Five ways Foursquare can pivot effectively

It's time for a change. Foursquare is getting stale, and the rest of the social media and mobile start-up space is blazing by. So, what's a still-young mobile company to do? According to Business Insider, Foursquare is sitting on the $50 mn it raised last year, and I say it's time to put that capital to work on something bold.

Here are a few ideas:

1. Daily deals: whether it's submitting to an acquisition by Groupon or taking a better run at the space on its own, Foursquare has a unique opportunity to deliver deals to a targeted group of people at the point of sale.

2. The big screen: Business Insider relates an idea it heard: go from mobile to web. Abandon the device in favor of a larger web presence, heading toward the sector dominated by the likes of Yelp and MenuPages. It's a crowded space, though, so I'm not really convinced of this one. But, with ratings and social features, especially thoughts from people while they are at restaurants, it could work.

3. Payments: if Foursquare could combine check-ins, loyalty and payments, it would have a powerful platform. Think about doing everything from Foursquare quickly and easily … and taking advantage of platform-specific deals along the way!

4. Rewards: badges are not rewards in themselves. Foursquare needs to make the status that comes with these small victories more tangible. This could be a way to tie it into …

5. Promotions: think about free products from advertisers based on the different badges you win. This would provide targeted promotion of likely influencers, allowing Foursquare to steal some of Klout's market. And, it would open a new revenue stream for the platform.

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