It’s on Entrepreneur Magazine’s annual List of 100 Brilliant Ideas and in line with the big dogs for a reason. Just a little over a year ago, Foursquare launched and dominated at the 2009 South by Southwest (SXSW) Interactive conference in Austin, Texas, and today the location-based application is thriving as Pete Cashmore’s (founder and CEO of Mashable) prophesized “Twitter of 2010.”
Geolocation in social media is booming, and it will continue to explode within the years to come. We heard at SXSW Interactive this year that spending related to global location-based services and geolocation is forecasted to exceed $7 billion by 2013, and Google’s even said that “the future of mobile is local.”
Businesses and organizations all over the world are utilizing Foursquare and similar location-based applications to their advantage—by rewarding loyalty and meeting customers/advocates at their preferred points of engagement. It’s as simple as finding where your customers live online, and developing a strategy to connect with them there.
Have you explored using Foursquare to maximize business and engagement for your organization? If so, we’ve detailed a few tips below. If not, contact us—we’d be happy to analyze your current social media strategy and see if/how Foursquare could work to serve your organization.
Editing Business Location
Is your business on Foursquare, but the app’s geolocation feature fails to pull it in when you’re nearby? This problem could be due to incorrect pin location on Google maps within the application. To correct, just drag and drop the pin to the physical location on the map.
The catch that many people run into here, though, is that the only people who can drag and drop the pin are the venue’s mayor and the manager of the business (which requires a claiming process). The best option would be to claim the business as your own if you haven’t already; however, since the platform is still so new, it does require an approval process that may take a few weeks. While you wait for approval (time is of the essence!) it would be advantageous to contact the “mayor” directly and request that he/she edits the location for you.
Appropriately Tagging Your Business
Not only does appropriately tagging your business on Foursquare help with search engine optimization (SEO), but it also helps your customers unlock certain badges associated with those tags. The more comprehensive (yet accurate) the list of tags on your business, the better for your customers. The key in unlocking many badges on Foursquare has to do with the tags attached.
Speaking of Badges . . .
Ever wonder what it takes to be a Super Mayor on Foursquare? What it takes to earn the Socialite badge, or what about the Social Media Guru badge (that involves a signed bottle of wine from @GaryVee!?)? Check out this thick list of Foursquare badges—180 to be exact. It’s interesting to see the businesses that have taken it upon themselves to create custom badges, namely, Adobe, Time Out Chicago, The Wall Street Journal, The Today Show, Lucky Magazine … the list goes on and on. Are there any not on the list that you’ve seen/earned? Comment below!
This list of Foursquare tips, tricks, and techniques could be five times as long, but I hope you’ve gotten a nice sampling from the few provided.
What questions do you have regarding Foursquare? Feel free to include them below, and we’ll do our best do answer.
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Great sample of tips and tricks for businesses engaging in Foursquare with their customers. I didn’t realise just how much is going to be spent on geolocation services in the next few years. Thanks Abby
Fiona,
Hi there! Astounding, isn’t it? Thanks for reading, and I appreciate your comment. We’ll be touching on more tips and tricks in the weeks to come! Have a great day!
Abby