1) Increased Brand Awareness Not only does Foursquare offer another means of being found by your potential customers, but many Foursquare users share their check-ins on Facebook and/or Twitter, exposing your brand to their entire social networks.
2) Implicit Recommendations from Friends When people check in at your business, that is an implied recommendation that yours is a business worth visiting. If I am searching for a good sushi restaurant and see that three of my friends have checked in at the same one, I’m very likely to go there for dinner.
3) Actual Recommendations from Friends Foursquare users can do more than simply check in; they can leave “tips” for other Foursquare users. They might mention your company’s great customer service, or prices, or a particular product you carry.
4) Your Customers’ Foursquare Comments give them Ownership One of the great things about the internet is the availability of user-created content; that is, content that comes directly from your customers, not from your marketing department. People enjoy creating this content, and they tend to trust it as well.
5) Foursquare can Increase Sampling A really nice feature of Foursquare is the ability to offer Deals for checking in. The most basic Deal is offered just for checking in the first time. Your deal might be 10% the total purchase, or buy 2 get 1 free, or maybe a free gift…it’s up to you!
6) Foursquare can Increase Loyalty Another great Deal is the Loyalty Deal. This is offered to people only after they check in several times (the exact number is your choice). It works just like the punchcards we’ve all carried around, and it provides a great incentive for customers to keep coming back to your business. You may also want to offer a very special deal to your Mayor–the person with the most check-ins in the past 60 days.
7) Foursquare is Growing in Popularity Right now there are more than 8 million Foursquare users, and this number is increasing by about 1 million new users every month!
8) Foursquare Provides Lots of Useful Data Foursquare provides you, the business owner, with a dashboard of demographic information, including who are your most frequent check-ins, your most recent check-ins, gender, time of day, day of week, etc. This is actionable data that you can use to refine your future Foursquare marketing efforts.
9) Foursquare can Lead to Walk-in or Impromptu Business Location-based social media is all about searching for places to visit. By having a prominent Foursquare presence, you dramatically increase your chances of attracting walk-in customers who otherwise may never have visited you.
10) Foursquare is Free Setting up your Foursquare profile, and offering Deals, is completely free. Well…mostly. There is absolutely no monetary charge, but it does take some time to set everything up. You will want to consider whether you have the resources in-house to handle this, or if you want to hire an agency to do this for you.
