wisnet.com is on Foursquare! What is it?

Compared to restaurants and hotels there’s not much foot traffic to our office – it seems almost silly to have a business profile on Foursquare. Then again, what’s a better way of introducing Foursquare than trying it out for our company! Simply put, Foursquare let’s customers ‘check-in’ to a business with their mobile phone. Then their location is shared with their friends on Foursquare, Facebook and Twitter. One visitor can introduce hundreds of their friends to your business instantly – and that’s what’s great about Foursquare! If you’re interested in finding out more, ‘check-in’ here.

Business Profile for Foursquare
Below is a screenshot of our profile on Foursquare.com. You can visit it by clicking the following link: wisnet.com Foursquare profile. Foursquare business profiles contain basic contact details along with a map, categorization, tagging, and who is the ‘Mayor’. The Mayor is the customer who checked-in the most.

What draws customers to ‘check-in’?
You’re going to have to give a little to get something in return – the good news is you can control the costs. After claiming your listing (which we will discuss in another article) specials can be added. Specials can consist of anything from gift certificates, free coffee, free t-shirts, Starbucks gift cards, etc. Then, options can be set to determine how many check-ins are required before the special is offered.

What kind of special promotion would you like to offer your customers?

Foursquare Venue Stats dashboard…
After customers start checking in, Foursquare will provide basic details about them. In Venue Stats it provides the ratio of men to women, total check-ins, unique visitors, and the percentage of check-ins that were posted on Facebook and Twitter. Top visitors will be listed along with most recent check-ins. At the bottom, the dashboard provides a breakdown of when visitors are checking in.

Foursquare tips for businesses…
Here are a few tips to help when using Foursquare.

  • Take notice of mobile phone users and ask them if they know how to check-in.
  • Thank those that check-in when they visit your business by saying hi, thanks, or shaking their hand. Depending on how many referrals they attract, you might want to give them a hug!
  • Use specials to encourage first-time visitors or reward loyalty. ‘Half off any entrée on your first check-in!’
  • Offer specials that are only exclusive to Foursquare users.
  • From the Venue Stats dashboard, use the men to women ratio to tailor specials to attract (or retain) more of one gender.
  • Use Time Breakdown for creating specials to increase traffic when business is slow.
  • Give worthwhile specials and don’t make it difficult to achieve the status of mayor.
  • Window cling provided by Foursquare…
  • During the business claiming process you will receive a window cling in the mail. Make sure to place it somewhere noticeable. Here is the window cling that was sent to us.

Conclusion
Just when you think you’ve created as many social networking profiles, e.g., Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn; that you can handle, along comes Foursquare. The good news is Foursquare can be a boon for business – your customers will become the voice and spread the word for you. Let the wisnet.com team work with you to start a Foursquare campaign. Give us a call at 920.322.9522.