Foursquare Realtime Marketing

MINI
Real-Time
Marketing with
Foursquare
by Tom Snyder
A member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

MINI
Real-Time
Marketing with
Foursquare
by Tom Snyder
A member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

ALPHA BOOKS
Published by the Penguin Group

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In This Mini Guide
Creating Your Location as a Venue
Set Up an Account
Look for Your Venue
Create Your Venue
Choose Categories for Your Venue
Add Tags to Your Venue
Add Tips to Your Venue
Becoming the Manager of Your Venue

Claim Your Venue
What Managers and Employees Can’t Do
A Word About Superusers
Rewarding Your Check-Ins

Create Specials
Choose Your Specials

Rotate Specials
Award Badges
Reward Your Mayor
Driving Traffic to Your Venue

Spread the Word
Use Social Media
Trawl for Customers
Measuring Your Success

Understand Foursquare Venue Stats
Monitor Check-Ins at Your Venue
Your Most Important Measurement
How Successful Businesses Are Using Foursquare

AJ Bombers
TLC
Tasti D-Lite
Resources
4 The Complete Idiot’s Mini Guide to Real-Time Marketing with Foursquare
“Who would want to tell everyone where they are?”

“I thought all these people in my restaurant on their smartphones were texting. Turns out
they were ‘checking in.’”
“Somebody just introduced themselves to me as the ‘mayor’ of my business!”
What are these people talking about? It’s the strange new world of Foursquare, a
service that allows people to let others know where they are by “checking in” to the
places they go. And with 4 million users and thousands of businesses already partici-
pating, you can’t afford to ignore it.
Foursquare is not only a way for friends to check in with each other and see what
they are doing, it is a way for businesses to drive customers to their venue, and can
be a powerful marketing tool. Jumping on the Foursquare bandwagon will give you
an immediate advantage over your competitors. Plus, becoming comfortable and
proficient with its features now will also put you in a better position to understand,
and anticipate, the new ways to use Foursquare effectively as it grows in popularity,
features, and functionality.
The true power of Foursquare—as with all marketing—lies in your own creativity
and ingenuity. In this guide you will learn how to set up yourself and your business,
and get some great ideas on how to use foursquare as a marketing tool.
Creating Your Location as a Venue

Maximizing Foursquare’s potential as an effective marketing tool is what it’s all
about—and getting your business set up as a venue on Foursquare is simple. A venue
is a physical, mapable, geographic location that people will be checking into using
their mobile device. Here’s how you go about setting it up.
Set Up an Account
Before you find or create your venue and claim yourself as its manager, you need to
have a Foursquare user account. You may already have a personal account. If you’ll
be participating in Foursquare as a player, and checking into locations to earn badges
that have nothing to do with your business, you’ll want to maintain that account for
your own check-ins.
Definition
A manager is the person approved by Foursquare as the “owner” of a venue
and who is authorized to create specials, edit details, and add employees for a
venue on Foursquare.
For the purposes of managing your Foursquare marketing strategy for your business,
you need a business account with a public name that matches your business. Use the
Join Now icon on the Foursquare home page to create that account. First name is a
required field, so use that for the business name, and leave the last name blank. Use
an e-mail address that you or your staff regularly check, preferably one dedicated to
your business. Upload a photo that represents your business. Your logo or a photo of
your venue will do the trick.
When prompted, add your business’s Twitter and Facebook accounts to your profile.
It’s important to be on Twitter and Facebook, as you’re limiting your chances of suc-
cess on Foursquare without them. Take a few minutes now to make sure you’re good
to go with Facebook and Twitter, then come back to Foursquare to link those into
your Foursquare account.
Tip
If you need help with Twitter or Facebook, The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Social
Media Marketing will be a great resource.
As you finish the Sign Up/Join Now process, you’ll be asked if you want to invite
friends into your network. You do, just not at this moment. You need to wait till you
have your Venue Profile ready to promote. There’s a time to come back and find
friends later. I’ll tell you when that is.
Look for Your Venue

Before you jump in and create your venue, be aware of the fact that there’s a good
chance that your business already exists on Foursquare—but be aware that because
you didn’t create it, it is probably all wrong. To find out if your business is already on
Foursquare, go to any page on the Foursquare.com website and use the search box
in the upper right corner to search for your business by name. If you’re in there, the
search will display your venue page.
If the information is incorrect, your first impulse will be to look for the place on
the page where you can correct it. Unless you are a superuser—and as a Foursquare
newbie, you’re probably not—your second impulse will be to panic when you realize
that there is no way for you correct it. Superusers, mayors, and the original creator
are the only ones who can edit a venue’s information. It can be fixed, but you’ll need a
little help. It will be difficult, but don’t worry about that right now.
Definition
Superusers are members of the Foursquare community that have been
appointed by Foursquare to police and make corrections to the database.
Your search might also result in your venue appearing multiple times in a list of venue
pages. That happens when people are at a venue, try to check in, but their mobile
device fails to display it and so they create a new entry. Venue entries created on
the fly by users on mobile devices often include errors. Because people are eager to
just check in, they will often create a venue and guess at the address or simply fill in
nothing more than the name. So in addition to having multiple listings, the situation
can be compounded by each of them containing information that is incorrect, or even
missing altogether.
Unfortunately, merging multiple venues is also something that you can’t do by your-
self. What you can do is to report a duplicate venue. The actual merger of duplicate
venues is one of the functions that can only be completed by a superuser.
To begin the process, use your mobile device to search for and find your venue using
the search function (Places > Menu > Search). When you find multiple entries, select
each one and use the “Edit Venue” option in the menu to flag the venues as dupli-
cates. Shortly thereafter, they will appear in the administrative area for superusers,
where one of them will compare venue details, then merge any duplicates—and all
their check-ins—into one. Depending on the number and efficiency of the superusers
in your area, the merger should happen within a few days.
If your venue has several listings and none of them contains the correct information,
go ahead and create a new, complete listing for your venue using the steps below.
Then report your listing and all of the others as duplicates. Because the superuser
who merges your venues typically tries to fill in any missing information on the final
merged listing, you’ll make them happy by giving a complete and correct listing to
merge with the others without sending them on a wild Google chase to find the cor-
rect information.
Create Your Venue

Creating your venue is best done on your computer rather than a mobile device.
Make sure you’re signed into Foursquare with your business account, find the “Add
Things” link at the top of the page, and click on it. In smaller type, next to “ADD
TIP,” you’ll see a link to “add a new venue.” Follow that to the form you’ll use to add
your venue.
Make sure to fill in all of your venue’s information correctly, and fill in the cross
street field properly. For help, click the “style guide” link on the edit page, which
outlines the right abbreviations and capitalization.
Because your venue information is limited almost solely to your address, with no
place to add any promotional verbiage, make sure you fill out the Twitter field with
your Twitter profile name. Foursquare will make it a clickable link to that Twitter
profile we’ve already determined you have and are very good at using. You know, the
one that matches the visual identity of your business, and has a link to your website
or Facebook page? Yes, that one.
When you’ve finished filling out your venue information, make sure to double-check
the map to see if Foursquare thinks you are where you really are. Foursquare uses the
GPS on mobile devices to make sure people are really at a venue. So if Foursquare
puts your location somewhere else on the map than where it really is, people may
actually be inside your business and not able to find your venue on their mobile
devices. Even worse, they may check in but not get any points, or be allowed to
unlock your special. As the venue’s creator, you can (and should) move the pin marker
on the map to the proper location.
Choose Categories for Your Venue

Next, select the proper category for your venue. If the drop-down menu offers you
subcategories, browse through those to see if any of them will better describe your
business. You can choose both categories and subcategories, and add each separately.
Add as many as are appropriate—but be sure to pick the one that will drive the best
traffic to your establishment and set that as the primary one.
Add Tags to Your Venue

Sometimes, people search Foursquare for suggestions of places to go to. Using it like
the Yellow Pages, they’ll do their search not based on the business name, but rather
on a service or product offering. Tags will help them find your business.
There is no limit to the number of tags you may add to your venue, but if you add too
many it may be difficult for people to find the ones they’re looking for on your main
venue listing. A good rule is to only use the tags that you believe will bring meaning-
ful traffic to your venue. If you’ll still have a big list, sort them in the order of value.
Warning
Don’t create a huge list of tags and bury your primary service, or product offer-
ing, in the middle of that list. If you’re primarily a pizza restaurant, put pizza at
the very top.
You’ll enter each tag individually, and they will appear in the order you enter them.
Because reordering them once they’re in your profile will require deleting and re-
entering, build and sort your list of tags in a text editor first. When you’re happy with
the list, then copy and paste each into your profile, in order.
Be aware of the fact that anyone can add categories and tags to your venue page. Only
a superuser (level 2 or above) or the venue’s creator or manager can delete tags, and
only those or a mayor can delete categories. You’ll want to regularly monitor your
venue’s tags and categories, and delete any that seem inappropriate or don’t fit in with
your overall strategy.
Add Tips to Your Venue

Tips are suggestions that users post to your venue page to make recommendations
of things to do or to request while at your venue. Be sure to create a tip of your own
with the most compelling reason you can think of why someone should come to your
business. You only have 200 characters—so make it good!
See the “Add link” next to the SHARE button? Make sure you add a link to your
website before you complete the tip! That is the only place anywhere in Foursquare
where you can drive traffic directly to your site. Typically that link will be your site’s
main URL. However, if you have the ability to create a special page in your site just
for Foursquare users, make that page the one to which you link.
There you have it! Your venue page is done, and done right. You’ll have people check-
ing in at your venue before you know it. If your venue already existed, you probably
already have check-ins. Maybe you even have a mayor. The next step is to create a
strategy that will turn those check-ins into revenue and loyalty.
Becoming the Manager of Your Venue

Just creating the venue doesn’t automatically let you start creating specials.
Foursquare needs to make sure you’re authorized to do that.
Claim Your Venue

The first step is to submit a claim that you manage the venue. That process begins by
clicking on the “Claim here” link on the upper right of the venue page.
Foursquare’s venue claiming process has been greatly improved since the days
when it was done entirely on the honor system and took weeks, or even months, to
complete. The biggest change they made was to verify your claim by calling the
phone number of the venue or sending snail-mail to the address. As you follow the
steps, you’ll be given a choice of how you want them to contact you to validate your
claim. Whichever you choose, make sure to let your staff know that you’re expecting
a contact from Foursquare.
The process uses a validation code that comes from Foursquare that, when entered in
the Foursquare site, completes the verification process. If done by phone, the call will
come quickly and the verification is instant. If done by mail, in a week or two you’ll
receive an envelope with easy instructions.
If you chose the mail option and don’t receive your envelope after a few weeks, go to
the support center (support.foursquare.com), find the Foursquare for Business sec-
tion, click on the “Why has my venue claim not been processed?” link, and follow the
instructions.
Once you’ve been approved, before you run off to start doing all the things you can
with your new manager superpowers, find the link to request a Foursquare window
cling. In the new age of social media, displaying one of these in your front window
or door gives you the same credibility that a chamber of commerce, Better Business
Bureau, or Diners Club sticker used to.
What Managers and Employees Can’t Do

With everything you get by becoming the manager, there is one thing you lose. It’s
a great honor for many Foursquare users to become a mayor. But there’s nothing
more frustrating than competing with someone who has the daily benefit of checking
in as they punch in. So, once you become manager, Foursquare now automatically
disqualifies you from becoming the mayor.
It also disqualifies your employees. So you’ll want to locate them on Foursquare and
when you find them, go to the “Employee of” section in the right-hand column to
add them as employees of your venue.
Warning
Some of your employees may take their check-ins at your business pretty seri-
ously. It’s a good idea to explain to your employees that it’s Foursquare’s policy
that won’t allow them to be mayor, and not yours.
A Word About Superusers

There are three levels of superusers.
• Level 1—This status is awarded after simply checking into 30 venues. Level 1
superusers can fix incorrect venue information.
• Level 2—These superusers can edit venues, merge duplicate venue listings, fix
mislocated venues, and handle venue address suggestions.
• Level 3—These superusers can do everything level 2 superusers can, but can
also create “aliases” for venues—alternate names for places that are com-
monly misspelled or nicknamed.
At the time of this writing, foursquare was considering some changes to the capabili-
ties and qualifications of superusers. Regardless of what they can do, it’s good to find
out who they are in your area.
Tip
I oversee social media for a Midwestern international airport. Before I became
a Level 2 superuser there were a ton of duplicate venue entries there, but only
some of them needed to be merged. By tweeting that I was looking for a super-
user, I was able to identify and contact several superusers who were able and
willing to help me by making the appropriate changes. Now, I pass on the love
by helping, wherever I can, when a business needs some help with their venue.
If you’re going to be serious about Foursquare as a marketing tool for your business,
knowing how to contact superusers is important. They can be an ally.
Rewarding Your Check-Ins

While people have all sorts of different reasons why they’ll choose to go to one
business over another, Foursquare users have a different perspective. Knowing what
motivates them will help you draw them to your business. Sometimes it’s a desire to
connect with others by using foursquare to find out where their friends are. More
frequently, it’s based on the fact that they can earn rewards by checking in. Those
rewards include points, specials, and badges. Foursquare awards points for checking
into venues, and the points that Foursquare awards for checking into your venue are
something you have no control over. I haven’t been able to figure out a way to use
awards to a business’s advantage. If you do, let me know. Probably it is best to focus
on the other two rewards you can control: specials and badges.
Create Specials
As a venue owner, you’re allowed by Foursquare to offer specials to people who check
in at your venue. Visitors “unlock” those specials if they meet the criteria that you
specify. Because they are customizable, specials give you the best shot at driving the
specific type of traffic you are attempting to attract.
Just like managers, all specials need to be reviewed for approval by Foursquare. Once
you’re approved as a manager, you can create your specials by clicking on the new
“Add a special” link that will appear on your venue page. The process usually takes a
day or two. Once approved, the special will still need a manager’s final click to make
it active.
Possible specials fall into five types:
• Everytime Check-Ins—These are the ones that will be unlocked by anyone
who checks in at your venue.
• First-Time Check-Ins—As you can guess, these are specials that can be
unlocked by a person only the very first time they check in.
• Frequency Check-Ins—These are the every 3rd, 30th or 300th variety. The
check-in requirement can be set to any number you’d like.
• Becoming a Mayor—The person who checks in at your venue the most times
within the last 60 days becomes “Mayor” of your venue.
• Always Unlocked Specials—Also called Wildcard Specials. You determine

the conditions, which your staff will have to verify. Something like, “Show us
your ‘Dog’s Best Friend Badge’ and get 20% off.”
Because Foursquare keeps track of user visits, and determines whether a visitor meets
the conditions of your special, you don’t have to keep track of any of it. When a
check-in qualifies a visitor for your special, their mobile device will show a special
screen that displays the fact that they have unlocked it. They simply show that screen
to you or your staff.
Choose Your Specials

Choosing what specials you wish to offer should be considered strategically. If your
strategic goal is to bring in lots of new customers, creating a special only for first-
time check-ins will help accomplish that. But if repeat business is your goal, you
should offer specials that reward repeat check-ins—every third, or even every tenth,
check-in. The more check-ins your special requires before it is unlocked, the bigger
you’ll need to make the value for it to be worth the effort. You may think that people
will check in 10 times to earn half-off on a cup of coffee, but they won’t.
Tip
It’s always a good idea to search for your competitors’ specials to see how yours
compare with theirs, and make sure yours give you the best chance of driving
traffic to your business.
A special that rewards people for posting tips is a good move if some knucklehead has
used the “Add a Tip” function to post a critical or negative comment. The only per-
son who can remove a negative tip is the person who posted it. If attempts to find that
person, resolve the issue, and have him remove the tip fail, the best thing you can do
is to use an “Add a Tip” special to create so many positive posts that the negative one
becomes lost among them.
Rotate Specials
While you can submit multiple specials to Foursquare, you can only offer one at any
given time. All approved specials will be listed in your “Manage Specials” area. You
can set a single special to run forever, or you can constantly rotate different specials
to run. Every client and business is different. Experiment and see which specials
generate the best return for the investment and the effort.
The worst thing that can happen is for someone to come to your venue and show
an employee the unlocked special, only to be met with a blank stare. Make sure to
let your employees know how the special works. Before you activate a special, show
anyone who may be verifying a special any business procedures that will need to be
followed on your point-of-sale system to honor it. If possible, check in on a mobile
device and show them how the unlock notification will be displayed.
Award Badges
Badges are huge motivators for some Foursquare users, with some people willing to
travel miles—even hundreds or thousands of miles—to get one. The traffic generated
by a badge is often a one-time visit because the further people travel to earn the
badge, the less likely they may be to become a repeat customer. If done strategically,
however, badges can still be a smart way to drive traffic to your business.
Foursquare’s philosophy is to help badges hold value by making them a scarce
commodity. So they exercise extreme control over how many, or rather how few, of
them they create. Unless your business is a major national brand—like Starbucks,
the Bravo Cable Network, or an NBA team—it’s not likely that you’ll be able to have
Foursquare create a badge just for you.
But there are ways to take advantage of existing badges to drive traffic to your venue.
The Swarm Badge is awarded when more than 50 people are simultaneously checked
in at the same venue. You will only want to offer this as a possible incentive if you
have a reasonable degree of certainty that you’ll get enough people there to have 50
of them check in. It’s harder than you think. Unless you’re a sports stadium, huge
concert hall, state fair, or other venue where lots of people come for a specific event,
it won’t happen spontaneously. You’ll need an already substantial base of fans that are
regularly checking into your venue, or a very special event, promotion, or celebrity to
incentivize a large group of them to come at the same time. Asking for an RSVP will
provide you with the numbers of potential attendees, and if it looks like you may be
drawing a crowd of over 100, only then will you want to start promoting the fact that
the possibility of a Swarm Badge exists. Twitter will be a great tool to assist in that
effort, as fans hoping to get a Swarm Badge will spread the word to their friends to
increase the odds of a qualifying turnout. Use your account to promote it. If you still
don’t have one, and didn’t create one the last couple of times I told you—go do it now.
Seriously.
Tip
Use a site like Twtvite (twtvite.com) for RSVPs to your Swarm Badge event. Your
event will have its own link to send, and you’ll know how many yes, maybe, or
no responses you have.
The Super Swarm Badge requires a crowd of 250. Good luck with that.
Even though it’s not likely that Foursquare will ever give you your own badge to
award, there are other creative ways to use existing badges to drive traffic. The
complete list of foursquare badges can be found at www.4squarebadges.com/
foursquare-badge-list/. Scrolling through the list and seeing how those badges are
awarded may either provide you with opportunities, or fuel your creativity to use
badges as a way to drive traffic as badge hunters add to their collection.
Keep in mind the fact that checking in is usually all that’s required to unlock badges.
While you hope that people will actually spend money at your business, many will
simply unlock their badge and leave. Some may stay long enough to make a purchase,
and others may come back. But if you’re looking for check-ins that result in dollars
in your cash register, offer regular specials that include discounts or free items that
combine with a purchase (like a free dessert or drink with the purchase of a meal).
Reward Your Mayor

Rewarding a mayorship is a special that should be considered cautiously. While it can
get a small handful of people locked in a passionate battle for the title, it holds no
motivation for those who realize they have no chance at ever unseating the mayor.
In addition, the more valuable the reward is for becoming a mayor, the more likely
people are to cheat by checking in without making a purchase, or actually even com-
ing in.
Because just being the mayor is often reward enough, offering a special only for the
mayor—at the expense of one that entices the masses—may not be the best use of the
power of your specials. If you’re the type of business that typically rewards loyalty,
you may consider doing what one bank chain did when they decided to find the may-
ors of all of their 44 branches and give them a gift certificate from a local restaurant
chain.
Driving Traffic to Your Venue

If you build it, they will come. But it’s still good business to find people and invite,
inspire, or compel them to come.
Spread the Word

Go back to the Foursquare.com site and click on the “Find Friends” link in the
top menu. Options there will allow Foursquare to check your Gmail address book,
Twitter follower list, and Facebook friends and will send them an invitation to
become your friend on Foursquare, with a link to your profile. They may just accept
your friend request, but they may first check out your profile. Seeing a tip from you
inviting them to your venue, with links to your website, Twitter, and Facebook page
are all great brand reinforcers.
Use Social Media

Put a link to your venue on your website near all your other social media icons,
so people know you support Foursquare. The social media community tends to
patronize businesses that are active in that community. Make sure you publicize your
specials on your website, Twitter activity, and Facebook page.
If the style of your business is to have widescreen TVs on your walls, think of
dedicating one as a computer monitor and have it display all the tweets about your
business. Sites like Twitterfall (twitterfall.com) or Visible Tweets (visibletweets.com)
allow you to configure a search that will show all tweets that include your business
name and your foursquare check-ins. While people inside your business will get
excited to see their tweets on your wall, even more importantly, they’ll be providing
you with free advertising to hundreds or thousands of their followers.
Trawl for Customers

While you want to be concerned about people checking into your venue, you may
want to consider seeing who is checking into other nearby venues.
A recent change in Foursquare removed the display of people who recently checked
into venues. Later, I’ll show you how to set up a search to see who is posting check-
ins at your venue to Twitter. You can also set up searches to see who is checking into
your competitors’ or neighbors’ venues, too. When you see those tweets, consider
replying to the tweet and offer them a complementary or a more competitive incen-
tive for checking in at your venue.
You may also want to talk to nearby businesses that are complementary to yours. For
instance, if you’re a restaurant or nightclub with a concert hall or theater nearby that
gets lots of check-ins, why not suggest that they create a special for their check-ins
that will be redeemed at your venue? Something like “After the show, check in at
Jack’s Bistro, 1234 Main St., show them both your check-in here and there, and get
half off your first drink.” They get to offer a special that doesn’t cost them anything,
and you get the traffic. It’s a win for everyone!
Measuring Your Success

As with everything else you do for your business, you want to make sure your efforts
are producing results. Foursquare may or may not produce a return that justifies the
investment. Here are a couple of ways for you to see how it’s working for you.
Understand Foursquare Venue Stats

You have access to a bunch of statistics about check-ins at your venue via the link to
“Venue Stats” at the top of your venue page. Statistics available include recent (and
all) check-ins and top visitors, the percentage of people who posted their check-in to
Facebook or Twitter, and the gender breakdown. Your top visitors and most recent
visitors are listed, and you can graphically see when people are checking in by date
and time of day. You can display results from today, last week, all-time, and a bunch
of time frames in between. You can decide which of the information is valuable, and
which is just trivial.
Managers can see venue statistics, edit venue info, create specials, and add employees.
Employees can only see the statistics.
Monitor Check-Ins at Your Venue

While your dashboard can display recent check-ins, Twitter also gives you a great way
to see who’s at your venue right now by letting you create a notification that tells you
whenever someone checks in at your venue, and allows Foursquare to post that check-
in on Twitter. When someone checks in at a venue and wants it to post automatically
to Twitter, Foursquare embeds a link to the venue page that starts with http://4sq.
com/ and then adds a six-character ID at the end. Once it’s posted, Foursquare will
always use that same link anytime anyone tweets that they’re at your venue.
To actively monitor those Tweets, go to search.twitter.com and search for tweets

that contain http://4sq.com and your venue name, as it appears on your venue page.
If people have been checking in and tweeting about it, you’ll see the short Web link.
If you use a tool like Seesmic, Hootsuite, Tweetdeck, or Mixero to monitor your
Twitter account, you can create a column that searches for and displays all the Tweets
with that link. You’ll know who has checked in at your venue and broadcasted that
fact on Twitter, and also see when your mayor is ousted by someone else. By using a
site like Tweet Alarm (www.tweetalarm.com), you can even set up a search to send
you an e-mail whenever someone checks in.
Warning
Typically only 10 to 20 percent of all check-ins are posted on Twitter. Don’t ever
use those posts as an absolute measure of the number of check-ins.
Your Most Important Measurement

Not everyone has their Foursquare account set up to post their check-ins to Twitter,
so you won’t see everyone who’s checking in with this method. Your dashboard will
be the most accurate and complete record of who has recently checked in, but keep
in mind that the ones on Twitter are not only letting you know that they’re at your
business, they’re also letting all their followers know. Engaging and rewarding those
people creates some potentially great and highly visible public relations.
Of course, the best monitor from a return-on-investment standpoint is the number
of check-ins that result in sales. While you can measure check-ins, or viral mentions
about your venue by check-ins posted on Twitter and Facebook, setting up an internal
system to keep track of purchases related to people who redeem specials may be the
best barometer of all.
How Successful Businesses Are Using

Foursquare
There is no shortage of ways to leverage Foursquare to build your business. While
you may come up with great ideas of your own, there are plenty of resources available
that include tons of ideas that are already being implemented. Here are just a few
examples of how businesses have been using foursquare to great success.
AJ Bombers
Restaurateur Joe Sorge is legendary in his use of social media to promote his four
establishments in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, by building relationships with both exist-
ing and prospective customers. It’s not uncommon for Joe to notice a customer’s
Foursquare check-in at one of his restaurants and have the manager-on-duty find
them, say thanks, and offer a complimentary dessert. He also rolls out new menu
items with invitation-only events where influential guests check in and post photos
and comments about those items on Twitter.
While all of his establishments benefit from his mastery of social media tools, his
burger joint, AJ Bombers, virtually built itself on the shoulders of Twitter and
Foursquare. Behind only Mitchell International Airport and Miller Park, where the
Milwaukee Brewers play, AJ Bombers boasts more check-ins than any other venue in
Milwaukee, including the 20,000 seat Bradley Center and Summerfest, the world’s
largest music festival. AJ Bombers was the first venue in Milwaukee to have enough
people check in to earn a Swarm badge.
But an even bigger event was his “I’m on a Boat” event. Not everyone knows that
they can win the “I’m on a Boat” Badge by checking into a venue that is tagged
“boat” and using the “Shout” feature of Foursquare to post the phrase, “I’m on a
Boat” with their check-in to their Twitter and Facebook accounts.
Of course, the landlocked restaurant couldn’t legally tag their restaurant as a boat, so
they teamed up with a local sporting goods retailer who agreed to bring over a kayak,
so people could literally be “on a boat” when they checked in. A badge, a creative
idea, lots of cross-promotion, and huge day-of-event social media buzz, resulted in
over 230 check-ins, and the best sales day in the restaurant’s history.
TLC
In spring of 2009, the cable network TLC began to promote the fact that they would
be awarding three new badges to celebrate summer, and that Foursquare would be
giving fan-favorite local businesses an opportunity to award those badges to check-ins
at their venues.
The three badges were the TLC Summer Badge, which would be unlocked just
by checking into a TLC-selected summer-fun location; the Cupcake Connoisseur
Badge, earned by checking into three different TLC-approved cupcake bakeries; and
the BBQ Pitmaster Badge, earned by checking into three different TLC-selected
restaurants.
Hundreds of businesses began to rally their fans to nominate them on TLC’s

Facebook page. Selected venues ranged from large ones like the Smithsonian
Institute, The World of Coca Cola, and the Lincoln Park Zoo, to small businesses
like the Pancake Pantry in Nashville, Fox Bros. Bar-B-Q in Atlanta, and Tipitina’s in
New Orleans.
Tasti D-Lite
Tennessee-based Tasti D-Lite is a 44-location chain of ice cream shops that has
begun to embrace Foursquare in a big way. From very early on, they’ve offered spe-
cials (Show that you’ve checked in and receive $2.00 off any size Smoothie. Ask about
all the new Smoothie flavors!).
But recently they have integrated Foursquare (along with Facebook and Twitter)
into their Tasti-Rewards loyalty card program. Previously, customers would present
their card and accumulate points only for making purchases at the stores. Foursquare
check-ins would be done by visitors with their mobile devices, and visually verified by
the person at the check out. But using new technology offered by their point-of-sale
vendor, scanning that card now also automatically checks visitors in on Foursquare
and earns them additional loyalty points for doing so.
Members use MyTasti.com, a password-protected site, to manage their account and
authorize Tasti-D-lite to log in to their Foursquare account for the check-in. The
check-in can also be shouted on Twitter, with a member-chosen message. Tasti
D-Lite also uses the post to include a link to a printable coupon.
Resources
support.foursquare.com—Foursquare’s searchable official support site. Information is
grouped by categories, with links and forms that go directly to Foursquare staff.
blog.foursquare.com/—Foursquare’s official blog. All the latest news straight from the
Foursquare staff.
aboutfoursquare.com/—Blog site with all the latest news about Foursquare for users,
businesses, and developers.
www.4squarebadges.com—A blog site with all the badges ever offered by Foursquare
and how they are unlocked.
Additional Reading
The Complete Idiot’s Guide® to Social Media Marketing
Jennifer Abernethy
978-1-59257-989-1, $19.95
The Complete Idiot’s Guide® to Target Marketing
Susan Friedmann
978-1-59257-903-7, $19.95
The Complete Idiot’s Guide® to Facebook
Joe Kraynak and Mikal Belicove
978-1-61564-036-2, $16.95

Foursquare Realtime Marketing

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Becoming the Manager of Your Venue

Rewarding Your Check-Ins

Choose Your Specials

Driving Traffic to Your Venue

Measuring Your Success

How Successful Businesses Are Using Foursquare

“Who would want to tell everyone where they are?”

Creating Your Location as a Venue

Look for Your Venue

Create Your Venue

Choose Categories for Your Venue

Add Tags to Your Venue

Add Tips to Your Venue

Becoming the Manager of Your Venue

Claim Your Venue

What Managers and Employees Can’t Do

A Word About Superusers

Rewarding Your Check-Ins

• Always Unlocked Specials—Also called Wildcard Specials. You determine

Choose Your Specials

Reward Your Mayor

Driving Traffic to Your Venue

Spread the Word

Use Social Media

Trawl for Customers

Measuring Your Success

Understand Foursquare Venue Stats

Monitor Check-Ins at Your Venue

To actively monitor those Tweets, go to search.twitter.com and search for tweets

Your Most Important Measurement

How Successful Businesses Are Using

Hundreds of businesses began to rally their fans to nominate them on TLC’s

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