How to Build your Business with Foursquare
Facebook and Twitter are dominating the global social storm, but with 4.5 million members, savvy business owners everywhere are taking advantage of Foursquare as well. Foursquare, unlike other social networking sites, requires movement. User activity at the point of conversion is the main goal for business owners and marketing professionals everywhere, and Foursquare provides a perfect platform to optimize engagement and conversions.
Many Businesses question whether or not Foursquare can help them if they aren’t a retail store or if they don’t have a traditional location. The answer to that is YES. To prove it, Foursquare has already partnered with brands such as the History Channel and Bravo. Below are some easy tips for getting the most out of Foursquare even if you don’t have the Starbucks budget.
Set your goals.
Establish your main objectives, it makes it easier to see which of Foursquare’s features and options are right for your business or brand. Setting goals give you a metric to work towards and helps you gauge the success of your efforts.
Friends are important to a business, NOT check-ins.
As a consumer, check-ins are great, but for a business it’s all about building your companies friend list. Foursquare isn’t much of a place for conversation, so checking into every possible place will not help you build your brand.
Put in Your Two Cents!
For brands, adding a tip or two is the easiest way to market using Foursquare. Every tip created is available for all of Foursquare to see. Tips should be valuable to people and with everything else, align with your brand.
No storefront? No problem. Add your own!
If you don’t have a location, that doesn’t mean you can’t add something unique or creative to market your business. For example, a non-profit foundation for the homeless created locations at abandoned warehouses and bridges throughout their city to promote awareness for the homeless. As long as the locations you create align with your brand, this can be an extremely successful strategy.
Let’s say you are a hotdog vendor with a small storefront a few doors down from a baseball stadium. Check into the stadium and leave a tip for guests that are checking into the stadium to head to your stand or store for a special that you are running. Thousands of people go to baseball games…just think how many could be flocking to your store.
Badges
Very few brands have the deep pocket of Starbucks to create their own personalized badge. The great thing about Foursquare is the pre-existing badges. Take advantage of existing badges. Unlocking badges is what drives user engagement. Partner with a business that complements what yours is doing. If they have a location, select a badge that users want, but may be difficult unlock. For example, the Super Swarm Badge is unlocked based on a large number of people checking in at one place at the same time
Added Benefits Through Aggregation
Additional promotions and publicity can come from the hundreds and potentially thousands of extra people who see the check-ins when users post to Facebook and Twitter. Never overlook the opportunity to market your brand, products, or business.
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