Popular location check-in application Foursquare just launched a new &''Foursquare for Business&'' page to encourage businesses and brands to claim venues and create partnerships.

With millions of consumers checking in to locations around the world, Foursquare has quickly become another marketing tool for companies. Previously, Foursquare had a less-than-stellar set of pages explaining how a business may claim a venue.

With today&'s launch, the new page, dubbed &''Quick Start 'Guide,&'' 'is much more dynamic, interactive and spotlight how a business or brand can attract customers using Foursquare. For example, rather than just claiming your venue, the company now explores several different types of campaigns that can be run, such as a Mayor Special, Frequency Special or Count Special to name a few. The guide also talks about how to promote specials, redeem them, and track venue stats.

Foursquare isn&'t the only one who is trying to get businesses and brands to claim venues or create badges, competitors Gowalla and Scvngr 'also have a business page. While the basic copy is similar, one wonders if the new interactive and flashy Foursquare business pages are what&'s needed. Though recent reports of bugs in Blackberry app versions won&'t help 'to prove that the company is 'a legitimate business tool.

Foursquare, based in New York City and founded in 2009, has raised more than $21 million in funding. It currently has more than '40 employees in its hometown and a new engineering office that ita4‚¬a4„s opening in San Francisco.

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Tags: check-ins, location based apps

Companies: Foursquare

Tags: check-ins, location based apps

Companies: Foursquare

Cody Barbierri is a social and digital media consultant. He works for Piehead and blogs about social media at Social Tab. (None of his posts are about clients or their competitors.) Reach him at Cody@venturebeat.com. You can also follow Cody on Twitter.

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