Foursquare Adds Location Layers to Its Arsenal

Picture yourself walking through downtown Philadelphia and you find yourself sitting at the bottoms of the stairs leading up the Philadelphia Museum of Art. What if after your check in at the museum, your phone buzzes and you get a push notification that you are at the exact same spot of the famous scene in Rocky (1976) where Mr. Balboa runs up and down the stairs to the background music of “Gonna Fly Now?” What if you were walking through the streets of Georgetown in Washington, DC and you check in at the new Apple Store? All of a sudden you get a push notification telling you that you are less than a mile away from those famous stairs from the movie “The Exorcist” (1973). These two examples capture the essence of what layers means to Foursquare.

The Independent Film Channel has already announced a new campaign with Foursquare that allows you to see a city from their own eyes (hence the examples above). Users can opt-in to getting these tips pushed to them when checking in. The unique fact about what the IFC has done is they have both unique movie tips but also general tips gathered from their user base which can cover a variety of places to see in a specific city.

Implemented effectively, this strategy will continue to add to the legitimacy of the location based platform. After recently returning from South Africa, I can only wish that a platform like this will active in the three cities I visited. Why buy a tour book or google what to do when you just explore and check-in and let the tour come to you? The key would be for different industries/publications to have the foresight to activate their listener base to implement tips throughout as many cities as possible. Being a sports junkie, I would love if Sports Illustrated (the creator of a chic iPad app) would leave sports tips in the major cities in the world.

It’s a huge venture, but think of the benefits. African-American publications such as Vibe, Ebony and even Essence could implement a similar strategy. People could visit Chicago, Illinois and see where R.Kelly cut his teeth performing or the neighborhood where President Obama began his ascent up the political ladder. The time is now for larger and more national/international brands to hop on the bus.

What is your opinion on Layers? Is the monetization possibilities real? Meet us in the comments section.

About the Author
I am a developing social and digital media junkie on an adventure through life. Right now I am on the chapter in the book where I live in Los Angeles. Reach me on twitter @ahr19. Thanks for reading my post.
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