New “Save To Foursquare” Button Reaches Into The Real World

Publishers and developers: are you ready for another button (or buttons I should say)? Joining the Facebook, Twitter, +1 and StumbleUpon button family are new “save to Foursquare” and “follow Foursquare” buttons.

Users who click “save to Foursquare” (next to local content) will have that place added to their To-Do Lists. Publishers that have started to implement this include Frommer’s Travel, Eater.com, Time Out NY, Time Out Boston, Time Out Chicago, Time Out NY Kids, New York Magazine, CBS Local Digital Media and AskMen.com.

The difference between “save to Foursquare” and other buttons is that it reaches into the real world. If you’ve saved a restaurant review for example and you’re near that restaurant later (and have Radar enabled) you’ll get a notification that the place is in your To-Do List. You’ll then be able to go back to the original source and read the review or article, etc. If Radar isn’t enabled, you’ll get the information as a pop-up after you check-in, if you’re near one of these “save to Foursquare” places.

Here’s Foursquare’s discussion of its new “follow” button and bookmarklet also being introduced today:

• Save to Foursquare bookmarklet: We’ve also built a “save” button that people can use on any page on the Internet. Just drag and drop the new bookmark button to the bookmark bar on your browser to save the place you’re reading about, on any webpage, to your foursquare To-Do List.
• Follow button: Publishers can now embed a “Follow on foursquare” button (similar to the Twitter “Follow” button) on their sites. When a person follows a brand on foursquare, they see that brand’s tips when they check in, and can see where that brand checks in and the Lists they create.

Clearly the “save to Foursquare” button creates some interesting and powerful marketing opportunities because it can reach mobile users away from their computers via a push notification. (One would also assume that other mobile sites would want to use it.)

There will also be an online-to-offline analytics dimension to the button that should prove very interesting and useful to publishers in measuring their influence on actual real-world behavior.

Postscript: I have some additional discussion on my personal blog Screenwerk.

About The Author

Greg Sterling

Greg Sterling is a Contributing Editor at Search Engine Land. He researches and writes about the connections between digital and offline commerce. He is also VP of Strategy and Insights for the Local Search Association. Follow him on Twitter or find him at Google+.