'Check in' with your mobile phone and receive location-based promotions and tips from other users by Hedirman Supian FourSquare (foursquare.com) A DELUGE of friend requests from foursquare has recently flooded my inbox. Foursquare, for the uninitiated, is a location-based social networking service that's apparently, erm, gaining ground globally - and here in Singapore. The aim of the game is to check in at locations using a mobile application (available on the iPhone, Android-based smartphones and BlackBerry devices) or through a web browser. You can choose to broadcast your location on Facebook and Twitter or, if you're concerned your boss might have a problem with you having an extended coffee break at Starbucks, keep it discreet. The gaming aspect of foursquare is a big motivation for its users. You score points for telling foursquare where you are - a process called "checking in". You can check in from any location - parks, restaurants, bars and shopping centres. Foursquare's mobile applications makes it really easy for you to check in too, using your device's GPS feature to show a list of nearby places you can choose from. There's even a leaderboard so you can compete with your friends to see who's scored the most points. If you think a restaurant serves a mean sirloin steak or a boutique makes tres chic silk dresses, you can give visitors a heads-up by leaving them a tip, such as "Check out the view at the rooftop bar of The Screening Room". The next time a user checks-in at the same location, he'll get a pop-up of the tip. "The most interesting aspect of foursquare - other than the fact that you can check out where your closest friends are at any point in time - is the crowd-sourced tips and to-dos at particular places," explains avid foursquare user Daniel Goh, a public relations and new media manager at Samsung Asia. "For example, if I'm at Standing Sushi Bar at OUB Centre, I can easily find out on foursquare that many of its earlier patrons enjoyed its omakase." If you've been to a place more than anyone else, you'll be crowned "the mayor" of that location. Why become a mayor? In the United States, retail and food and beverage outlets dish out privileges and freebies to mayors. Over here, not many retailers have jumped on board to offer freebies. Exceptions include Standing Sushi Bar (www.standingsushibar.com), which dishes out two free pieces of salmon or tuna nigiri for the mayor during each daily visit. The Garden Slug (www.thegardenslug.com) restaurant in Telok Kurau also offers mayors a free soup of the day. Not only mayors get freebies. At Brewerkz (www.brewerkz.com), you get free onion rings or fries just for checking in and leaving a tip. If you're the mayor, you get a free pint of beer with any purchase (once a day, of course). Foursquare can be a boon for retail and food and beverage outlets, offering them an opportunity that's been tough to crack - relevant location-based advertising. You may remember a time when shopping centres put up signs that reminded you to switch on your phone's Bluetooth feature so you could receive text messages for promotions when you were in the vicinity. Evidently, such moves have not taken off. Standing Sushi Bar owner Howard Lo has listed his restaurant on foursquare for close to two months and has seen "a huge uptake" in the number of customers. "I think foursquare is a free way for businesses to reach out to customers ... If you check in at any location, foursquare will automatically broadcast the promos in the same vicinity," said Mr Lo. Users unlock badges - virtual trophies - when they score achievements, like earning an Explorer badge when you've checked into 25 different venues or the Overshare badge when you check in at over 10 locations in less than 12 hours. This can help businesses paint a profile of the kind of users who check in. For instance, Mr Lo is exploring the idea of tailored privileges that correspond to the badges that a foursquare user has earned. "If I find that a user goes to the gym often, I could possibly offer him something catered to his lifestyle," he said. Next on my list? The inner Girl Guide in me is gunning for the Super Mayor badge - awarded only when I've been crowned mayor at 10 locations. http://www.todayonline.com/Tech/EDC100129-0000039/Be-there,-or-foursquare