Foursquare + NH Business = Success!
On the heels of a highly interesting Social Media Club of NH chat last night (held every Sunday at 9pm under the hashtag #SMCNHchat if you would like to participate or view the history of the discussion) I decided it was time to share some insight as to what the Foursquare platform means for businesses.
Now if you’re still scratching your head wondering what Foursquare is, here is a quick overview. Foursquare is a location based social networking application (that is FREE by the way) that you install on your smart phone (iPhone, Blackberry, Android, etc.) that allows you to check in wherever you are. This information is then passed back to your Foursquare profile and shared with all your Foursquare friends (don’t worry, this isn’t like starting Twitter or Facebook all over again). Foursquare lets you search your other social media platforms and import any of your current friends from those networks who are already using Foursquare. Foursquare also gives you the option to “share” that location update with just your Foursquare friends, Twitter peeps, or Facebook Friends, or all of them at once all from your mobile phone.
So what is so great about that and how does it lead to business success?
In my experience using Foursquare, this application presents a multitude of possibilities, but for right now as the platform is just starting to take off and gain some momentum, here are three simple ways that Foursquare can help generate more foot traffic and revenue for your business.
- Competition between users. Foursquare has a fun feature that appoints a “Mayor” to your establishment when they “check-in” the most at your location. This is all part of the points system and badge rewards that people can receive for their activity in the system. So if you are a NH restaurant for instance, why not offer a free drink or appetizer to whomever is the current mayor of your establishment? You will be surprised at the length people will go to hold onto their mayoral status.
- Location based offers and specials. If you sign your business up with Foursquare you can publish specials that will be shown to people who “check-in” within two blocks of your establishment. So lets say I am down the street shopping for shoes and I check in at the store but I still need some pants. If your clothing store is close enough in proximity you can have your 20% off pants special appear on their check in screen message alerting them that they can get pants at a better price right around the corner!
- Community Recommendations. The fact of the matter is that nobody cares what you say about your products and services, they care about what OTHER PEOPLE say about your products and services. Foursquare is a real-time application that encourages people to interact and talk about your business. The feedback and information you can get reading what people write about your products and services will be extremely valuable to you as a monitoring tool. This activity breeds more conversation and comments about your products and services and allows customers to create “To-Do” actions around your business as well as recommend your business to other people on their own terms. These are all things that will help generate more visibility, traffic and revenue for your business.
Sound interesting to you? Not sure how to get started?
That’s where FirstTracks Marketing Group comes in! We are on top of all the new and current social media applications and we know how to use them properly to generate success for your business. We can help you set up Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare or Linkedin. You name it and we can help you develop a strategy for it. Give our office in Peterborough NH a call at 603-924-1978 or fill out our request form to get started. We look forward to hearing from you soon!
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