Mr. Owner – Please don’t play foursquare

May 05, 2010  |   Basics,Foursquare/Gowalla   |     |   2 Comments

You’re at one of your favorite haunts, a small restaurant, a dive bar, or your Friday night spot which has somehow become your Tuesday and Thursday night spot. (We’re not judging)   You come here often, you might be considered a regular, perhaps you even believe that you single handedly keep the fish tacos on the menu.  You pull out your phone to FourSquare to the world and hopefully tempt your friends into joining you at ‘your spot.’  You launch the application, find your spot, check in, add some text to throw to twitter and Boom.  This is where it hits you.  Who is this Frank Washington guy?  There he is, as always, on top of the screen occupying the mayorship of ‘your spot’, yet there is no way Frank Washington has been here more than you.  Who is Frank Washington?!?

Frank Washington is the morning stock employee, or the line cook, or the owner.  Bottom line is he has to be there, he works there.

While FourSquare is a great game, colonizing the world over, the game is meant to benefit the customer.  It might not be possible for you to keep your inner Napoleon at bay all the time, but realize you are killing a valuable business opportunity by checking in at your own place or allowing your employee’s to regularly check in.  FourSquare is a game with a built in opportunity for business owners.  It gives you the opportunity to track and reward loyalty through “specials” at each venue.

@TheSouthernChi: Show that you’ve checked in and receive $2 off any Jack Daniel’s Drink.

@BaoMouth: Mayor of Wow Bao gets a free 6-pack of bao! All others, show you checked in at Wow Bao and get a free bao when you buy one

You can even keep track of these check in’s with the FourSquare venue page which gives you a small inventory of all the people who have checked in at your spot and a basic stat package.  To utilize FourSquare to drive business make sure the special you run is engaging.

  • In a high traffic area, make sure to reward the mayor so that individuals keep vying for the top spot.
  • Change up the special!  If someone comes in a month after their first check in and you have the same special, don’t be surprised to hear a groan of disappointment.  People want to be surprised and they want to be rewarded.  Is that so wrong?
  • Utilize all social media platforms to promote your foursquare special.  People who use foursquare are almost always present on other social platforms like Facebook and Twitter.  Make sure to put it out to twitter as there are a host of “daily specials” twitter accounts that will retweet your post and expose your venue to a larger audience. The more people know about your special, the more they will participate.
  • Ask for feedback, ask your twitter followers and facebook fans to sound off on what they want.  Is it a half price appetizer or a free pitcher of beer for the mayor?  What about a special for everyone who checks on the 4th of every month? Post it to facebook, see if any of your most loyal customers are happy with the special.  If they are, they’ll engage – that simple.
  • Most importantly, keep experimenting until you find the type of specials that work for your audience.

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