Author Archives: Norah Carroll

Foursquare has long been a fantastic resource for consumers, offering exclusive discounts, recommendations and of course, bragging rights for venue mayors. On Tuesday, foursquare made a leap forward to become an equally strong resource for brands, from bloggers to small businesses to large corporations, with their new self-serve brand pages.

First, a bit of history: foursquare launched its first brand page for Intel in January 2010, offering the company a platform for recommending local Philadelphia favorites to out-of-towners during their annual ISTE conference. As other companies expressed interest in custom-branded pages, foursquare began to build pages for them, too — all built manually by the foursquare team, behind the scenes. The launch of these new self-serve pages gives companies the opportunity to build their own pages, without needing to await approval from the foursquare team.

So what is a brand page, and what value does it offer to a company? A brand page is a custom-branded page on foursquare that allows a company to recommend venues through check-ins and tips left on foursquare. Brands lend their influence and expertise to foursquare users, who “follow” the brands to see their tips; for example, Walgreen’s leaves tips at public transportation stations reminding passengers to wash their hands after train rides to avoid catching the flu. In return for sharing tips with foursquare users, brands gain their followers’ trust by infusing their expert knowledge into their followers’ daily lives. Brand pages can also be connected to your company’s page on Facebook, so your tips can be extended beyond foursquare to reach all of your fans.

It’s important to note that brand pages function differently from typical individual foursquare accounts in a few important ways. Remember that these pages are meant to be used by brands, not as a substitute for a personal foursquare account. Brand pages can’t earn badges, and if your brand has used an individual account in the past to leave tips, all of your friends will be converted to “followers” when you create your page. That means that your company won’t be able to see where its fans check in, but everyone on foursquare will be able to see where your company checks in. It’s like following someone on Twitter — a one-way connection.

Ready to create a brand page for your company? Here’s what you’ll need:

• A header image of 860 x 130 pixels (check out the Walgreen’s brand page for inspiration)
• A small profile image of 185 x 185 pixels
• A description of your brand
• Links to share with your followers (website, Facebook page, Twitter handle, blog, etc.)

Now, just visit https://foursquare.com/create_page and click “Create a Page” to get started!

Once you’ve created your page, you’ll have everything you need to start leaving tips at other foursquare venues you endorse or recommend. Visit our blog later this week for a guide to crafting great tips through your brand page!