A Facebook Fan Page is a simple addition to your company’s online portfolio. Within a few minutes you can have the basic Page which lets you post images, video, or just communicate with your customers via the wall; however, with a little bit more effort, your Page can reflect the online branding that your company has spent time and effort on with your own website.

The easiest way to add your own personal look to your Page is through the Static FBML application. FBML (Facebook Markup Language) is an extension of HTML, so you can quickly bring static sections of your website into your Facebook profile. Though the instructions below may seem daunting, follow closely (or call us) and it will all become clear.

The first step to adding a new Static FBML tab is to simply add the application to your Page. Go to the application page, and click on the “Add to my Page” link.

From here, you’ll be presented with a pop-up asking which Page to add the application. (Note: if you only have 1 Page, you may not be prompted for this.)

The application is now added to your Page, but to actually do anything with it, you’ll need to go back and edit.

Scroll down to your list of applications and look for the FBML app. Click “edit”  one more time, and you’ll be presented with the actual FBML tab code page.

Here’s where we give our tab a name. In my case I’m moving our team page, so I’ll name the tab “Team,” and then paste in the HTML content from our website that I want on our tab. As you can see, I’ve also linked to the stylesheet from our main site. I’ve also made a special copy and added “-fb” to the name just in case I want to make Facebook-specific tweaks to the styling without mucking around in the master.

Once we’re done, we can scroll to the bottom of the page and click the save button. If we wanted to add more tabs we’d click the link below and more copies of the FBML app would show up in our application list. Clicking the “Application Settings” link brings up a pretty simple dialog box. Here we want to make sure that the “tab” is added, and the “box” is removed.

Navigate back to our Fan Page, and now we just have to find our new tab and drag it to where we want it in our navigation. Since our team is what makes Catchfire Media great, we want to bring this tab close to the beginning of our nav strip. Drag and drop it where we want it, and we’re done.

That’s it; now we have a nice part of our website inside our Facebook presence. See the results below, or on the <a href=”http://www.facebook.com/catchfiremedia?v=app_6009294086“>facebook tab itself</a>.

Here are a couple of closing tips that will save you some headaches while building your first few tabs.

1. Facebook caches your offsite CSS and images, so if you makes a change to either you need to force facebook to grab the new copies. You do this with a little trick called “cache busting.” In your src or href parameter, add a version number and increment it when you have a new version. So, <link href=”css/style-fb.css” rel=”stylesheet” type=”text/css” /> becomes <link href=”css/style-fb.css?v=1″ rel=”stylesheet” type=”text/css” />. The next time you make a change to your stylesheet simply change “v=1” to “v=2” and save your tab. This will force Facebook will fetch your new copy.
2. Facebook has long threatened to change the width of tabs to 520 pixels so that they can add the left sidebar that currently only exists on the wall tab to all the tabs. I personally don’t foresee this happening anytime soon, because many companies have time and money invested in their Facebook presences (this would force them to rewrite a lot of content). It’s probably safest to either code your tabs so that they’re 520 pixels wide, or scale down to that width without trouble.

There you have it, a simple way to bring your brand to your customers within Facebook without expending too much time or effort. If you’d like help with this sort of branding effort, Catchfire Media would be glad to help you out.

Do you maintain a Facebook Fan Page? Are you currently mirroring content from your own website in FBML tabs within Facebook? What do you think of this low-barrier method for jumping into Facebook?

What would you like social media to do for your product? There are many worthwhile answers to this deceptively simple question. We have seen brands use social media to focus on customer service, to increase sales, and even as a complement to a major world sporting event.

At last week’s #dmtweetup I had the pleasure of meeting Scott Andrus, a senior product marketing manager for AT&T. He was in town from Minnesota to run a scavenger hunt at Jordan Creek Town Center to promote the htc Aria. He explained the idea, and I thought it was pretty cool, slightly reminiscent of Josephs Diamond Dash from a few months ago. Here’s the big difference though: the AT&T scavenger hunt was promoted almost exclusively via social media.

Full disclosure: if you follow me on Twitter, you might have read that I was lucky enough to win an Aria (one of five phones given away!) at the scavenger hunt on Saturday. Although exciting, that is not why I decided to write this blog post, nor did my luck have anything to do with meeting Scott the previous evening.

After the event I talked a bit more with Scott about the event’s nuts and bolts. I told him that the best part of the event was that everyone was issued a functioning htc Aria as part of the competition. Text messages sent to the phone provided clues as to what store to go to next. At one point, participants even needed to use Shazam and a QR code reader to gain access to a clue.

Scott found an incredible way for people to interact with his company’s products for two hours at a time through an unexpected and unique experience. He found his audience primarily through social media and convinced them to spend a Saturday afternoon at the mall playing with his product.

At Catchfire Media, we are working with one of our clients on the same goal of encouraging customers to interact with products in real life, using social media as a catalyst. We do this because we are convinced that this is one way to gain raving fans that will not only continue to patronize that business, but will also tell others about their experience.

Have you seen any great examples of companies using social media to spur real world experiences? What do you think of this strategy? I’d love to hear your comments.

In the month that I’ve been with Catchfire Media, I have had the opportunity to speak with many business leaders—from major sporting franchises to nonprofit organizations. Differences aside, there is one trait that these businesses posses: they do not have the time or money available to recognize or capitalize on the best social media strategies.

These organizations realize that their budget and personnel limitations have also restricted their involvement with social media, but they still have issues with brand recognition that hinder their success. Either their customer service department is spending too much time correcting those misconceptions, or their sales staff is wasting time restating their brand identity to their customers.

What’s Missing

Do your customers not totally understand all that your organization offers? Do you find yourself constantly restating your brand features? Wouldn’t it be great if there were a tool available for organizations to further explain what it is they do? There is—it’s called a blog. A blog can be thought of, in this case, as a business’ online journal displayed for public consumption. Organizations have the opportunity to write about possible brand misconceptions and work to correct any wrongs that have hindered productivity in the past.

Imagine taking 10 minutes to write about a topic that you have had to restate repeatedly to your customers. Then imagine restating your brand misconception over and over again to each customer individually, getting upset each time the peeve comes up. Which sounds more appealing to you?

Drafting positive blog posts about your organization helps to educate your advocates and customers about your benefits and features, as well as free up time for your team to be more productive.

Time Well Spent

Take Business A for example, a financial services company (hey, we are in Des Moines). Their main product is commercial leases, yet their customers only know loan products. That business could take the time to educate their customers via their blog, or they could explain leases to each customer individually during their sales calls.

This being said, there is no guarantee that your customers will read your corporate blog, but there are tools you could put in place to increase the chances. For starters, take the time to sit down and define your organization’s goals, ensuring the topics on your blog relate to those goals. Then, develop an editorial calendar listing those goals and your team in a monthly calendar to ensure all bases are covered. Once the calendar is developed, it will be important for you to incorporate your social media efforts on other platforms; this will drive customers back to your blog.

Thus the domino effect

Social media to blog; blog to website. Bringing customers to your site will increase your hits and help in getting your business placed above your competitors in search engine results. Plus, didn’t your business put a bunch of money into designing your website? Wouldn’t you think that a sound strategy to increase hits on that website makes sense?

Utilizing a social media strategy to reinforce your brand is a major component of engaging your customers on social media sites. Your customers are already there talking—now is the time for you to understand how your organization can go to that conversation and drive your customers back to your content.

Has your business incorporated a blog? Do you have an editorial calendar set? How can we help you?

[Photo from metaforaadnetwork on Flickr / CC BY 2.0]

Catchfire Media's new home as of Fall 2010.

Just over a year ago, Jon Troen and Nathan Kring hired me to begin building and finessing a new business—what you now know as Catchfire Media. Catchfire was born to fulfill a need driven by Jon and Nate’s current customers—customers that kept asking “What is social media?” and “How do we do this?” Catchfire’s development and launch had a simple, single goal in mind, and that remains our goal today: helping our customers communicate. Our company has traveled quite the journey in just a year’s time, and along the way we’ve confirmed several truths and learned many lessons. There are a few that stand out for me that I’d like to share with you.

Social Media is Radical
The social web is seeping into everything we do, and it’s changing human behavior. It’s a truly radical and fundamental shift in communication. The very basic and human tendency to share and socialize has evolved immensely in the past few years via the social web. In the past, when witnessing something interesting or exciting, you may have had the urge to call a friend or send a quick email; now, you can not only easily and readily capture whatever you’re witnessing via smartphone, but you can also disseminate that information publicly within seconds. Phrases like “I have to tweet that” were not in many of our vocabularies a few years ago. Now, it’s become second nature. This isn’t just a different way to share information with each other—it’s a change at the root, at the core, of how we’re communicating.

This Industry is Young
The world of social media is young, and in its youth, it’s growing exponentially, learning the ins and outs of professionalism and business along the way. This makes our work exciting and unexpected, and as such, our team needs to constantly think, speak, and develop in ways that acknowledge and embrace the cutting edge.

Like any burgeoning industry, this immaturity, along with an intense work ethic, is the force that drives this industry to reach such incredible heights. Though when it comes to doing real business (achieving cash flow, etc.) there’s a lot to learn. Take Dennis Crowley, for example, the co-founder of Foursquare, whom I had the chance to meet briefly at Big Omaha this year. Though our conversation consisted mostly of him bashing my favorite Karaoke song, it was clear that his youth, persistence, and passion for his work had paved the way for his success. During Dennis’  speaking sessions, most questions regarding his plans for growth or business processes were answered with “Ask me that in 6 months, I’ll have a better answer for you.”

In the areas this industry is immature, we inject formal business practices and professionalism for stabilization. At Catchfire we’ve learned that we have the opportunity to witness these growing pains in the industry and study them in the context of more established industries; as a result, we have the ability to offer more secure, focused services to our clients.

Great People Make It Happen
We have a team of incredibly resourceful, sharp, and creative people. Without Abby’s killer writing and editing skills and Jarad’s instinctive PR prowess, Catchfire would not be what it is today. Add to that a clever, multitalented developer; a passionate, outgoing business development executive; and a smart, tech-savvy intern, and I’d say, you got yourself one hell of a team. Most importantly, each individual recognizes their unique value (but doesn’t let that limit their professional development); we each contribute to the whole in a selfless, all-in way, and do our best to learn from each other. We find that this same attitude of selflessness and teamwork, as well as a consistent focus of offering our clients real value, is really what makes us successful.

I’m proud of the journey we’ve taken over the last year. Our team’s hard work and dedication shine in our accomplishments and partnerships. Where we are today only makes us want to work harder to serve our clients and offer them more, from adding additional products and services to growing the talent of our team.

Admittedly, this post touches on sappy and thoughtful, but I’d love to hear from you—what has your year looked like? How do you feel about the social web and the changes we’ve witnessed in the past year? In what ways do you provide value to your customers?

[Photo from lumaxart on Flickr / CC BY 2.0]

Unless you have been lying on a beach for the last month or comatose on your couch watching the World Cup, you’ve at least heard rumblings of Foursquare’s phenomenal success.  Foursquare is a geolocation game screaming across the U.S., which most access on their smartphones.

At Catchfire Media, we prefer to look at Foursquare through the lens of a business application. What may have started off as a game only has legs if it is able to convert its fan base into revenue. Venture capital firms understand this social media platform’s pull, or they would not be dumping 20M bucks into the company.

We have been taking a hard look at how to extend Foursquare as a business application to our clients’ customer base. The potential beyond the current basic coupon offerings to location “mayors” is incredible (although, believe me I love those coupons; I am still desperately trying to become the mayor of my local Starbucks!)

One idea the Catchfire Media team dreamed up is a marketing campaign tied directly to Foursquare and Iowa’s 2010 gubernatorial race. What? That’s right, we have come up with a concept suited for our retail clients that integrates Foursquare into a state-wide competition for “mayor,” or in our case “governor.”

How it works

From the 10,000 foot view, our concept is a Foursquare competition based on the number of check-ins at retail chain locations. Implementing this campaign on behalf of clients with a large number of stores is key, as we want to ensure the state is represented as much as possible to ensure a “fair” election. Our idea includes a primary season during early fall, followed by the final race ending on election day. The primaries weed down the field by county, region, or city based on our clients’ geographic footprint and individual marketing plan. From the primaries we take the top mayors and pit them against each other for the governor’s race.

With the help of Clint Harvey, our lead developer, Catchfire is already working on customized mobile and web applications to manage the entire campaign for clients. We are encouraging  clients to combine this social media plan with their traditional marketing efforts to highlight and profile their mayors during the campaign. One of the best things about this campaign? There is no reason this it cannot be expanded to other states. In this economy, you can still count on elections happening every two to four years, and each has their own cycle.

As you can imagine, this idea has already created some serious interest by major regional retailers. If we’ve also captured your attention with the ideas behind this campaign and you think it is something that might drive value for your business or clients, give us a call. We are happy to help.

Matthew Pick is Catchfire Media’s summer intern who will be assisting with the firm’s strategic efforts on behalf of our clients.

Living in Iowa sometimes has its perks: shorter lines and friendly people, especially considering the much anticipated iPhone 4 release in stores last Friday. Sharing yawns with fellow computer geeks at 5:30 a.m. definitely isn’t a normal morning. I enjoyed chatting with iPhone enthusiasts and Des Moines acquaintances; they had a good sense of humor and let nothing stand in the way of owning the latest Apple gadgetry.

When I left the line to come in to the Catchfire office at 8 a.m., my brother put in the long haul. After six hours in line with our newly-found friends, my brother finally made it to the front. With much high-fiving and hollering along the way, the coveted iPhone 4 was acquired.

Here are some quality apps I’ve found and use regularly

• Golfshot GPS – A range finder for the golf course
• LogMeIn – Access your computer remotely
• MotionX GPS Drive – Navigation system replacement
• Air Video – Stream videos on your home library to your phone
• AppBox Pro – a toolbox full of handy apps
• Prowl – Receive push notifications from your computer
• Find My iPhone – Requires MobileMe service
• Shazam – Find names of songs you hear
• Photoshop.com Mobile – Edit, upload, and send your photos

Some quick tips for new iPhone users:

• Try making your own ringtone if you haven’t changed the default ringtone.
• Wander through the App Store, you might find something useful! It’s easiest to sift through apps by Genre and highest ratings. Make sure you read some reviews and check out the screenshots—a wasted dollar here and there adds up.
• Use your iPhone 4 as a flashlight! Go into the camera app, then video capture mode, then change Flash from Auto to ON. This will turn on your LED flash, which is a simple way to turn on the flash until someone develops a flashlight app.
• You can even call 1-888-FACETIME to talk to an Apple representative via FaceTime, which seems a little odd, but it’s fun if you haven’t been able to try it.

What’s new in the iPhone 4?

• Retina Display w/ 4x the pixels as 3Gs
• Smaller body style
• 19% Larger battery
• Faster processor – Apple’s A4 chip, also used in iPad
• 5 MP camera w/ LED Flash, and front-facing camera
• HD Video Capturing
• FaceTime Video Chatting over WiFi

Problems with the iPhone 4

While some are having trouble with losing signal with the new iPhone, others have not been affected. I noticed that the phone drops to one bar within half a minute when I hold it in my left hand, but regains signal once I change hand positions. This is a problem—even for right-handed people. Often, I hold my phone with my left and when surfing the web. It was a bigger problem when I was using it for navigation and the internet connection slowed down. It has been rumored that Apple will fix this with a software update, or possibly even give iPhone 4 users bumper cases. In the meantime, this issue is just a minor annoyance.

Overall, Apple has once again put out an amazing product, adding features that are bound to change mobile communicating. If Apple can sell 1.7 million iPhones in three days, they must be doing something right.

Are you an iPhone user? Have you tried the newest version? Use the space below to pose any questions about the iPhone 4 you may have, problems you have encountered, etc., and I’ll do my best to answer.

The ability to search the web easily is part of what makes the internet incredibly usable and useful. Did you know that YouTube overtook Yahoo as the number two search engine in 2008? Facebook’s search capabilities are an important component of that service as well. One of the great, if underutilized, features of Twitter is search.

I say that Twitter search is underutilized not because people don’t use it frequently; rather, because people tend not to use Twitter’s search capabilities to its full extent. Using Twitter’s search engine effectively is not as easy as using Google, Yahoo, or Bing—even with their improved social search options. This post will teach you one of many simple, yet effective ways to optimize your Twitter search experience.

The Des Moines Arts Festival runs June 25-27 this year in Western Gateway Park. The festival is making a strong effort this year to connect with people using social media, in part through their Twitter account @DSMDEG (Des Moines Downtown Events Group). In addition to following people interested in the event, or even curated lists of users, the DSMDEG might consider setting up a search feed in whichever platform they use for Twitter. For this post, I will keep things easy and use the RSS feeds that Twitter allows you to create from a search result.

Step 1:
From http://search.twitter.com enter the search query: “art festival” OR “arts festival” near:50309 within:100km. You will see that this search string accommodates both users posting about the “art” festival and about the “arts” festival (plural). The quotation marks in the initial search query keep out tweets that contain both words, but not next to each other. I have also limited the search to within 100 kilometers of the downtown Des Moines ZIP code so that the results aren’t muddied by other art festivals taking place. Upon clicking the search button, you will see recent tweets that fulfill the query’s limitations.

Step 2:
In the top right of the screen, right click on the link that says “Feed for this query,” and click on “Copy Link Location” or “Copy Shortcut,” depending on your browser.

Step 3:
For the sake of simplicity, I will assume you use Google Reader for your RSS reader. Directions for other reader programs are similar, but you may want to click on the help button if you are unsure of how to proceed. In Google Reader, click “Add a subscription,” which appears in the top left. Paste the contents of your clipboard into the box, and click “Add.”

With these three steps, you now are able to track tweets coming from people talking about the Des Moines Arts Festival who are located within 100 kilometers of Des Moines. Because of its simplicity, this search tactic is limited. This search, however, is more powerful than a simple search for the #dmaf hashtag, because not everyone attending the festival knows about the hashtag or will remember to use it every time. With specialized tracking software, it is possible to obtain results coming from throughout the social web with the added bonus of long-term analytics, email alerts, and more.

Setting up Twitter searches are just one component of a comprehensive listening strategy, and each organization should assess this based on individual needs. More importantly, your organization needs to consider what to do with the information it finds through an alerting system.

It’s okay if most or all of this post went over your head; that’s why we are here. If you need help with your listening strategy, or your overall social media strategy, we would love to show you the ropes. Let us know what you think in the comments section, or give us a call at 515.423.0585.

My serious involvement in social media began a little over two years ago when I developed Desmoinesisnotboring.com. What began as a class project at Drake University has grown into a blog with an average of 4,500 page views each month. Social media has been a key tool in building and managing that brand.While, I have made mistakes along the way, I chalk those up as learning experiences; I now understand how important social media is to brands and how to properly leverage community building.

My business background incorporated commercial vendor relationship management with a strong business development component. I never thought that I would be able to incorporate my newly-found passion for social media into a career. But, as you now know, that all changed this past Monday.

In my new role as the Business Development Executive at Catchfire Media, I have the amazing opportunity to work with a team of brilliant social media minds for my day job as well. My role at Catchfire is to work with businesses to understand where Catchfire’s services can assist their brand recognition online and within the numerous social media platforms.

As we all know, market demand has driven most businesses to incorporate an online presence, but most businesses have yet to incorporate that presence with a sound strategy or within their comprehensive social media presence. The Catchfire team works with businesses to provide an initial audit and analysis to determine areas of opportunity for their clients. Then, once the areas of opportunity have been identified, the team will incorporate their best practices—rolling out a plan of action to incorporate a sound strategy.

We are at a time in business where immediate communication is common place. From mobile phone applications, to enhanced barcodes, consumers are engaging with brands in new ways. It is time for your business to understand how your marketplace is adapting to the innovation. If you are interested in developing a social media strategy for your business with the largest niche provider of social media in the region, contact us to set up an initial discussion.

While attending the Des Moines Business Record’s Power Breakfast Series on Tuesday morning, I was quickly reminded of social media’s importance in the business of sport—whether at the professional or amateur level.

The Breakfast Series hosted several representatives from prominent athletic departments, such as the University of Iowa (UI), Iowa State University (ISU), University of Northern Iowa (UNI), and Drake University. The Business Record was fortunate to have this event scheduled right smack dab in the middle of the NCAA Division I conference realignment hysteria—indubitably, a stir that’s been followed by millions nationwide.

As the Big 12 Conference was teetering on the brink of extinction earlier this week, ISU’s prospects of belonging to a BCS conference appeared slim. So slim, that a Facebook Group was created last week (Save the Cyclones) which gained over 9,796 members in less than a week.

We conducted a quick search using the keywords of “Big Ten/Big 12 Conference Realignment” over the past 30 days and found some amazing statistics as they relate to social media mentions:

• Blogs: 1,749
• Video: 17
• Mainstream news: 898
• Twitter: 2,654
• Forum posts/replies: 1,206
• Facebook: 1,003
• Comments (to mainstream news, videos, blogs, etc.): 1,208

Think Midwestern folks aren’t passionate about sports? Think again! That’s well over 8,497 mentions on this topic in a month.

Back to the Power Breakfast. The event was well attended and, interestingly, about a third of the Q & A discussion centered on the importance social media is playing in their athletic departments. Amy Stephens, Head Women’s Basketball Coach at Drake, commented that it was “critical to be connected” in the social media space, in terms of recruitment and marketing for the program. Mark Jennings, the Associate Director of Athletics for Donor and Patron Services for the UI, stated that the athletic department was “getting more involved each day” in the social media space. Troy Dannen, UNI’s Athletic Director, spoke to the growing importance of blogs in the dissemination of information and the challenge of getting the correct information to the public. He got a good laugh from the crowd when he said, “Blogs are the devil.”

In all, the panel affirmed what Catchfire has believed for a long time—social media is an absolute necessity to colleges and universities. It should be a key component of any institution’s marketing plan—whether academic-, athletic-, admissions-, or alumni-related.

Now for the pros. There is no better case study than taking a quick look at what is happening in social media related to the World Cup. I love my football (American football for foreigners), but there is no comparison to the World Cup. Played every four years, this event pits teams from nations across the globe in a battle to hold the title of World Champion. For non-soccer fans, think the Olympics, but bigger.

On Twitter alone, there is a huge following. Here are all the hashtags that represent the teams:#worldcup #arg #aus #bra #chi #civ #cmr #den #eng #esp #fra #ger #gre #hon #ita #jpn #kor #mex #ned #nga #par #por #prk #rsa #srb #sui #usa. What’s cool about the above hashtags, is that Twitter has included images to appear each time one is mentioned, so, for example, if I mention the #USA, this will come up.

Besides the countries represented in South Africa, check out how many other hashtags are currently out there: #worldcup, #soccerworldcup, #fifaworldcup10, #wm2010, #2010worldcup, #southafrica, #football, #wc2010, #FIFAWORLDCUP, #Fifa, #swc, #soccer, #capetown, #HateItalyWeek, #USMNT, yada, yada, yada.

Twitter has also launched a World Cup page. By clicking on a country’s flag, you can view its upcoming matches and a stream of tweets about that country. By clicking on a match, you can see specific tweets related to it.

This past Saturday, the US faced England in one of the most anticipated matches for the US in World Cup history. Conducting a quick search using the keywords of “England vs. USA World Cup” over just the past seven days, these are the numbers we found in social media mentions (for a total of 69,241):

• Blogs: 23,920
• Video: 443
• Images: 1,057
• Mainstream news: 7,324
• Micromedia (Twitter): 18,302
• Forum posts/replies: 6,406
• Facebook: 5,967
• Comments (to mainstream news, videos, blogs, etc.): 4,407

So what does this all mean? Sports and their teams represent brands (whether amateur or pro) that people are desperately passionate about. Organizations hoping to engage the consumers of those brands must be engaged in this space.

The most sophisticated brands in the world get it. Do you?

[Photo from lumkness on Flickr / CC BY 2.0]

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.