgh shops will be the first to trial the campaign, with the aim to highlight opportunities across the capital to bring a new lease of life to thousands of donated items. Visitors who check-in at the stores will collect exclusive badges – with each store having a unique Stina Jones design. Those that collect all eight badges from the capital’s eight stores will automatically be entered into a final competition to win prints of the distinctive designs.

The campaign is planned to reach Shelter Scotland shops across the country in the coming months, with a view to a UK-wide roll out by 2012.

Foursquare currently has iPhone, Symbian, Android, webOS, Windows Phone 7 and BlackBerry applications.

About the author

Sabina Kadic-Mackenzie is Media Officer at Shelter Scotland. Shelter Scotland is a housing and homelessness charity, which helps people find and keep a home, and campaigns for decent housing for all. For more information about Shelter Scotland visit http://www.shelter.org.uk/. Follow Shelter Scotland on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/shelterinscotland) and Twitter (http://twitter.com/shelterscotland).

About Foursquare

Foursquare is a social network that enables people to connect and share information about their favourite places based on their location. Points and badges are awarded for "checking in" at venues, allowing users to compete on a leader board against their friends. The user that checks in the most times to a venue becomes its "Mayor" and remains in that position until they're ousted by a rival. Users can create a "To Do" list for their private use and add tips to venues that other users can read, which serve as suggestions for things to do, see or eat at the location â?" which is great for people visiting a new place for the first time. Users can opt-in to receive real-time updates to keep abreast of what their Foursquare friends are up to. It's also possible for customers to synch Foursquare with Twitter and Facebook to post location-based updates to their other friends.