Foursquare

How businesses are utilizing the Social Media – Starbucks, Wynn and Lucky Magazine all using Foursquare for their businesses

by admin on October 16, 2010

The concept of checking into places may seem awkward to some people as they asked why you want to do that.  As a user to Foursquare, it’s a way to connect.  During a conversation with a consultant who needs to fly around the nation, he said “Foursqaure becomes my friend with all my consultant buddies.  We can meet up at the airport if we happened to be there at the same time.”  This is how I was introduced to Foursquare.  Other than connecting to people, it’s a way to brag about all the interesting places you’ve been to.  There are different badgets you can get.  You can be mayor to places.  More and more special offers are popping up when users try to check into places.  Discounts are given to mayor of the venue or you can get freebies when showing your checkin to the store.  What an excellent idea, both for customers and businesses.

Foursquare has grew its user base to more than a million and it attracts more and more venues to partner with.  Wynn Las Vegas, Lucky Magazine and Starbucks, just to name a few, are all utilizing it for their businesses.

Wynn and Encore hotels reaches out to its customer through Foursquare checkins.  Staffs personally greeted and helped customers who checked in at one of its restaurants and expressed their needs.  Lucky Magazine did an amazing job during the Fashion week leaving tips behind for users about where to get coffee or free wifi.  The plan is to expand its use of Foursquare to promote more tips for its users in various stores nation-wide that have suggested by the magazine editors.  Starbucks engaged its customers with special prizes through its rewards program.  There’s even a special Starbucks Barista badge you can earn when you check into five different Starbucks store.

It’s amazing how this geolocation application concept used to be such a bad idea that seemed a bit ridiculous and unsafe.  Google also has developed Google latitude that does basically the same thing before Foursquare.  It was never picked up by the community .  People asked the question why someone wants to announce their own location to the world and how can you make use of that.  Foursquare definitely showed us how an idea can grow in a totally different direction if you can make it into a useful trend.

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My handy iPhone apps – Yelp and Foursquare

by admin on September 23, 2010

I like cooking at home but I also enjoy eating out once in a while. More so for tryng out new restaurants in and out of town. In this social networking era, it’s rarely random restaurant picking anymore. I do my research before heading out or even when I am already out, there are apps to tell me what’s around and the community can let me know their rating. Yelp.com is what I use most of the time. Its iPhone app shows restaurants around me and I can filter specific criteria as I like. I find that very useful when you are not familiar with the area and by reading users’ comments, you know what you should pick from the menu. One thing I found though, is that there are more angry people in the Internet community than happy people. People who have bad experience with a business tend to be louder with their comments. So keep that in mind when you read through them.

Another apps that I also use when I am out is Foursquare. It is a weird concept to me at first what the purpose of the app is but it gets users addicted to checking into places just to get some badges and status. Then I started seeing promotions from stores for people who checkin. What a great promotion idea! It’s definitly beneficial to both sellers and consumers. With the power of the online commnity, you can just find out all businesses around you. You can checkout tips from people for any places. Again, another way to get to know your area more.

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