Flash sales website Gilt Groupe this week will offer discounts solely determined by its members’ Klout scores, Gilt has partnered with Klout — which measures a social media user’s online influence from 0 to 100 on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn and Foursquare — to offer the unique discount on Klout’s Perks platform. The discount begins Tuesday, offering 20% off for users with scores up to 20, and increases each day through March 10, with 100% off for users with scores between 81-100.

We used Social Radar to analyze conversations online.

Gilt conversation sentiment

Positive conversations around Gilt group spiked today.

Gilt conversation topic cloud

Conversations around Gilt are currently 97% positive. Klout is already being mentioned in 27% of all Gilt conversations, and the sale hasn’t even started yet.

Do you think we’ll see more offers with better discounts for more influential customers online?

Facebook purchased location-based service provider Gowalla with plans to move away from displaying a time-based feed of your friends’ recent check-ins, and focus instead on creating Stories around the places you and your friends have visited.

We used Social Radar to analyze conversations around location-based services and the acquisition online.

Gowalla vs. Foursquare mentions

Gowalla, which had not been generating significant buzz this month, spiked above Foursquare mentions following the acquisition speculation last week and confirmation today.

Will the acquisition help Facebook conquer the location-based market that it failed to do with Places?

SCVNGR is introducing a pay-by-QR-code mobile payments experience called LevelUp. Consumers can link a credit or debit card to LevelUp, receive their own personal QR codes for payments, and can then scan their codes to pay at participating merchants and opt-in to store loyalty programs.

Roughly 500 merchants in Boston, Philadelphia, San Francisco and New York have agreed to accept LevelUp payments and will be using a provided terminal, running Android software, for scanning codes.

SCVNGR will aggressively introduce LevelUp in major metropolitan markets at the start of 2012

We used Social Radar to analyze conversations around SCVNGR online.

SCVNGR buzz

SCVNGR mentions increased 1,035% on October 11 following the announcement.

SCVNGR sentiment

Conversations around SCVNGR have been 91% positive over the last week. The QR code payment system appeared in 54% of all SCVNGR conversations online and was 100% positive.

SCVNGR vs. Foursquare buzz

Foursquare mentions dwarf SCVNGR mentions. Can SCVNGR leverage the positive buzz around the mobile payment system to gain conversation market share moving forward?

Foursquare rolled out new 3.0 software updates, revamping its merchant platform dubbed “Specials” and expanding its core checkin game. The platform gives merchants a way to learn more about their best customers and start offering Specials to help them get new people into their location.

As Foursquare taps into the hot daily deals, the company increases its appeal to advertising partners.

Foursquare buzz

Chatter around Foursquare is currently at an all time high.

Foursquare sentiment

Conversations around Foursquare have been 93% positive following the 3.0 software update.

Foursquare conversation topic cloud March 8-9

The new 3.0 update is being mentioned in more than 30% of Foursquare conversations, and is 96% positive. Is Foursquare poised to make another big splash in Austin this weekend at SXSW?

Location-based checkin service Foursquare should hit 7 million users in the next week or so. Mashable reported today that upstart underdog SCVNGR surpassed 1 million users Tuesday and is making a strong case for itself as a top contender in the space.

Foursquare vs. SCVNGR buzz

Since Foursquare has exactly 7X more users than SCVNGR, we decided to measure online conversations around both services and compare chatter to users. Interestingly, Foursquare has generated 83X more chatter than SCVNGR over the past year.

Location-based mobile service SCVNGR will be automatically preloaded on certain Virgin Mobile handsets beginning later this month, thanks to a new partnership announced Tuesday. The announcement comes after last month’s partnership with restaurant chain Buffalo Wild Wings, which has more than 700 locations in the U.S. SCVNGR also recently launched a multi-city promotion for the Nissan Juke and before that, executed a New Year’s Eve program with American Eagle and a Black Friday-themed promotion with Coca-Cola.

Have all of the new partnerships helped increase SCVNGR’s buzz? We used Social Radar to run analysis on location-based mobile service chatter.

SCVNGR vs. Foursquare vs. Gowalla vs. Facebook Places

Chatter around SCVNGR has been miniscule compared to location-based powerhouse Foursquare, which had 200,000 users check into its experimental Super Bowl Sunday location. The chart looks a bit like Foursquare is flipping its competitors the bird.

After Facebook launched Places in 2010, many speculated about the future of location-based check-in service Foursquare. But the company announced staggering growth stats today — Foursquare has now hit 6 million registered users, grew 3400% in terms of check-ins and saw a total of 381,576,305 check-ins in 2010.

We used Social Radar to analyze conversations around Foursquare.

Foursquare sentiment

Conversations around Foursquare over the past few days have been astoundingly positive.

Foursquare vs. Facebook Places vs. Gowalla chatter

Foursquare generated significantly more chatter than both Facebook Places and Gowalla over the past few months.

Which, if any, location-based check-in application do you use?

Yesterday Facebook introduced Places, a new feature enabling users to share where they are with their friends, allow them to see who is near them, and allow them to discover new places around them. Though Facebook is enabling location-based services Foursquare, Gowalla, Booyah and Yelp to integrate with Places, many have speculated that Places will lead to the death of these other services.

We used Social Radar to conduct some preliminary analysis on Foursquare vs. Facebook Places.

The chart below shows Foursquare gaining steady increase in chatter over the past year.

But Facebook Places chatter eclipsed Foursquare in less than a day.

Overall buzz around Facebook Places has been slightly negative, with words like ripoff, risk and privacy concern appearing among negative words.

A closer look at the topic cloud around Facebook Places reveals some of the relevant topics of conversation and their sentiment.

So far today, the word Places is appearing in more than 30% of posts related to Foursquare.

Will the trend continue and will Places completely infiltrate all Foursquare conversation and subsequently take users? Or will privacy concerns with Facebook Places keep people using Foursquare and other services where they can limit their friends? As more users begin integrating Facebook Places into their lives, we’ll check back with an update.