Foursquare recently surpassed the 10 million member mark this past June. The location based network giant that started back in March of 2009, grew exponentially to hit the 10 million mark in a little more than two year’s time. Some of Foursquare’s most popular check-in locations in the U.S. include Old Navy, 7-Eleven, Home Depot and Target. All of these brands are national powerhouses, so how does Foursquare factor into the local business landscape?
It’s safe to say that if your business cannot be found on Foursquare, you are missing out on potential business. Why is that you ask? Besides the abundance of smart phone users, brands and business are in a new era where they no longer seek out customers. Rather, the customers search online for and desire to follow their favorite brand for news and promotions. This is true for all social media channels, whether that be Facebook, Twitter, etc.
But unlike Facebook and Twitter, Foursquare stands alone as a sole check-in service. It’s true that Facebook also offers users the ability to check-in with even more brand sharing power, but Foursquare’s niche is the reason for its success.
Brand mentions and brand sharing power are what should attract business owners to Foursquare. Their business has an immeasurable reach to current and potential customers.
When an individual checks-in to a specific business, Foursquare shares their location and the businesses’ information with their network of friends. Even if their friends don’t meet up with the individual, that business has successfully gotten their brand name in front of unsuspecting eyes. Hence, that business has received free advertising for merely establishing a Foursquare profile.
For businesses really wanting to increase their online presence, Foursquare gives business owners the ability to offer deals just for checking-in. With deals or loyalty specials, customers now not only have incentive to check out your business, they now want to check-in as well to receive their discount.
If you are still not sold on Foursquare as a business owner, this next statement will be the clincher. Foursquare gives their users the option to share their check-in on Facebook and Twitter as well. So, that means when a user visits your business they have the ability to kill 3 birds with one check-in, socially media speaking.