In Partnership With

National Post and Chicago-based startup GeoPollster recently partnered to create GeoPollster Canada, an interesting experiment/game which uses Foursquare's API to conduct mobile polling for Canada's federal election today.

How it works: Upon logging into Foursquare, the user (privately) chooses which party they plan to support. After that point, each check-in from that account is counted as a virtual vote towards the selected party. Votes are tallied in real-time and the GeoPollster map is updated accordingly.

By tapping into Foursquare's early adopter user base, the data from GeoPollster Canada obviously isn't representative of the general Canadian population (due to demographics such as as age, income level, gender, etc.). It's not meant to replace traditional - and often more disruptive - polling methods. At least not yet.

As adoption rates of smartphones and location-based services continue to grow, political parties and marketers will want to consider using this type of data to get a better pulse on the preferences of a target demographic/region.

It's exciting to see how traditional media companies like National Post are collaborating with startups and finding interesting ways to use emerging technology. GeoPollster Canada is an innovative example of how location-based platforms and social media can be used to learn about people's sentiments on a specific topic. It demonstrates that there's so much more you can do beyond the increasingly common Deal/Special that comes with a check-in or mayorship.