Local businesses take note, Foursquare is everywhere

Local businesses take note, Foursquare is everywhere

January 5th, 2010 / Posted by Nathan T. Wright

Huzzah! The location-based social network Foursquare is now available to everyone, everywhere.

I’ve already declared my inevitable Mayorship of the East Village Jimmy John’s. (Who’s going to challenge me?) Others have made their claim on Mars Cafe, which will certainly be a hot spot. I also expect the tweets and check-ins to be flying from Raccoon River during Friday night’s Des Moines Tweetup.

Oh, if you don’t know what Foursquare is yet, please refer back to this earlier post.

So, what do local businesses need to be aware of? First, your customers are going to broadcast that they’re at your location / store / venue. Be ready for this by being findable. Go ahead and add your business as a location before someone does it for you. Earlier I used Foursquare’s web interface to add Lava Row. Just click on “add things” in the top navigation menu and then click “add a new venue.” Fill out the information including address, cross streets, etc., and you’re good to go!

Foursquare is emerging as a platform for businesses to reward their Mayors (people who “check in” the most often) with special deals and discounts – loyalty-based marketing at it’s finest. For more information about Foursquare’s beta advertising platform, check out Foursquare for Businesses.

How will you get creative with your business on Foursquare?

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Filed under: Des Moines, Social Media, Social Networks, TweetUps
Tagged as: Foursquare, Foursquare for Businesses, Location-based social networks

View Comments to “Local businesses take note, Foursquare is everywhere”

Jeff Zelnio January 5th, 2010 at 3:47 pm

Dang, 4sq was going to be the tipping point for me buying an Android. Now I am behind the curve!
dougenright January 5th, 2010 at 4:20 pm

Let the firestorm begin and the competition for mayor in several hot spots in DeMo heat up.
Emily January 6th, 2010 at 9:52 am

Question – what happens if you're the first to check into a venue? Does Foursquare automatically add that location to it's list of venues, or do you have to manually add the venue before you can check in? if that makes any sense…
Nathan T. Wright January 6th, 2010 at 9:55 am

Hi Emily, yes the venue needs to be manually added first (by someone) and appear in the list of nearby locations – relevant to your current GPS location. I used the web interface to add our office location, although I suspect there's a way to do it via the 4SQ apps as well.
Emily January 6th, 2010 at 10:44 am

Thanks! I saw you can manually add a venue on foursquare.com. Not sure if there is an easier way to add one when you're on the go (didn't see an option on their mobile site).
Jeff Zelnio January 7th, 2010 at 12:18 pm

Can do this through the Droid by choosing the menu then 'add venue'. Would thing they would have something like that for that iPhone thingie. Looks like for the iphone info at http://getsatisfaction.com/foursquare/topics/i_...
Jeff Zelnio January 7th, 2010 at 7:18 pm

Can do this through the Droid by choosing the menu then ‘add venue’. Would thing they would have something like that for that iPhone thingie. Looks like for the iphone info at http://getsatisfaction.com/foursquare/topics/i_would_like_it_if_i_could_add_venues_on_the_iphone_app