How to Increase Profits for a Local Businesses With Foursquare

October 7, 2010

Companies or professionals which operate in the social media marketing understand one of several challenges is staying in touch with all the latest methods and internet sites to decide if it is truly worth making an investment towards making use of them. We’re here to help you out today by examining Foursquare and it’s tools local businesses may use to increase revenue.

For individuals who are not aware of Foursquare, it is a location-based social media marketing tool which allows people to “check in” and transmit their whereabouts to their friends or the community. The company is created by Dennis Crowley and Naveen Selvadurai. Dennis Crowley also created another location-based enterprise named Dodgeball which Google bought, then closed without fanfare.

Basics of Using Foursquare

Foursquare operates by permitting people to make use of a GPS smart phone to confirm their whereabouts (” checking in”) to earn rewards. The rewards include two types: badges and mayor-ships. To acquire a badge, you must check in a particular amount of times. For instance, 10 checkins gets you the adventurer badge. Additionally, there are location-specific badges. The other form of reward is becoming declared mayor of a location. To become mayor, you must have checked in at a location at least two times and stay the individual with more check-ins spanning a 60 day time period.

Since we have dealt with how Foursquare operates, why is it essential for local or regional/national businesses with local locations to participate in Foursquare and exactly how they get the most from it? Given that Foursquare is dependant on having people visit your business location, it’s likely to work most effectively for businesses which people go to regularly, like a fitness center, coffee shop, eatery, tavern, book store, spa, or beauty salon. If you operate a business and notice a significant percentage of customers using smartphones, it may be worth researching.

Claiming your company on Foursquare

Foursquare enables business owners to claim their business. After they do, they may generate incentives. For instance, a company may offer a discount or complimentary product to any person which shows they’re the mayor, or anybody which visits a particular amount of times.

A popular success story is a restaurant owner in Seattle who creates promotions on days with in-climate weather to smooth out the dips in their lunch-time rush crowd.

Sharing Your Business Socially

The idea behind Foursquare is whenever people check in, they transmit or reveal their check ins with their Twitter and/or Facebook followers. Whether positive or negative, oversharing may be a characteristic attribute of social networking. Foursquare comically identified this with the oversharing badge for anybody who checks in over 10 times within a 24 hour time period.

Users with Twitter stream have their mayor awards automatically shared, so it is wise to employ this promotion. Enabling the “X amount of visits” or “every X amount of visits” price reduction, you motivate repeat business and recurring broadcasts of your business. Foursquare offers more details along with links to Foursquare ads you may use to let others know happen to be on Foursquare.

Strategic business relationships for multi-location businesses with Foursquare?

Foursquare works with various partners for unique badges. If you check in to several Starbucks, you receive a Barista Badge. Check in to five Zagat rated restaurants and you will receive the Zagat foodie badge. There are partnerships with TV channels for checking in to locations related to their top-rated shows. Foursquare also partners with magazines and newspapers. You must become friends with the publisher to earn these special tie-in badges.

There are also more unusual Foursquare badges, such as mimicking through your smartphone, the World Cup 2010 vuvuzela sound by shouting “zzzzzzzzzz,” or announcing goals by exclaiming “GOOOOOOOOOOOAL!”.

Should your company sign up for Foursquare?

The answer depends upon your geographic locations and your customer demographic. Local business-to-consumer enterprises relying on in-person visits benefit most out of Foursquare. You’ll do even better if your customers are technologically-savvy, smart phone users.

Nevertheless, your organization must be worth people wanting to tell other people about. It may possibly be difficult to get foursquare users to check at the auto body shop, but if you offer check in incentives (like a free oil change or additional services with a repair), Foursquare may deliver the results for you.