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Are you using Foursquare to get web traffic?

by sdentrepreneur
23 replies
Foursquare is slowly becoming the next Twitter as a location based Social Network. Now I am sure many of you are thinking why and will this drive traffic? Here are some of my suggested methods that can be used to drive traffic and reasoning behind them.

1. Connect your Foursquare to Twitter and Facebook, every time you check in somewhere, it posts to your Social Media status/Facebook Wall. If you are trying to brand yourself as a leader in your industry, then check into the fun and cool places you go all the time. People look to you as a leader and fun person and will be more willing to take your advice on products and services you recommend.

2. If you have an office like myself, you can check into your office daily. I add tips and things to do on my location and drive people to a landing page or my offline business marketing page. Here is example: foursquare :: JMH Marketing Group :: San Diego, Ca

3. You can connect with other like minded individuals. You can add friends from your Social Media sites when you upload your address book. I was at Old Venice Restaurant (I am the Mayor) and saw this girl checked in same time as me. She was in PR, I introduced myself and we are working on some joint ventures.

4. If you are the actual business owner of the location. You can add a Bonus special offer for anyone who is the Mayor and offer other specials like Free Drink or 10% off a haircut.

5. Since this is Geo Located, you can add a near by location App, so when I check into Starbucks, it will tell me 10% off lunch at the place next door.

Those are my Top 5 for now, please feel free to add any tips or tricks that I missed.

There are a few downfalls, some people actually call it FourStalk....you may not want to be this visible to others. you can block your check ins at any time. I did get a Player Badge for checking into a bar with 3 other girls on Foursquare..haha

P.S. Those of you who are offline Marketers for small business like myself, you can add this to you marketing package.
#foursquare #marketing #traffic #web
  • Profile picture of the author sdentrepreneur
    Originally Posted by sdentrepreneur View Post

    Foursquare is slowly becoming the next Twitter as a location based Social Network. Now I am sure many of you are thinking why and will this drive traffic? Here are some of my suggested methods that can be used to drive traffic and reasoning behind them.

    1. Connect your Foursquare to Twitter and Facebook, every time you check in somewhere, it posts to your Social Media status/Facebook Wall. If you are trying to brand yourself as a leader in your industry, then check into the fun and cool places you go all the time. People look to you as a leader and fun person and will be more willing to take your advice on products and services you recommend.

    2. If you have an office like myself, you can check into your office daily. I add tips and things to do on my location and drive people to a landing page or my offline business marketing page. Here is example: foursquare :: JMH Marketing Group :: San Diego, Ca

    3. You can connect with other like minded individuals. You can add friends from your Social Media sites when you upload your address book. I was at Old Venice Restaurant (I am the Mayor) and saw this girl checked in same time as me. She was in PR, I introduced myself and we are working on some joint ventures.

    4. If you are the actual business owner of the location. You can add a Bonus special offer for anyone who is the Mayor and offer other specials like Free Drink or 10% off a haircut.

    5. Since this is Geo Located, you can add a near by location App, so when I check into Starbucks, it will tell me 10% off lunch at the place next door.

    Those are my Top 5 for now, please feel free to add any tips or tricks that I missed.

    There are a few downfalls, some people actually call it FourStalk....you may not want to be this visible to others. you can block your check ins at any time. I did get a Player Badge for checking into a bar with 3 other girls on Foursquare..haha

    P.S. Those of you who are offline Marketers for small business like myself, you can add this to you marketing package.
    Very surprised no Replies on this topic? Am I the only one using Foursquare?
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  • Profile picture of the author Drover
    I've never heard of it. How much traffic are you driving from it? How many people are on there? There are 100 new social networks coming out every day thanks to the plethora of decent scripts available now.
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    • Profile picture of the author IMStudentforlife
      I'm in the same boat as Drover, I've never heard about foursquare before. All I've seen is the struggle of the different social network systems trying to be number one.

      There has to be something that will come out on top, we've already seen Myspace fail or about too. Twitter seems to be on the chopping block next.
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  • Profile picture of the author Jagged
    Hey James,

    FourSquares is catching on....still new to many....would be wise for any local buisness to look into it...
    Use it as another income stream for offline business clients...add it to your "social media marketing" packages with twitter, linked-in & facebook....setting up & managing accounts.

    Another newer site to look into is Groupon.com (non-affiliate)...I've been suggesting it to local business clients....it's been working great at attracting new customers for them...I'm going to try it for my business too...

    ~Ken
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    • Profile picture of the author Drover
      Originally Posted by Jagged View Post

      Another newer site to look into is Groupon.com (non-affiliate)...I've been suggesting it to local business clients....it's been working great at attracting new customers for them...I'm going to try it for my business too...
      Thanks for the link. I was just thinking about starting a site similar to this.
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      • Profile picture of the author sdentrepreneur
        Here are two articles about Foursquare for those of you that aren't familiar with them.
        Works great for retail businesses but you can even take us this for affiliate products and selling online as well.

        How Foursquare is Changing Social Media Marketing | Samir Balwani

        Foursquare Nearing 1 Million Checkins Per Day
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        • Profile picture of the author jdenc
          I have been reading up on this it looks cool. I have a restaurant that I am going to be pitching website and internet marketing to and I intend to include this as something for them to pursue.
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          • Profile picture of the author sdentrepreneur
            Originally Posted by jdenc View Post

            I have been reading up on this it looks cool. I have a restaurant that I am going to be pitching website and internet marketing to and I intend to include this as something for them to pursue.
            Hello Jenc

            Take a look at this foursquare Foursquare is perfect for restaurant businesses. I have 3 of them that are my clients and we implement a Foursquare Marketing Strategy.
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            • Profile picture of the author jdenc
              Originally Posted by sdentrepreneur View Post

              Hello Jenc

              Take a look at this foursquare Foursquare is perfect for restaurant businesses. I have 3 of them that are my clients and we implement a Foursquare Marketing Strategy.
              Yeah to me this just screams restaurant/bar. I think there are other places as well like the right niche clothing store for example. Where I am we are seeing the population get younger as professionals relocate(Charlotte NC) from up north and some internationally. All the new smart phones sell out pretty quick on launch dates here. I think it should be something that has big potential.
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              • Profile picture of the author fitz10
                I'm very surprised how many people haven't heard of FourSquare. It's the most popular of the geo tracking social networks and some people are calling it the next Twitter, etc. I don't use it because of the stalker like element Steve described. However, it is undeniably the latest craze in major urban areas on the East and West coasts. My Facebook feed has been taken over by some people who are constantly "checking in".
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  • Profile picture of the author seobro
    Four square is great because it is a free service. However, I am not getting any traffic from it no. Still, I would be wary. Please remember that in the future it may cost you money. Please remember about ning. Reality is often different than what they can promise.
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  • Profile picture of the author MichaelHiles
    I don't work with much by way of retail but I can see where it could have a niche. The midwest has been extremely slow to adopt mobile marketing.
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  • Profile picture of the author MemberWing
    After reading mostly techcrunch-driven hype I think ones who benefit from foursquare are bars, restaurants and stores where 20-30-ish geeky crowd likes to hang.
    Kids like to play "mayors", get tags and stuff and stores are fueling it and give rewards and discounts to frequent visitors.
    I don't see a ways how foursquare can be used as a traffic source to speak of for anyone who does not have physical retail presence.

    Gleb
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  • Profile picture of the author sdentrepreneur
    Foursquare can be used for much more than Bar/Restaurants. Pretty much any retail businesses can us it. Then, for those are trying to brand themselves online, you can use it to show off your lifestyle. When you check into fun places and travel a lot, people see that and what to know what you do.
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    • Profile picture of the author jdenc
      Originally Posted by sdentrepreneur View Post

      Foursquare can be used for much more than Bar/Restaurants. Pretty much any retail businesses can us it. Then, for those are trying to brand themselves online, you can use it to show off your lifestyle. When you check into fun places and travel a lot, people see that and what to know what you do.
      I certainly agree it will work other places but I think for early adoption places like bars/restaurants are easier to make the case to. I haven't seen much evidence of this here yet and I just think those places should be and will be in on this if it continues to grow in popularity.

      I see someone has suggested dentists, OK I guess so. But to me it's unlikely you'll be able to truly put this to use there in such a way the business gets the full benefit. I mean do we really consider dentists offices places where we want to gather with other people and spend money because we are hanging out? IMO it's power is in bringing in people looking to socialize. Not seeing that being the case at the average practice. But hey if you can get it to work let us know I'd very interested in the results.
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  • Profile picture of the author NTO
    Thanks for sharing James! I'm surprised as well with the amount of people unaware of foursquare. For small business, an addition like foursquare is an exciting addition to the marketing mix.

    If there are current outposts setup such as a Facebook fan page, a Twitter profile, a YouTube profile and a blog, businesses will have multiple touchpoints before a prospect comes inside the restaurant, bar, etc.

    I would say one thing: just because it works well with bars and restaurants doesn't mean it doesn't work at a dentist, for example. Social media isn't just about implementing the same strategy as the next guy but being a little creative. Staying with dentists, if you're the mayor of a dentist office, you're rewarded with a free cleaning. Don't let popular uses of the application prevent from being creative and trying out new uses.
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  • Profile picture of the author EricSeiler
    hahaha, you can become the 'Mayor' of a location. That's hilarious
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  • Profile picture of the author AlexNavas
    Foursquare is a wonderful tool and not just for bars and restaurants. Here's a few other businesses that benefit from it. Hair salons, massage parlors, spas, dog walkers, cafes, delivery services, and many others.

    In a WSO I did about a month ago, I revealed how my realtor clients are profiting from it. Think about it, they check in to open houses and other showings around their city and then their friends and followers on Facebook and Twitter are seeing first hand where the hot deals are simply by them commenting on the checkin.

    It is definitely a viable method to market your business or clients' business since it just adds another level of engagement. Not to mention you're able to track your best clients who are sharing the business with all their social connections.
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  • Profile picture of the author bhopkins
    I started playing with it and have it installed. I just always forget to check in places or the places I do check into are never in the database so I have to add them which is a pain. Interesting take on connecting this to twitter and facebook had not thought of that and it may be useful for building up a brand.
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  • Profile picture of the author Domenic Carlson
    I like all of these methods, except for trying to drive people to landing pages through the messages. That just seems too much, for me anyway. The rest are some good tips..and I never even thought of checking into my office!
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    • Profile picture of the author Joel
      Something to consider ......

      The point of Foursquare is that it's a game where you check in with your location every time you go somewhere such as a bar or your office or just about anyplace.

      The more times you log in to different places you can earn badges. The more times you log in to the same place you can be made 'mayor' of that location.

      You may not want everyone to know where you are at all times. That's a potential huge security risk as Foursquare announces to your friends list where you are at the time. If you've not at home, might it be a good time for a robbery?
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