Four Square, Gowalla, & Whrrl oh my!

Who would have thought social media would be able to get us discounts at some of our favorite places?

Just when we think social media can’t help us anymore, it does. Four Square, Gowalla, and Whrrl (just to name a few) are social media tools that allow users to “check-in” at the place they are currently at, and depending on the number of times the user has “checked in”, they could receive a discount or better yet, something free! Friends of the user who also have accounts are able to see where the user has checked in or even look through where other people using the tool recommend going.
When I first heard about this, I thought, how creepy and I definitely don’t want everyone knowing where I am at every single second. I then learned you can set your privacy settings so only certain people see it or even nobody at all. What really won me over with this idea was that it can truly benefit me if I religiously use it. Even though not every single place agrees to these special deals if you use certain social media tools, it still can help out your pocket.

I actually think these tools are a good investment on both sides; the user and the provider of the goods. The user of course, gets discounts and free things, while the provider gets an army of mini-advertisers for free. By people “checking-in” and other people being able to see where they go, it can stimulate more business for the providers because people tend to go where they’re friends have been (especially if they’ve had a good experience) and if the user talks about how they received free chips and queso at their favorite Mexican restaurant, then everyone will want to head there for the free food. You could even say these tools digitize the old punch cards business would give out to their customers. If that doesn’t sell you, this should; downloading the tool is free.

Without a doubt in my mind, there are more pros than cons to these type of tools, and once again I’m impressed with social media.