Social Media as the new loyalty program

Loyalty cards good and bad / Flickr photo by atomicShed

Currently in Beta, new travel planning site Tripsourcing joins the swollen ranks of web projects aiming to provide travellers with access to local information.  There’s a slightly different twist this time in that Tripsourcing is free to use and rewards you with points or ‘Dollotrips’ for contributing and being an active member on the site.

This game style approach that incentivises users to participate by handing out points is similar to a model pioneered by the mobile location-based check-in service Foursquare, that rewards its users based on the frequency of their visits to a particular place in the real world.

Digital loyalty schemes

The applications for such sites as a third party loyalty scheme for businesses to reward frequent visitors have already started to be explored by the early adopter crowd (Twitter and Foursquare Become the New Loyalty Program at Tasti D-Lite – mashable).  This embryonic idea perhaps signifies best of all the game changing nature of mobile internet and the growing importance of social media as a marketing medium for even the smallest enterprise.

Information sharing on location

When checking-in at a new location on Foursquare you automatically see any information/recommedations left in that same place by previous consumers.  Much of this is explained nicely in a short video ‘Some thoughts on social location sharing‘ created by Foursquare and Gowalla Angel Investor Kevin Rose.

I looks as though the plan for Tripsourcing is to allow users to redeem their points in a shop that sells e-coupons, trips and tours.  It’s all a bit confusing at the moment and lacks any real user base, and the shop isn’t available.  Perhaps a private beta phase would have been better to get the site up and running properly.  Bizarrely the site was launched first in French as TonTrip.com.

Further reading:

• Mining our internet social circles