Do you want a badge for that?

If you’re still trying to figure out how you can use location based Social Media to promote your brand then Foursquare may have the answer. Co-founder Dennis Crowley talking at South by South West suggested ways that they may be able to help.

They are now looking for brands to have their own badges within the Foursquare application. Currently Foursquare users earn badges for performing certain tasks. For example, you get the Gym Rat badge for checking in at 5 places tagged “gym” in the last 30 days. You could reward your customers with your own badge for visiting your shop, restaurant, bar or even for visiting outlets that sell your product.

How’s that for building loyalty and traffic from online to offline. You could reward a customer with a badge for visiting X amount of times in a month and all badge owners could then get a discount from then on to encourage them to continue visiting.

This works for brands of all sizes, as you may suspect Foursquare are talking with bigger brands but they are sure to be open to discuss opportunities with any business currently. You can make suggestions for your badges directly at Foursquare.