Like many folks in the mobile space, I am quick to try the latest apps and foursquare is no exception. Since loading foursquare on my iPhone and Droid, I’ve checked in 191 times and been the mayor of at least seven establishments over the course of several months. While initially a novelty, I found myself becoming slowly reeled into the experience and became frustrated when the service was down or mobile coverage didn’t allow me to check in.
Most surprisingly, I’ve found that my virtual mayorships mean more to me than I would care to admit. Having recently been ousted as the mayor of Pita Jungle, a local restaurant, I instantly knew that it was time to return and reclaim my virtual turf. Imagine my displeasure when I checked in and didn’t regain my status as mayor. Dang it! Guess I’ll need to come back next weekend. This exact experience has repeated itself at Whole Foods and a few other favorite haunts. Oddly, I’m currently the mayor of five restaurants, none of which I care about. These just happen to be convenient to the office or my home and might make an interesting case study about the dining habits of people on weekdays versus weekends.
In addition to altering my usual behaviors in just a few short months, the three most interesting take-aways from my foursquare experience thus far are:
- Foursquare is an incredible discovery tool. Generally overshadowed by the other benefits, discovering new establishments has become a key feature as I evaluate where friends frequently check-in. The more marketers can do to facilitate discovery, the more likely they will be to encourage repeat visits and attract new customers.
- The ability to shape demand through engaging experiences and offers can transform financial performance by maximizing resource capacity and even out the inefficient slow periods during the course of a day or week.
- People on foursquare love to share their experiences (almost too much). Twitter streams and Facebook updates are becoming inundated with check-ins from foursquare. These not only provide free exposure for your brand, but also an opportunity to engage with your most ardent supporters.
Do you have plans to include the location based social tools such as foursquare, Gowalla, and others? If not, why? If so, what are you doing to integrate with your other marketing initiatives?
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Nice post Sean! I can see lots of potential with Foursquare for marketers and users alike. It will be interesting to watch the network as it matures and people become more comfortable with the concept of “checking-in”. I’ve gotten several people to sign-up and become pretty active with Foursquare, but also have a few friends that don’t use it because of security concerns. They just don’t like the idea of people knowing where they are. While I see their point, it’s not something that personally bothers me.
Do you have any thoughts on the security issue?
Thanks Alissa. Glad that you found it interesting.
The concern about security is certainly valid, but there is nothing that says users must check in every place they visit or post to twitter and Facebook. In fact, you can even go “off the grid” with a check-in so that it still counts but no one else sees where you are.
With that said, I would discourage checking in from home, as that just seems to be a bit much and can lead to the aforementioned security issues.