How to Utilize Foursquare For Your Small Business

This may be news to some small business owners, but Foursquare is not just a game played by elementary school children. No, Foursquare is the latest social media darling and it looks like it is here to stay. For years there has been a divide between the Internet based business and the bricks and mortar business. Yes many physical businesses used websites (often poorly) to have a web presence or attract customers, but Foursquare may fundamentally change how small bricks and mortar businesses use the Internet. There are 3 clear ways that small businesses can benefit from Foursquare.com:

1. Free Marketing - So the way foursquare works is a foursquare user will "check in" at business. Currently restaurants and bars are the foursquare bread and butter because as users check in to Dairy Queen for instance all of their friends will be able to see that they just stopped at Dairy Queen. All of a sudden a chocolate sundae sounds like a really good idea. It is simple, but it is powerful. This word of mouth, free advertising is essential to mom and pop stores and restaurants, but unfortunately these are the people that will probably be the last to jump on the foursquare bandwagon. If you are not a nationally recognized brand, what better way to create positive buzz and brand awareness than to encourage your customers to check in on foursquare when they frequent your establishment?

2. GPS Enabled Specials - Foursquare is based on the GPS technology. For instance, you check in at a local restaurant on foursquare, all of your followers on twitter, Facebook friends and other social media connections will be notified that you just checked in, and you can see how close you are to other friends that have their GPS tracking enabled on their phones. You may both be next door to Pizza Hut, and lets say that Pizza Hut knows how close you are and blasts out an offer for a buy 1 get 1 free pizza. You and your friend decide to take advantage of this offer. Although foursquare does not currently allow businesses to personally contact potential customers when they are nearby, it appears that this functionality will soon be possible for foursquare users on an opt in basis. It may work something like this, you are hungry and so you enable businesses nearby to send you special offers, you pick your best option and both you and the business benefit. What great potential for small business owners!

3. Customer Incentives to Boost Sales - Foursquare has this seemingly strange rewards system for users. If you check in at a particular location more than anyone else you become the "mayor" of that business. Business owners can increase their sales through a little bit of incentive and health competition. Simply offer free food, or discounts on products or services to the "mayor" of your business. Just think how much this could potentially impact your small business, if you provide an incentive not only to visit your business, but visit it more than anyone else.

It is not clear whether Foursquare creators are genius or if they are just lucky that this caught on, but there appears to be enormous potential for both users and local businesses to benefit in dramatic ways from foursquare, so check out the website at http://www.foursquare.com and begin to develop your foursquare strategy!

Adam Hoeksema here. I hope this article provided value to you and your small business. If so, make sure to visit http://www.theexecutiveplan.com and sign up for my RSS feed so you can automatically get my posts that will hopefully contribute to your small business success. Thanks!