We’ know that Twitter added location geo tagging to the Twitter API a few months back and has been turning on map buttons for some web based viewers.

With all the tweets coming from Gowalla, Foursquare, Yelp and more, there is a lot of data available. This is one report of what we expect to see a lot more of this year:

The New York Times Reports  Foursquare Introduces New Tools for Businesses

Tristan Walker, director of business development at Foursquare, said that the latest features were intended to help local merchants run their stores by giving them more information about their customers.

“We’re trying to give businesses more retention with current customers and the ability to add new customers with specials,” said Mr. Walker.

Foursquare is a service that allows users to share their location with a group of friends from “checking in” to a restaurant, business or other venue when they arrive. The company encourages the businesses to recognize Foursquare users in some fashion, such as a bar awarding free drinks to their most frequent customers.

With the new tool, businesses will be able to see a range of real-time data about Foursquare usage, including who has “checked in” to the place via Foursquare, when they arrived, the male-to-female customer ratio and which times of day are more active for certain customers. Business owners will also be able to offer instant promotions to try to engage new customers and keep current ones.

“If a restaurant can see one of its loyal customers has dropped off the map and is no longer checking in, the owner could offer them incentives to come back,” said Mr. Walker.

There will also be a Staff page available to each business that will allow employees to interact directly with customers using social networks.

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