And while Robin cuts a rather sad, yellow figure on his own, with social media Batman by his side, he’s super cool and some brands have cottoned on to this associative effect.

The Pennsylvania Tourist Board for example has just launched a Foursquare tourist trail, with 20 itineraries, 100 tips and badges, not because they think take up will be massive, but because the association instantly turns Pennsylvania cool.

Starbucks has managed to combine the cool halo effect with revenue. Their Foursquare campaign offers free coffee to the mayor of each branch, served with a slight bow. No doubt thousands of caffeine stoked students are plotting mayorial coups all over the US right now.

In the UK, it’s not yet quite so competitive, I became the mayor of the IET this week – venue for the Epublishing Innovation Forum – ha, ha I thought, Kappow!…..but I don’t think anyone has noticed to be honest.

While take up is currently low, Foursquare has the potential to become the next Twitter. Last year, I wrote a story on Sarah Brown overtaking Stephen Fry on Twitter on this blog and about ten minutes later it was all over the main stream press. The Guardian phoned me (I spat my tea out). Radio 5 called for an interview and so it went on – all day.

Sitting on the sofa with a new cup of tea late that evening I watched the BBC’s chief political correspondent Nick Robinson at the Labour Party Conference say “and Sarah Brown has now overtaken Stephen Fry on Twitter”. Who’s wearing the cape now I thought.

The concept, developed by FreshNetworks, is that you can follow a pink bag of Jimmy Choo shoes around a variety of smart locations in London, and if you manage to intercept them, they’ll give you a pair of trainers free.

While Foursquare is relatively unknown in the UK compared to the US, the resolutely upmarket locations are also posted on Twitter & Facebook and have ranged from Harvey Nichols and Sloane Square to the inside of a Bentley.

The ‘CatchAChoo’ campaign currently has 408 Facebook friends, 825 Twitter followers and around 585 Foursquare friends. No doubt the most marketing benefit is to be had from publicity about the campaign itself, which has been reported over the last couple of days.

It seems a missed opportunity that it wasn’t announced two weeks ago when the campaign started, though perhaps Choo didn’t want to risk a Hoover give away scenario. As it stands, the last reported sighting was at Leicester Square tube station 11 hours ago, perhaps disappearing down the steps for the last time, back underground where social media can’t find you..