Foursquare expands its Ads service to more small businesses

In an attempt to take its Ads service to more small businesses around the world, Foursquare, the popular location-based social networking site has introduced its self-serve Foursquare Ads. A post on the Foursquare blog confirms that the service aims to help small businesses around the world to “connect people looking for somewhere to go with businesses that want to drive traffic to their stores.”

Coming to more small businesses

“Foursquare is the best way for those businesses to reach nearby customers. In our ad pilots over the past year, we’ve been honing our targeting technology, using the same algorithm that powers our Explore recommendation engine,” an excerpt from the post reads.

Foursquare is hopeful that with its new self-service tools, it will be able to help more people connect with the 1.4 million+ small businesses around the world that use Foursquare. Interestingly, the new tools mean that businesses will only pay when people visit – in person or the listing on the site.

The feature is currently being rolled out and will reach more businesses in a month, and a few thousand local businesses will receive it today. If you want to be among the first ones to try this out, click here .

Foursquare recently launched an all-new app for Nokia’s S40 range of phones , including the new Asha devices. This release is bound to bring in a lot more users to the social app’s fold, considering the fact that S40 is still one of the world’s most popular operating systems. The application’s new user interface looks minimal at best and will provide for simple discovery and check-in using your S40 phones. The application will come pre-loaded onto newer Asha devices around the world as they go on sale in the next few months.