Foursquare marketing: What and why

While we’ve talked about social media marketing before, now we’re going to get specific, location-specific to be exact, with talking about Foursquare marketing: What it is and why businesses do it.

The social media app Foursquare debuted in August of 2010, allowing users to “check in” to their locations and interact with their environments via any applicable mobile device.

As a way of utilizing the app’s tools, Foursquare marketing allows businesses to send Foursquare users to their physical locations while also allowing Foursquare’s social media functionality to market their business over the web, all while giving Foursquare users incentives and exclusives.

The first perk of Foursquare marketing is pretty obvious: Business owners can provide Foursquare points and other benefits as incentives for “checking in” to their locations. Users earn Foursquare points for each check-in they complete (sometimes earning “mayorship” of that location), and, by syncing with the user’s other social media hubs, these points along with badges and other accomplishments can be compared with their friends who also use Foursquare. Users then compete, for example, to see who can visit the most places or who is the most loyal to a given franchise.

The second perk of Foursquare marketing goes a bit deeper: Foursquare marketing allows businesses to offer specific and exclusive offers to consumers who use the service. In exchange for visiting a location, users can not only earn credentials on Foursquare, but can gain discounted movie tickets, free meals at a restaurant, even become part of a Foursquare loyalty program with that business. Check out Mashable’s Campaigns Editor Lauren Drell spotlight on six worthwhile Foursquare marketing campaigns here.

In this day and age, anybody with a mobile device can become Mayor of the Office on the Second Floor with Foursquare. As an added bonus, businesses can also further the communication and interactions that they have with their consumers along with providing solid exclusives via Foursquare marketing.

Call us today if you’re dying to  dip your toes into Foursquare marketing?