foursquare

This week I got a request from a business customer wanting to know more about foursquare. “What is this foursqure? I just don’t get it”….
Foursquare is a location service-based social network game. What it does is tell you where your friends are. It’s like Google Lattitude meets a little bit of Facebook, and a touch of Twitter which makes for some fun and friendly competition. Foursquare just turned 1 this month and already has 500,000 users and 1.5 million vendors.

The whole system is based on “checking-in”. You check-in from restaurants, stores and basically any public place, you can also add a little message about where you are and what you’re doing – all very brief – and the system will then register what you’re up to. People who are your friends will then get a message to let them know where you are and your activities, and the idea is that they can then join you or visit that place later for themselves.

The fun part is that you get points for checking-in. It’s all still new, even for the developers, and much of the system is still evolving but, at the moment, you get a point for checking in, you get five points if it happens to be from a place you’ve never checked-in from before; a further point if it’s the second, third, fourth etc. and another still for checking-in multiple times in a row. Currently the points aren’t good for anything other than bragging rights but that’s plenty. There is a leader board on the site with the top users. Also, if you check-in from the same place more times and more regularly than anyone else, you become crowned Mayor of that venue- an honour that many may try for and that’s part of the fun. You can also earn badges as you check-in. There are badges for the number of times you’ve checked-in to new venue from Newbie up to Superstar, plus all sorts of random titles to earn. Developers are working with vendors and taking suggestions for all sorts of new badges.

That’s the fun side of foursquare and what users appreciate, but while all this is going on, imagine you own a restaurant, hotel, store or coffee shop and people literally compete to see who can spend the most time in your venue. They are recommending your best menu items to friends, and telling the world via Twitter and Facebook every time they walk through your door. And, you can track where they are coming from, where else they’ve been and what time of day they like to visit and gathering other very valuable feedback. Vendors should really look into getting themselves listed. How to get listed? When a foursquare user goes to a new location they go to “check-in” and the app pulls up vendors within the area, if your not on there, the foursquare user can add your establishment for others to view next time. Redline has been adding our vendors and customers whom visit throughout our weekly service calls. Foursquare has also just announced that they will be adding a dashboard with analytics for vendors. It’s currently being beta tested by about 30 vendors. Other benefits to businesses – 1. Word-of-mouth marketing: Foursquare works with Twitter and Facebook, one check-in at your restaurant or venue could be potentially viewable by thousands via users’ social networks. 2. Customer loyalty building/reward: Businesses can track customers’ visits, and can easily reward their most frequent customers. Foursquare promotes business’ “Mayor Specials,” specials for those who visit an establishment the most. 3. Recommendations from your best customers: Foursquare users can add “tips” about places, such as what to try on the menu or the best day to visit. These tips are available to anyone who checks in to your business, or even if they are close to your business.

What do we think of it? It’s definitely interesting and fun, especially if you’ve got a group of friends to play with. It’s also compatible with other social networking platforms such as Facebook, Twiiter and Osnapz. Here at Redline, our techs have been using foursquare to promote our clients that want the exposure. There have been rivalries over mayorship It’s a great exposure tool for restaurants, coffee shops, stores and other venues. We’re really looking forward to foursquare rolling out their vendor dashboard.

How do you get started? Like all social networks, just head to the foursquare site and sign up. Add a photo and find your friends. There are of course apps for the iPhone, Droid & Blackberry. Look us up on foursquare: redlineitinjax. For help getting started and more information on vendor dashboard & analytics, contact us at Redline.

references: Pocket-lint, Brainwoo, YouTube

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