Posted Monday 14th June 2010 by Kerry in Internet Marketing, Social Media.
You’d be forgiven for not having heard of Foursquare, what with Twitter, Facebook, Google Places and various other marketing maps that aid local search at your disposal. However, the location based social media and networking site is attracting growing attention from consumers worldwide. The philosophy behind Foursquare is simple – give potential customers an incentive i.e. something for free, and they’ll come flooding back to spend money at your establishment. Unfortunately a recent survey has found that 90% of businesses have failed to identify whether or not it has actually helped them as an internet marketing strategy, and as such, only 10% would be willing to pay for the currently free service.
Foursquare
The social networking platform, which is also billed as a game, has been developed for use on mobile devices, and at last count was used by over 500,000 users around the world. All players have to do is check in to a venue such as cafe, restaurant, shop or club when they arrive and they will gain what are essentially loyalty points. These add up, and the most loyal customer is rewarded suitably. This is in the form of becoming Mayor of the venue and getting something for free or greatly discounted. Foursquare also directs players to the nearest deals being offered by local establishments.
Internet Marketing
From the perspective of internet marketing professionals, Foursquare has huge potential. Simply by registering with the site, your company will appear in a list of localised search results when a registered user checks in to a venue, and if you take advantage of the listing, it is possible to steal a customer from your competition by advertising a special offer. This type of internet marketing works because the special offers are generally no different to what is on offer anyway, and everyone loves to get their favourite things for free. What makes Foursquare unique, is that these offers are often only available to the “Mayor” – a status given to the user with the most geo-tagged “check-ins” at the venue within the last 30 days. This has the effect of having your own customers competing for your attention, and ultimately receiving a treat in return.
Social Media
Unfortunately for Foursquare a recent survey showed that only 10% of businesses that currently use the free service would pay for it in the future as they were unsure, even with tracking in place, if the company actually benefitted from the service. Like most other social media ventures, it primarily pleases the consumer, and advertisers and businesses need to work out how best to make a return on investment from it. The facts and figures speak for themselves though when the survey showed that businesses were already signed up with a number of other social media sites – 90% with Facebook, 90% with Twitter and the same proportion again having their own website. Add to this 80% using Google Places, and 40% Yahoo Local and it is possible that Foursquare may be one application too many for business to bear, especially if it threatens to eat in to a restricted internet marketing budget.
From highposition.net published on June 14, 2010