Getting Started Using Foursquare For Your Business

May302011

No doubt, by now, you’ve heard of at least one of the many location based check in platforms available to smartphone users. Location based platforms have literally turned the world into one large game, allowing users to “Check in” to locations or complete challenges to gain points, titles, badges, or rewards for their efforts. The real bonus for you comes from the fact that all of these platforms tie directly into users social networks, allowing them to share their locations and experiences with their friends.

If you’re new to Foursquare, watch this short video below to see how your customers might interact with Foursquare.

How To Unlock Your World With Foursquare on Howcast

While some of these services might not have grabbed a lot of attention in your city yet, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t start looking at them. Here’s a short primer on how to get started using Foursquare to help bring customers into your business.

Reward Your Customers

It doesn’t need to be a big reward, or a reward on every visit. If you’re a coffee shop, maybe you could give a free upgrade to the next drink size, or offer a free pastry every third visit. Be creative or offer something exclusive and you’ll give people a reason to return. Just don’t make it overly complicated.

Train Your Staff

If you are going to go through the trouble of creating a reward for your customers, make sure all of your staff know about it. You don’t want someone to come in excited that it’s their time to collect a reward, and have your employees not know what they are talking about. Foursquare offers flyers you can print out to help train your staff.

Advertise Your Participation

People will be more likely to visit your location if they knew that  they are going to get rewarded for it. Put up a sign or a banner and tell the world. When you create a special in Foursquare, you can print out flyers to post in your store to help make customers aware of it. Foursquare will even send you window clings you can display in your store and list you on a “Specials Nearby” tab in their application once you’ve created a special.

Tailor Your Campaigns
Once you claim your venue, you can view venue stats for your business location, such as total daily checkins and what times people check in, recent visitors, most frequent visitors, gender breakdowns, and the portion of your visitors that share their checkins on social networks. You can use this information to tailor your campaign to better suit your customers and track changes in your customer base over time.

You can read more about Foursquare’s Business offering at http://www.foursquare.com/business.

How to Acquire, Engage, and Retain Customers with Foursquare on Howcast

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