5 Steps to Bring Foursquare Check-Ins to Your Door

Foursquare is a free location based social network and online game that uses mobile phones to allow you to “check in” to locations around the world. You can allow friends in your Foursquare social network to be notified of the locations you check in to as well as see where they have visited. As you travel across town or around the world the game aspect of Foursquare rewards you with points, badges, and some friendly competition between you and your friends. You can become the Mayor of any location you visit or oust the seated Mayor of that location.

To jump in to the game sign up at http://FourSquare.com and download the application for your iPhone, Blackberry, Android or Palm Pre. If your phone is not on the list you can use Foursquare’s mobile website or even SMS text messaging to play.

5 Steps to Bring Foursquare Customers in to Your Business.

Setting up your business as a venue on Foursquare is free. Using Foursquare as part of your online marketing strategy is brilliant… not to mention actionable, measurable, and repeatable. Here’s how to get started.

1. Visit http://foursquare.com/businesses to register your business as a venue.
2. Prepare specials for people who “check-in” to your location on Foursquare. Be generous. Initially focus on check-in specials (discount or free item when arriving), frequency-based specials (check-in a certain number of times and get a deeper discount), and Mayor specials (treat them like royalty).
3. Promote your specials in-store, on your website, in your newsletters and include them in all advertising. There are thousands of Foursquare users in Tampa Bay that are looking for Foursquare friendly businesses.
4. Monitor your venue’s stats on Foursquare’s website to discover who checks in the most often, the most recent, how many unique visitors, and more. Keep an eye out for these customers and take care of them.

Create customer loyalty by thanking people who checked-in to your location on Facebook and Twitter. You can see a list of users who checked-in at your location on you Foursquare venue page in the “Who’s been here” section. Click on each visitor and look for links to their Twitter feed and Facebook profiles. Follow and friend these users, thank them for visiting, and start a conversation. This is an opportunity to engage. Don’t blow it by trying to sell them anything. Think of this as your second date.