Foursquare 101

While growing in importance, Foursquare and other geo-location social sites are often left out of social networking planning because of their newness, and because of the simple fact that people just don’t “get” them. As Foursquare, Gowalla, Google Places and others are expected to become increasingly important and prevalent in 2011, check out this FourSquare 101 to help you get up to speed.

What it is:

Foursquare is a social media platform/city guide/game that rewards the user for “doing interesting things.”

Available only on smart phones, it allows users to know where their friends are, and get rewarded with badges and “mayorships” for doing new things or meeting new people. The service can link to Facebook and Twitter to update those communities on where the user is and what they’re doing. “Mayors” are those who check into a location the most within a 60 day period. Users give tips, do’s and don’ts of each location, making it an online review site as well. Recently, Bing Maps has integrated Foursquare data to show tips, venue info, etc.

How most brands are currently using it:

Many retailers, restaurants, hotels and others are offering discounts for the mayor of their businesses.

Starbucks has embraced Foursquare by offering $1 off coupons to several products to those who are mayors.

Foursquare’s business page makes in-store materials available to those businesses who have claimed their venue, but only a few have started to display them.

Some untapped opportunities:

Incentivizing the masses: While many are offering mayor discounts, smarter advertisers are offering discounts or promotions to anyone who checks into their locations. Like any other mass media coupon, this should be something that could be honored for many – while leaving the bigger discounts for the mayors.

Review of honest feedback: The tips section of Foursquare includes honest feedback of what’s best and sometimes what’s worst at a restaurant, venue, etc. Business owners should be reviewing this frequently and maximizing the feedback learned. For example, you might not have known that your restaurant was home of the “city’s best margarita” and perhaps it’s something worth weaving into your traditional advertising and PR messaging.

Tracking and Analytics: Foursquare offers services to share customer behavior with neighborhood businesses. While the data is useful, it is somewhat limited and should be part of a deeper and global social networking analytics.

Event Marketing: Companies can promote community events, trade shows and outside events that they are attending, and award specials for those who check in.

B2B Marketing: Foursquare is not just for retail. B2B companies should be using the trade show idea, as well as assigning their corporate locations as venues.

For more questions on how to best integrate Foursquare and other Social Networking sites into your marketing plan, feel free to call!