Location based services have been all the rage lately.  What was started by Foursquare and others has been expanded upon by Twitter and now Facebook.  Now it seems like every social media website out there wants to know where you are located at all times.  Personally I think it’s a bit odd that people are willing to share all that info with the general public.  How long until thieves just sit on Foursquare and wait for people to check in at the local bar for the evening then head straight over to their house to rob the place?  But that’s neither here nor there.

Remember playing the actual game of four square when you were a kid? Good times at recess.

All of the coverage about these services and seeing the shiny Check-In button on my Facebook Mobile app has got me thinking: will we soon see Affiliate Programs that take advantage of these services?  Right now mobile and local advertising are still trying to gain traction with a larger number of advertisers in the industry.  We have mobile pay-per-call campaigns like those provided by RingRevenue, so the check-in based offers can’t be far behind.

It would definitely lead to an interesting challenge.  Not only do you have to get the consumer to click on an ad, but also follow through by going to a physical location and checking in?  It all seems like a lot of work.  But it could be worth it if advertisers are willing to pay for that kind of user engagement.  Current ad campaigns that stores are running on Facebook Places and Foursquare are offering things like 20% of your total purchase at an H & M store if you check-in first.  That’s a pretty significant value for the consumer as well as the store.

To me this just illustrates why I love this industry so much.  There is always so much going on right at the cutting edge of technology that can give us new and exciting ways to make money and market products.  Some may see this new location-based world as being a little too similar to the ads that Tom Cruise experienced in Minority Report, but I think we are a long way off from that.  Besides, who cares?  I’d rather see ads about things that are actually targeted to me and my interests any day.