If you’ve been following our Foursquare blog series, you may have read “What is Foursquare?” and “3 Big Brand Campaigns To Learn From On Foursquare”. This article will build on those and focus on how the local, non-chain or smaller chain businesses can utilize Foursquare effectively.

Types of Foursquare Specials
As of March 2011, there are now 7 types of specials a business can offer on Foursquare. Once a business claimed their venue, they would be able to find the window shown in the screenshot below where a business would choose which specials they would want to run.

The Strategy Behind Each Type of Foursquare Special

Swarm Special: A large group checking-into a venue together can take advantage of this deal. It works similarly to Groupon in that a critical mass must be reached before anyone gets the deal. This would be perfect for a local restaurant that would give $0.25 wings if a group of 30 showed up. This can draw more people and lots of business from things like office happy hours and sports related fan clubs looking for a place to all watch the game together.

Friends Special: A business can use this deal to get customers to bring their friends on their next visit. It gives a deal when checking-in with a certain number of friends and that number is determined by the business itself. This can be very useful for businesses where customers go to together naturally like a bar or restaurant as opposed to something like a hair salon which is typically an individual activity. This special helps attract new business and trials when those current customers who are familiar with the business bring their friends who don’t know about it yet.
More awesomeness ahead »

The location based social networking site Foursquare is a major player in the social media world today and doesn’t intend to lose that position. Foursquare has created a whole new social currency with their check-in system and are capitalizing on the rapidly growing trend to make social activity more of a game with their badges. We’ve found 3 big brands to learn from that are growing their businesses in this space and putting leagues between them and their competition.

The Mayor of the Mayor Offer

Foursquare allows businesses to give an exclusive deal for the mayor. Some examples  include Hot Dog on a Stick, Karl Strauss Brewery & Restaurant and the Cowboy Star Restaurant and Butcher Shop which at the time of this post all offer either a free drink, appetizer or discount. These offers have all been successful, but Starbucks has taken the mayorship, and did it better than anyone else for this offer category.

Starbucks was already the most checked in retailer on the Foursquare platform, but increased it’s check-ins by 50% by giving $1 off any size Frappuccino® for its’ mayors. The key success factor was that this offer was offering real value, and that also made the competition to claim the mayorship of the local Starbucks pretty fierce. This frenzy went viral on twitter which increased the effectiveness of this campaign.
More awesomeness ahead »

As the popularity of Foursquare grows, businesses interest in how the location-based application can help their business grows as well, which is why we’re taking this opportunity to help explain the basics.

What is Foursquare?
Foursquare is a social networking website that allows people to announce to their friends and the world where they are geographically. This service can be used by the infamous iPhone, the increasingly popular Android phones or any other mobile device with GPS or text messaging.

How Does Foursquare Work?
To illustrate, our good fictitious friend Bob is going to help us out. When Bob visits Starbucks, he can pull up the Foursquare mobile application on his phone and check-in. When he does that, it’s announced (similar to a Facebook status update) to his Foursquare friends that he is getting his caffeine fix. Bob can also identify in real time where his friends have checked-in and can even use Foursquare as a medium to find and meet up with them. These check-ins can also be pushed to a variety of other social media platforms, such as Facebook and Twitter, and dramatically expand their audience.
More awesomeness ahead »