Should My Business Be on Foursquare?

Posted by David Chism | Tue, May 31, 2011

 Should My Business Be on Foursquare?
Isn’t this New Media world we live in excit­ing! LOL I know what my con­trac­tor audi­ence is think­ing, David I can’t take it any­more! To many new toys, gad­gets, sites, likes, followers…ahhh!” Well, I’m hear to tell you about anoth­er one! Actu­al­ly, many of you have already heard of it. It’s called Foursquare. It is a GPS mobile app where an indi­vid­ual checks-in at a local busi­ness, shop­ping cen­ter, park, gov­ern­ment build­ing and so on. It is a mini social net­work­ing pro­gram where the indi­vid­ual can have friends con­nect­ed to his or her check-ins and can com­ment, share, become the may­or of a busi­ness and even offer tips about the place they are vis­it­ing. Foursquare is unique in that it offers users spe­cials based on where they check in at. The local busi­ness of course has to sign up to offer these spe­cials. How it works: A user looks at his device, finds the name of the place he is at, clicks Check in Here” and if there is a spe­cial, he’ll get a coupon that a busi­ness can type in a code or scan the device. Foursquare keeps track of the per­son­’s check ins at each loca­tion and can earn points as well as become the may­or (per­son who has checked in the most/​recent). Now that you know the basics of Foursquare, should you 1) Use it your­self and 2) Have your busi­ness list­ed? Pros of Foursquare for a Business
  • It can cre­ate cus­tomer loy­al­ty: i.e. Some restau­rants offer the may­or” of their loca­tion a bet­ter deal than any­one else. Why not! The per­son shows up the most and orders from them. Reward your top clients and they’ll keep com­ing back. Also those who are not may­ors can also get spe­cial deals for mul­ti­ple check ins. So this too cre­ates cus­tomers fight­ing for may­or­ship or to receive a free meal, drink, per­cent­age off or some­thing spe­cial now and then.
  • Good brand aware­ness: It does­n’t cost to list your busi­ness and it just gives more peo­ple oppor­tu­ni­ty to see your name.
  • Most of your com­peti­tors are not using it (yet)
  • It is grow­ing in popularity
  • You can learn what peo­ple think of your busi­ness: peo­ple can offer tips about the busi­ness­es they visit
  • It can be addict­ing and fun com­pet­ing with friends for points, spe­cials and mayorships!
Cons of Foursquare for Business
  • Pri­va­cy issues: peo­ple can know where you are. This def­i­nite­ly both­ers a lot of people!
  • It is just anoth­er thing to do…and it prob­a­bly won’t bring you tons and tons of busi­ness if you are a con­trac­tor. A restau­rant on the hand should def­i­nite­ly do it.
  • It is addict­ing if you use Foursquare, and most of the time, a waste of time. So if you get hooked, you might need to go to a Foursquare recov­ery pro­gram someday!
  • Learn what peo­ple think about your busi­ness can be depress­ing! Yes…and the bad you can’t delete! The more you expose your busi­ness online, the more you real­ly have to watch and pro­tect your rep­u­ta­tion. This does help com­pa­nies pro­vide bet­ter cus­tomer service.
  • Check-ins don’t do much for you: For a ser­vice com­pa­ny that works at the con­sumer’s home or busi­ness, your cus­tomers won’t be check­ing in at your office very often. In this case, Foursquare will be pri­mar­i­ly for brand aware­ness only.
  • Offer­ing deals and spe­cials won’t work well: Can it work? Yes. But again, most ser­vice com­pa­nies won’t have cus­tomers check­ing in.
So are you using Foursquare now? Do you like it? Hate it or have no clue what it is!? I use Foursquare and a hun­dred oth­er tools, because I’m test­ing out gad­gets, apps, pro­grams, for my clients. I must admit, I thought Foursquare was dumb for the longest time. I decid­ed to swal­low my pride and try it out. Well, after 6+ months of steady use…it is kind of fun. I am com­pet­i­tive, so I’m com­pet­ing with my office man­ag­er for first place and may­or­ships in our city! Oh, and my busi­ness is on Foursquare. If you hap­pen to be in my area and check in, I’ll treat you to lunch!

About David Chism

David Chism started his business out of a passion for helping small contracting businesses grow, be more profitable and become better known to their target clients. One lifelong hobby of David is using techie gadgets. So this blog is a place where he writes about technology, marketing ideas, just for fun (humor), personal thoughts on small business and more.

     
   
       

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