I am Keith Hernandez

In 2010, it will not be enough to know what people are doing via their Facebook and Twitter updates, we will want to know where they are doing it. With smartphones on the brink of ubiquity, geo-location apps are taking off, entering us into the next realm of social networking, where with the tap of our phone we can announce the exact location where we are enjoying our frittata. Is it vanity overload? Would others really give a crap that we are playing skeeball at a bar on Monday night? The answer to both is probably. We have entered a social landscape where sharing everything via the internet is like brushing your teeth. For some, its closer to tapping your foot incessantly. We have grown accustomed to posting any and everything, with the thought that somebody might care to engage with us if given the opportunity. The problem being that we are still sitting in front of our computers, interacting with pixels instead of people. How do we take this valuable networking ecosystem and bring it into the wild, meet our mates face to face?

Enter Foursquare. Definitely not the only geo-location app out there, (Brighkite, Gowalla and Loopt all are in the geo-battle) Foursquare nevertheless is leading the charge in innovating ways to bring its users together. I experimented in August with the service, using it to check into a few bars, restaurants and occasionally Prospect park while i was taking a nap under a tree. It was interesting, but with hardly any friends on it yet and the only incentive to checking in being earning a “badge”, I stopped a couple months later. So what’s changed? Foursquare is now signing deals with bars, restaurants, music venues and galleries across the country to offer up discounts and special promotions for people who check in frequently. Techcrunch highlighted a restaurant in North Carolina that offers a free lunch to the mayor (person who checks in most frequently during a given time period) and 25% to those who have earned the “Gym Rat” badge. Deals like this can turn a pedestrian online game into a dynamic marketing and branding tool for local businesses while leading to social interaction amongst its customers. Imagine the competition you and your friends will have to get the glory of the free meal or free drink at your favorite watering hole. Imagine finding out you are not their most loyal customer, that dude at the end of the bar is. Would you strike up a conversation, set out to dethrone him? Granted, it is a gimmick right now, but as apoption rates increase, the service will continue to increase power and will make for a new marketing dynamic. 2010 could begin a new era of local business marketing, where the app on your phone becomes the power broker.