Foursquare, the location based Startup, opened doors in 2007 and opened a new arena of Social Networking, with time, it evolved and Marketeers saw a huge potential and started adjust their marketing strategies around it. We have written an Article Earlier explaining What foursquare is and How small businesses can profit from it. Brands like Starbucks, Coach, the Wall Street Journal, and Zagat are using foursquare to offer discounts and more to their customers. Foursquare offers companies the opportunity to inexpensively promote business interests.

Here are some great examples of brands using foursquare to market and their strategies.

Starbucks

Starbucks jumped on the Foursquare bandwagon offering the first “Mayor” special. Mayors earn this designation in the Foursquare community as loyal people who “check in” the most frequently. Starbucks rewards Mayors with $1 frappuccino coupons. For Mayors who frequent Starbucks, discounted coffee is a nice treat that they would end up paying for otherwise.

History Channel

The History Channel interacts with the foursquare users when they “check in” from a particular city. Every time a person “checks in” from a different locale, an interesting information or historical fact pops up related to that specific destination, courtesy of the History Channel. Based on the metrics provided by Foursquare, the History Channel has over 202,450 followers now because of this stratergy.

Granata Pet

German pet company, Granata Pet, increased pet stores ordering the pet food by 38% with an increase in sales of 14%. Instead of selling to dog owners, Granata Pet decided to market directly to the dog. Whenever a user “checked in” via one of Granata’s ten physical billboards in Munich and Berlin, dog food samples emptied out into a dog bowl on the spot. In true Pavlovian form, the dogs were sold immediately, reported as trying to guide owners back to the billboard on future walks. Although a bit expensive, the gambled played off very well.

Loyola University

They use their Foursquare page as a visitor’s guide, with a map of the campus at their fingertips because of this social media resource. On a campus full of so many buildings, it is nice to have all of the buildings identified by name with a description about each.

Bravo

The TV Networks has been very popular on foursquare, Badges and prizes ensure TV viewers visit Bravo locations. This example is unique as it encourages viewer relationships with TV shows and characters. With so many cable channels to select from at any given time, promoting loyalty with an audience is key for long-term success.

University of Charlotte

The University of Charlotte used a t-shirt giveaway to promote basketball game attendance. By encouraging an event check-in, event attendees have the opportunity to connect face-to-face with users they follow. Foursquare is unique for facilitating online and offline connections bringing both worlds together.

Foursquare also benefits companies by offering insights into customer profiles of the people who visit. This valuable information tool is offered as a complimentary benefit for participating companies.  This is the kind of information one would need to perform a proper campaign with sms marketing software. Ordinarily, corporations pay hundreds, or even thousands of dollars for similar market research software. Like any good market research tool, Foursquare offers statistical and demographic information vital for adjusting marketing strategies as needed.

Social media is here to stay, limited only by the creativity and vision of its leaders.

If you wish to get your Business on foursquare you could contact us, we could help you get your business place verified and guide you with configuration of Specials are your work location.

The DNetWorks Team

via: PBJBreaktime