Image Source

An important part of being able to promote your business in the current market is to understand that the way people are using technology to find out about companies and brands is changing.

If you are not open to trying new things and embracing new ways of communicating with your customers, you may find yourself being increasingly left by the wayside. A case in point here is Foursquare which, with over 20 million users and 1 million businesses, is quickly becoming a significant player in the social media market.

Foursquare

Foursquare's unique selling point as a social media application is that it is based around location. Using maps of their local area, mobile users can "check in" to registered businesses and places that they visit and earn points based on the frequency of their visits. If a certain amount of points is reached, the user becomes the "mayor" of that particular business.

Foursquare is potentially useful for business advertising for a number of reasons. Firstly, as with other social media platforms, Foursquare can bring a business to the attention of its target audience and secondly, the actual business itself does not have to be particularly proactive. With Foursquare it is the customers who do a lot of the promotion for you, and the more people who check in the more the word of mouth about your business will spread.

So here are a few interesting and creative ways in which the growing social world of Foursquare can be used to promote your business.

Using Foursquare to promote your business

First things first, you are going to need to do is claim the physical location of your business on Foursquare. Although customers can do this themselves, it is important that you make sure the name and location are correct. Once you are on the program, it is time to get promoting.

Freebies and special offers

There are lots of ways that you can encourage customers to visit your business using Foursquare. You can offer introductory discounts or giveaways to people who check in for the first time or use foursquare as a kind of loyalty card mechanism by offering free stuff to people who check in a certain amount of times.

You can use Foursquare in this way to try and boost the number of customers you see on your slow days by offering anyone who checks in that day a discount on their purchases, or you can encourage people to bring their friends by giving away freebies to those who check in with more than 3 people.

Fun games and activities

An easy way to create a bit buzz around your business is to make being crowned the Mayor of your business (by being the customer with the most check ins in a 3 month period) a competition and offering prizes such as free merchandise or gift cards to the reigning champion. This could have the effect of really spurring on your repeat customers to engage more with your business.

You can also create some unique and locally based to do lists or tips to help your customers. Your customers will appreciate it if you inform them of road works that are scheduled in the area or give them your opinion on the best local food shops or museums.

Integration with your website and other social media

One great feature of Foursquare is that is very easily compatible with other social media tools. You can link your Twitter, Facebook and Foursquare accounts together and to your company website fairly easily and use this as an effective marketing database of already existing customers. You can create videos that encourage people to use Foursquare, use face book to thank repeat customers in a more personal way or even to reach out to people who have not visited in a while and offer them more incentives to do so.

Spice up your events

Foursquare can even be used as an effective way to create an added buzz to any events or conferences that you are planning on having or attending. You can provide insightful information to attendees and hope that the large numbers of check ins will create further interest in people who were not planning on attending. If you have event sponsors you can get them involved by offering people cheaper admission if they check in to your sponsors businesses.

You can also set up monthly themed nights for Foursquare users at your business with prizes for the best dressed and other things of that nature. The uses of Foursquare are potentially vast and, if used in conjunction with other social media platforms and a great company website, can really help to strengthen your brand.

Does anyone else have any cool and original ways to use Foursquare to promote their business, or any tales of success?

Author Bio:
Elise Lévêque is a social media enthusiast who blogs for Keele Conferences and Events. She first came across Foursquare when starting her own business, and has been following it with interest ever since.

For more of such insightful Guest Posts, like us on Facebook.