Below the Line

Marketers: it's time to check in with Foursquare

Okay, I get it.

I've been trying to avoid joining Foursquare, the location-based social networking service which asks users to "check in" at various locations in order to connect with friends, gain points, get recommendations on nearby places and access special offers.

My hesitation in signing up was twofold: I don't think it's a good idea to publicize on the world wide web that my home is empty and, well, let's just say that anyone who has ever had an ex-boyfriend or girlfriend turn up somewhere "coincidentally" can probably think of a reason not to post their whereabouts in real time. However, Foursquare just would not go away, so I succumbed. It turns out their privacy settings enable users to choose how public their whereabouts will be.

The points element of Foursquare (e.g. +1 point for checking in, +5 point the first time you check in at a new venue, +2 points for checking in at two locations in the same day, etc.) adds a gaming component which is mildly addictive, even if you don't have any friends on Foursquare. (In contrast, it's not much fun tweeting alone, which leads many people to abandon Twitter.)

Yesterday, I "checked in" when I was having lunch and up popped an offer for $1 off a frozen yogurt at Froots. All I had to do was show the cashier the coupon on my iPhone to receive the discount, which I could get on my first visit and every fifth visit. Although I didn't buy the frozen yogurt, I seriously considered it, but this may be due in part to my mild coupon addiction.

If you have a bricks-and-mortar business, it's worth being an early mover on Foursquare. I would suggest piggybacking this with a PR effort about your company's use of new media. This was one of the main benefits for companies who were the first to establish a presence on Second Life, garnering them mentions in publications such as The Wall Street Journal, Harvard Business Review and Business Week. Double bang for the buck. No one cared who joined Second Life after that first wave. For the record, I recommended getting into Second Life early or not at all.

I think Foursquare has staying power, although there are already similar services vying for share of market, e.g. Gowalla and Yelp, which has just added check-ins to its iPhone app.

If you're a Foursquare, Gowalla or Yelp user, please leave a comment and let me know what you think of the service.

Related posts:

Marketing your local business with little or no budget

How to Market Your Product/Service Using Cutting Edge Social Media

DIY online marketing and PR

Marketing your local business with little or no budget

Here are some quick tips on marketing a local business with little or no budget:

Let your customers speak for you.

Ask your customers to post honest reviews on high-traffic sites like Yelp.com. Be sure to respond to any unfavorable reviews.

Post customer testimonials on your web site.

Ask your customers for referrals.

Ask complimentary businesses to link to your web site; for instance, if you are a wedding photographer, ask a wedding florist to link to you.

Use Google.

Google offers a number of services that can help – post your business on Google Local Business, create a Google Profile for your company’s key executives and link to your web site, consider spending some money on Google AdWords.

Use social networking sites.

Set up a Facebook fan page, start connecting with prospects on Twitter and join groups on LinkedIn. You can also set up your company profile on LinkedIn (rather than only using your personal profile).

Send out an online press release.

There are a number of free online press release distribution services. See this previous post for an analysis.

If you have any other tips, please leave a comment below.

Related post:

DIY online marketing and PR

How to Market Your Product/Service Using Cutting Edge Social Media

"You're on Facebook whether you want to be or not."
- Dan Rose, Facebook VP

Last night I attended a social media forum hosted by Kellogg. It was moderated by Tom Bedecarre and featured: Dan Rose, Vice President at Facebook; Seth Goldstein, CEO at Social Media; Jeremiah Owyang, Partner at Altimeter Group; Marisa Gallagher Vice President User Experience at Razorfish; and Clara Shih, Author of The Facebook Era.

I "live tweeted" the event and earned some geek cred (not quite as cool as "street cred") when Tom Bedecarre gave me a free copy of Shih's book for being the most prolific tweeter.

Here are some of the highlights of what the panel had to say to the roomful of MBAs: 

On the state of the industry:

Goldstien: Advertising is changing. Ads need to be real messages from real people; otherwise people ignore them.

Shih: Facebook is still dominating. There are more users on Facebook Mobile alone than on Twitter.

Owyang: Facebook's biggest competitor is Google. 

He mentioned that Google has set up a stealth social network, referencing Google Profile (here's mine) and highlighting the fact that users interact through e-mail, IM, Google SideWiki and Google Wave. Shih also mentioned Google Latitude. Later in the evening Owyang claimed that e-mail itself is a social network, an idea which had Goldstein shaking his head in disagreement, but a debate did not ensue.

Owyang: Social media impacts all of your digital marketing assets. Social media is a horizontal in your strategy, not a vertical.

Owyang: Social search will be very disruptive to the SEO/SEM industry.

On brands getting involved in social media: 

Rose: You're on Facebook whether you want to be or not.

Owyang: The earliest brands that got punk'd on social media are now the most successful.

Gallagher: You shouldn't use Facebook and Twitter for the same thing. The content should be different.

Gallagher: Customers are looking to engage with brands. And they want discounts. 

Who's doing it right?:

Shih: BestBuy and 1-800 Flowers are doing a good job of letting you buy on Facebook.

Owyang: Volkswagen uses your Facebook profile information to recommend a car for you.

Rose: Sprinkles gives away a free cupcake to the first 25 people who mention a secret word revealed on their Facebook fan page.

On new tools:

Rose: Brands with Facebook pages can now send messages targeted by geography and language, so you don't spam all of your fans.

Owyang: Flowtown will find all of the social networks a person is on, based on their e-mail address.

Goldstein: There are 100 thousand people on FourSquare. Checking in on FourSquare is even easer than tweeting.

Gallagher: Yelp's augmented reality iPhone app uses the phone's camera and GPS to show reviews of the businesses right in front of them.

On data and privacy:
Owyang: I believe Facebook has more information on Gen Y than the U.S. government.

Shih: Use privacy settings in Facebook to segment friends because "our Facebook profiles represent our personal brand."

There was a lot of discussion on privacy, what information Facebook and other sites have access to, and how individuals and brands should manage data-related risks. There were many people in the room who don't trust Facebook to keep their personal photos and information in a silo if they also set up a business presence on Facebook.

Although the panelists noted that using Facebook's privacy settings is easy, the attendees did not agree. Some users even admitted to setting up fake individual Facebook profiles to use in order to set up fan pages for their business. Rose's response was "why wouldn't you want to be associated with your business on Facebook?"

Actually, there are many reasons someone might want to keep their personal and professional lives in iron silos. For instance, those in certain professions need to avoid any crossover: psychologists, prosecuting attorneys, etc. Those types of professionals might want a Facebook page where they post resources, etc., but they don't want their patients or clients to have any chance of window into their personal lives.

Overall, the panel did a great job of discussing what's going on in the industry today and Bedecarre did a great job as moderator, getting the attendees involved in the discussion. Below is a (blurry) picture of me and Jeremiah Owyang at the event.

Affiliate Links:
The Facebook Era - Amazon US
The Facebook Era - Amazon UK