• How-to

Just over two years old, Foursquare is the latest social networking fad to catch public attention. Foursquare allows users to share the places they go to, or “check-in,” with friends and other users using their cellphones. The tool combines local city mapping, social interaction and gaming. And like its more experienced cousins, Facebook and Twitter, companies both big and small are slowly finding out that Foursquare, if used creatively, can boost credibility and lead to increased sales.

How it works
Foursquare allows users to share inputs and tips about the places they have checked in to, allowing companies to track what customers are saying about their brands. In addition, they will also be exposed to potential customers. Viral marketing at its best.

Foursquare is ideal for businesses like restaurants, cafes and salons but it can work just as well for others. So, how do you go about it? The first step is to sign up and ensure that the location details of your business, if featured, and other information are accurate. You can manually add your business if you don’t already feature. Even if you don’t intend to use Foursquare actively, make sure that your business is listed correctly because at least some of your customers are bound to be using it.

1. Integrate with other social media. Foursquare may be just catching up in India, but Twitter and Facebook have users running into millions. Use them and integrate it with Foursquare. Users of the latter automatically send their location updates to Twitter and Facebook. You could tweet a special offer for Foursquare users; hold tweet-ups at your store.

2. Mayor specials. Mayors are basically users who frequent a particular place more than anyone else. Create special offers for the mayors of your business. It is one of the most effective uses of Foursquare—you could provide a discount or offer something free. Advertise him and you can be sure he’ll be coming back again (with friends and family in tow this time). To add an element of fun and competitiveness, you could also run mayorship contests.

3. Loyalty promotions. Foursquare provides companies with real-time check-in analytics. You can track everything from top visitors to gender ratios to the number of check-ins that were simultaneously updated on Twitter and Facebook. The best way to utilize this feature would be to reward your most loyal customers (in addition to the Mayor) and offer them incentives so that they keep coming back.

4. Foursquare specials & discounts. Give out special offers or discounts to customers who have checked-in using Foursquare. This way, you’re making sure that more people get to hear about you. You could sign up your company for the Foursquare Specials, which means whenever an user checks-in at a location near your store, Foursquare will send out a notification that you’re running specials. Chances are that they’ll want to check out your store.

5. Communicate with customers. Since users are likely to leave tips and advises for other users, use this as a platform to interact with your customers and gain their feedback.

©Entrepreneur April 2011

Tags:
Foursquare, social networking, tool