As I am sure you know by now, Foursqaure is one of the more new forms of social media that is taking the world by storm. If you have been neglected of what Foursquare is, I will give you a brief description. Foursquare gives you the ability to "check in" to a business that you are at on your smart phone. Other friends are able to see that you are checked into that business if they are friends with you on the app which is great for businesses. The more you check into a business the more badges you get. These badges could give you discounts and other incentives. If you check in enough you can become the "mayor" of that location and then it becomes a competition with other people who check in their to come and check in more often.
But how can Foursquare make small business owners money? According to Carmin Gallo, there are seven potential ways to make money or increase your ROI.
The first is to connect your brand. You should be creative with it and not just offer the same old coupons that other businesses use. The more creative you become, the more likely people with buy in and become more competitive to receive badges.
Second is to harness new fans. Businesses that offer specials are highlighted on the list of near buy places on the user's screen. If you are a small business and trying to get your name out, this is a great way to get people to come and try your food. Being a college student myself, every time I hear of a great deal I go check it out even if I have never been there before.
Third is to engage your followers. An example that I heard in class was from an old town that uses Foursquare to give historical information for every place you check in. This is a great interesting way for costumers to check in to a business or location.
Fourth is to create awards. As stated above, the mayor is the person with the most check ins. If you offer better specials for the mayor then more people will start checking in to become mayor and take advantage of the specials. This would be a great way to get the costumer involved also.
Fifth is to knock out the competition. In this example Gallo states that you need to out smart your competitor, not out spend them in advertising. An example is if Subway offered a free cup of soup for every footlong. This could potentially take away costumers from Quiznos.
Sixth is to incintivize your costumers. You want to give your costumers a reason to check in over and over. A way to do this is to offer better incentives for every visit one makes.
The last way that Gallo gives us is to never stop entertaining. An example is for a user to take a picture of a location and then show them to the cashier of the business offering a special offer. This could be a great way for businesses to help their partner in business.
These are some great ways that could help a business, mainly small business, to create not only new costumers but also help in increasing repeating costumers. For myself I do not use Foursquare but after seeing some of the possibilities for companies to get more costumers involved, I can see myself using it. I mean, It can only save the costumer money.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/01/7-ways-to-make-money-on-foursquare_n_1033681.html#s447057&title=Never_Stop_Entertaining
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