The business page obsession landed on Foursquare pretty much after the public launch of the company – and it made sense. For some, like Intel, the first business with a page on the location-based social networking website, and the 3000-ish organizations that followed.
But now, any business can have a Foursquare page, which means that the Foursquare business pages are no longer a commodity reserved for the high class of the web. Expect spammers, expect honest businesses struggling to have a voice, expect gurus touting “how-tos” and selling the secrets to successful Foursquare pages, in short, expect the whole package.
Why now? Perhaps because Google+ is gaining momentum, and it will, naturally, integrate location based pages: after all, they are the masters of location based anything, with Google Places already in place, and Google Places for Business already a sought-after community by any business that understands anything about who’s who on the Internet.
But regardless why, Foursquare Business Pages are now self-serving. According to Foursquare, this is what you’ll get: a broad reach, multiple-admin ability to manage pages, mobile access, and much more. To make things even more exciting, when your page is complete and you’ve added a few Tips, you’ll be featured in the Foursquare Page Gallery.
But what will be the benefits? For the time being, till Google+ business pages gain more notoriety, the benefits are obvious, especially for businesses in the U.S., where Foursquare is at its peak. Later… well, having a business page on Foursquare can never hurt. But expect Google+ pages to weight more in search. I suppose it is pretty obvious why.
Foursquare’s PR Agency is Liz Kaplow’s Kaplow PR.