What is foursquare?
If you're not familiar with foursquare then we reckon the best way to understand it is to start using it.
But in short, users install it on their mobile phone or other device, that device knows their location and foursquare lets them see or leave tips on nearby places, they can tell where their friends are or have been and they can earn points, unlock badges and of course become mayor of their favourite coffee shop.
Here are some examples:
Finding a restaurant I'm away for the weekend and hungry, I don't know where does the best pizza, foursquare shows me nearby pizza restaurants, it tells me which are popular and if any places are running "specials".
Bumping into a friend I've popped down the pub, whilst checking in on foursquare I notice a friend happens to be in a different pub just down the road. I give them a call, finish my drink and wander down to meet them for another.
Playing the game foursquare awards you with points for checking in, if you're the competitive sort you can see who out of all your friends has the most points in the last 7 days.
How does my business use foursquare?
Businesses on foursquare fall into one of two camps:
- Venues - with a geographic location
- Brands - that are not tied to a location
It's really very easy for venue owners to start offering promotions to their customers and reward those who keep returning. For brands that aren't tied to a location it is a little more complicated, you can use pages and custom badges.
So how do you get started.
First up, claim your venue You'll need to be a foursquare member to do this, so go to
foursquare.com and sign-up first.
After you've signed-up and logged in search for your venue, this could be a restaurant, shop or even an office. Once on the page there should be a link which reads "Do you manage this venue? Claim here". You will need to provide some contact information and it will take foursquare around 7-10 days to approve the claim. Once you've claimed your venue you'll be able to edit some info, view analytics for people checking-in and offer specials.
There are a whole bunch of specials which you can set-up,
you can view them here.
Note that only consumer-facing venues can run specials, so it wouldn't be an option for your office for example.
What if you're a brand with no specific venue You can create a page for free using your Twitter feed,
get started here.
Examples
Venues A branch of Pizza Express Tate Modern Brand Pages Starbucks MTV Useful links https://foursquare.com/business/ http://support.foursquare.com/forums/177952-foursquare-for-business