Location Based Social Media Beginning to Expand Offline

Foursquare, Gowalla, Brightkite and more. These are just some of the new breed of social media sites popping up across the internet.

But these sites have already become so popular that other services are starting to come online that make these sites even more attractive to their users. And these new options help ensure that the location based social network is now here to stay.

One such new service is a site called Topguest. It is brand new. In fact they had full blown “launch” party just over a week ago.

Now they are just launching so they are still sort of in “beta” but I can definitely see them expanding and exploding very quickly.

So what do they do?

You register for an account with them (they link to your Facebook or Twitter). Then you link your location based service of choice (Foursquare, Gowalla, etc).

And you can now earn “points” each time you check in.

Points?

Points as in reward points. Right now they are only linked to one Hotel chain and that is “The Standard”. So basically each time you check in on your chosen app in one of their hotels or any of the vendors such as the restaurants inside of each location you earn additional points towards free stays.

Again right now they are only linked to the one system.

But they are in talks with Delta to become linked to the Delta Sky Miles program. And they are in talks with many other reward points programs as well.

So basically you link your accounts together under them. Then you keep doing what you are already doing by checking in at your destinations. And you earn offline rewards points for cool things like hotel stays and other rewards that these programs offer.

Now this is just one service. There are others that are starting to pop-up all over the internet.

The entrepreneurs of the world are brainstorming ways to join in the fun with these services and find a way they can make them even better.

So this trend is bound to continue.

What do you think of these types of add-on services? Are there add-on services you use in connection with your current social media accounts to make them more useful to you? Or do you think these services are silly and a waste of time? Share your thoughts below…

About The Author:
Cindy Clemens is a mom, author, speaker, marketing consultant and Co-Founder of Your Marketing University. Her goal is to teach marketing in a simple easy to understand format that businesses can use to help gain marketing ideas & market their businesses to boost sales.

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