Special from our sister publication, Multichannel Merchant.
Store-based retailers have a new way to reach out to and reward their best customers in Foursquare. The Web site and GPS-based mobile application allows customers to “check in” to brick-and-mortar stores, restaurants, bars and more using mobile devices with Internet access or text-messaging capabilities.
The Web site promotes users to divulge their whereabouts on a map, in real time, as often as they can. And each time they do, they earn points towards a “badge” or free products.
So if your business has a roof over its head and a front door for customers to enter, your brand can benefit. Once someone checks in to your business, an alert will be sent to their friends letting them know where they are. It’s a conglomerate of location-based gaming rudiments and social media—a game that both business owners and consumers can play at the same time.
The person who frequents a business location the most wins the “mayor” title. And here’s where your business and your opportunity come into play.
Foursquare provides a way for you to identify your most loyal customers. Those people earning the “mayor” title over and over again represent your most loyal customer base—and your business can greatly benefit from taking action based on this kind of information. Here are a few steps you can use to start reaping the benefits that Foursquare can provide:
Do your research. It’s important to know what Foursquare is and how it works. Spend some time exploring the options within Foursquare and forming a genuine understanding of how it can be of benefit to your business.
Do your homework. Has anyone visited your business and reported it to Foursquare? Or better yet, have you even checked?
Often times, when someone updates their check-in location on Foursquare, it automatically informs their Twitter feed. So you can either perform a search for your business on Twitter or you can perform a search on Foursquare’s homepage by typing your business name into the upper-right-hand corner.
For more tips on Foursquare, read the rest of the story here