Recently a few campaigns in partnership with Eat Local, West Michigan! have offered me the opportunity to start experimenting with social location marketing. Coincidentally, I received a copy of The Power of fousquare: 7 Innovative Ways to Get Your Customers to Check In Wherever They Are. Below is a summary of what’s in the book, plus practical applications that I took away from it.
What the book covers:
The “seven keys” follow the acronym CHECK IN (groan), and are as follows:
- Connect your brand.
- Harness new fans.
- Engage your followers
- Create rewards.
- Knock out the competition.
- Incentivize your customers.
- Never stop entertaining.
Each key gets its own chapter, and provides a TON of ideas for harnessing the power of foursquare that are applicable to nonprofits, brands, brick and mortar stores, and more. Real life examples as well as “why it works” are included in every chapter. Every few pages I found myself wondering “hmm, I wonder how I could . . . ” and going back to the foursquare website to figure out how to implement the ideas that were swirling in my head and apply them to Eat Local, West Michigan!
The book was well written and easy to follow, if a little light in the technical implementation side of things. That is probably better, because it’s easy to get bogged down in the details of how the app works and forget the strategy behind it. You could spend hours (one business owner spent six months!) learning how to set up the technical side, but the key thing is to remember your goals. That way you can prioritize, because social media in general, while powerful, CAN become a big time suck if you don’t have a plan of action mapped out. In fact, one of the last chapters includes a list of pitfalls to avoid. I think the last item on the list is the most important:
Avoid “Doing it just to do it.” Many businesses . . . create social media pages and promotions with no clear objective. They do it just to do it. They are joining out of fear instead of joining because they are passionate about engaging their customers. This apathy shows up in the form of lukewarm specials, poor execution, little or no training, and bad customer service.”
So now what?
If you are already using social media and social location marketing, this book will give you some creative ideas that you probably haven’t thought of.
If you are brand new to the whole concept, it will give you an idea of what you are missing. If you have no time to spare, my best advice is to at least claim your business or brand now so that you can see what existing foursquare users are saying about your business, who’s checking in, and to make sure that your business’ name and contact information is correct. Then carve out some time to figure out how to put this practically free marketing tool to work for you. (I say practically because time is money, after all.)
Do you use foursquare? As a business or as an individual?
You might also like Social Location Marketing: Outshining Your Competitors on Foursquare, Gowalla, Yelp & Other Location Sharing Sites. This book provides an overview of different sites and explains how to have a presence on all of them and how to choose which ones to prioritize. Gowalla has recently undergone some changes, but the basic concepts are still valid.