Foursquare as a Marketing Tool

Mar 9, 2010 @ 6:45 PM by Kumiko Yamazaki -- apps foursquare location

By now, most of you have heard of Foursquare, the location-based app that lets you virtually check in to a location. You let the application know where you are and in return, you receive badges (bragging rights) and work your way to becoming the mayor of your favorite venue. You are also encouraged to leave “tips” for others letting them know what you loved or didn’t love about the particular venue.

Foursquare is very similar to visiting a website online except it’s real life. Many website owners will use analytics on their site to learn more about the behavior of its visitors for market research, so it comes as no surprise that business owners may want the same type of analytics for their venue.

This feature is now available for a few select businesses - Foursquare Introduces New Tools for Businesses [via NYT].

nyt_4sq_business

It’s amazing the amount of data that is available through Foursquare and the advantages it can provide to businesses everywhere. The obvious error with these analytics is that only a small percentage of people use Foursquare. The children and elderly will most likely not appear in the data.

However, what they will receive are a core of young adults who may be social media gurus and can persuade their entire social network to visit (or not visit) your business. This new tool offers a direct personal relationship with your customers so the lesson here is to let them know they are valued customers and offer them incentives to keep coming back. Foursquare is just a location-based game for most people but is also becoming a valuable marketing tool for businesses.

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