What is Foursquare?
Check in and check out a social networking app that follows you around wherever you go. We want to introduce you to Foursquare.
Where are you? Where are your customers? When you’ve just got to let everyone know where you are, what your customers are into, and your favourite spots to visit, Foursquare is marketing technology that pinpoints and targets your audience, informing your customers of your whereabouts.
But Foursquare is more than just that. After all, letting people know where you are would lose its appeal quickly. This mobile app lets you share and save the places you like to frequent. You can become a “mayor,” earn badges and gain valuable coupons. With over 25 million people active in the community and over 3 billion check-ins, Foursquare is definitely a major player in the social media hub. Let’s explore this intriguing social app.
Checking In
One of the main features of Foursquare is the ability to share your location with friends. You head into a bar for a drink—check in using the Foursquare app on your mobile phone so your friends and family can see where you are (and maybe buy the next round). It makes it easy for friends and family to find out how to get to the location your at because your location pops up on a Foursquare map.
Fun Stuff
To keep you coming back for more, Foursquare lets you earn points and badges for frequent check-ins. To become a “mayor” on Foursquare, you need to check into a location more than anyone else. You can usurp other mayors—every time you visit a local haunt, just check in. Badges are earned by checking into new kinds of locations or checking in somewhere a number of times. They are fun to earn—they are kinda like a social bucket list, as you try to check them off.
Recommendations
One of the cool features that Foursquare offers is tips and to-dos. This app isn’t just a Yellow Pages app—you can add tips to places so friends and other users will learn everything they need to know about a venue. Let’s say that the taco joint down the street has a $2 off deal every Tuesday from 1 pm to 3 pm. You can add that info to Foursquare, and anyone nearby can see the tip and save it as a to-do in their personal check list.
Foursquare for Businesses
Starbucks was the first to jump on the Foursquare coupon bandwagon. Basically, it lets customers discover the best places to visit, eat and go to. This is awesome for businesses—they can use Foursquare’s analytics program that gives them detailed information on who is checking-in to their locations. As well, it allows them to communicate with visitors to the store who are looking to explore. There’s two apps, one that allow you to save the places you go calls Swarm, which is an amazing memory tool for travellers, and Squarespace City Guide, which is also a benefit to travellers, but with this app you can trust the experience of past travellers who have digital guideposts for you on your journey.
Are you checking in with Foursquare? If you have a storefront, will you use it to boost your business profile, or use it for foot traffic analytics? Leave us a message on Twitter of Instagram.