Facebook and Twitter are social media platforms that allow users and followers to communicate, inform, and be informed. Many businesses are finding it beneficial to use these networks as a way to gain traffic and attention for their company, and I don't think anybody would argue that this technique is successful. Businesses can develop followers, introduce products and/or food specials, provide coupons via a " like " , etc. The creator of FourSquare, however, was a genius when they came up with the idea to invent a fresh and competitive social networking site that puts a cap on Facebook's, " Places " . Millions of users turn to foursquare every day to help them find their friends and explore their world. Whether checking out a new restaurant or visiting their favorite store, they are sharing their activities and loyalty with their social network, earning badges and points along the way. For merchants and other venue owners, foursquare offers a free set of tools to help you attract new customers and keep your best ones coming back.
Businesses on FourSquare can create profiles that are recognizable to the public, including both current and non-current customers/followers. From the home page, you are able to access the number of people that are " checking-in " at your venue, primarily to focus on the company's traffic. A major goal for companies using FourSquare would have to be to improve their traffic and customer involvement. FourSquare users compete for the top spots at venues by being the top check-in user for one location.
By using this idea of " checking-in " , businesses can come up with " campaigns " or specials that give incentive for a user to seek out a certain venue, check-in there, and receive a coupon, discount, or another recognition for following the company on FS. The account manager is able to completely influence the site and venue traffic by creating this urge to check in there!
FourSquare is well laid-out, easy to understand, and easy to use. The " stats " page allows you to see your progress, either as a venue or just a user. With graphs, charts, and easy whole numbers, you are able to see important numbers including:
Obviously, some of these features aren't relative to a business's progress like, " number of different friends you've checked in with " , but companies want to focus on other movement anyways. With FourSquare, venue traffic and talk is the focus and your business is able to communicate special information (or just communicate in general!) with the venue's users and followers providing traffic.