How Foursquare Reaches Consumers and What it Means for Businesses
The web landscape, particularly in the sector of social media platforms, is extremely dynamic and ever evolving. Social Media templates are changing, and quickly at that. As one blogger mentions, the question prompts on the home pages of these websites have become increasingly personal. Facebook asks elusively, “What’s on your mind?”, while Twitter asks, more transparently, “What are you doing?”, while Foursquare asks, in a tone one might presumptuously interpret as invasive, “Where are you?”
Foursquare, a mobile GPS-style interactive map that synchs your location to mainstream social media outlets like Twitter and Facebook, facilitates a new and more personalized medium through which one can communicate to his/her social cloud. Because the mobile phone is as strong as the computer in this technological era, there is no chance Foursquare will fade in popularity or usage. Businesses have hopped on board the Foursquare bandwagon, further strengthening and maintaining their prevalence on the web landscape. Through Foursquare, managers can see who is checking in: taking into account attributes such as what age group or demographic to which their consumer belongs, and during what time of day they enter their store. Essentially, they are able to see the metrics of their consumer in the most accessible way possible.
Corporations such as Starbucks are taking initiative with this one-year-old start-up company. This Summer, Starbucks announced that any customer to check in 5 times would earn the “Barista badge,” which will include invites to special Starbucks events and even online reputation scores. (Mashable) Other, smaller companies are also allocating rewards for repetitive check ins. Some are even posing prompts upon check in, like Emack and Bolio’s most recent, “perform a moonwalk and get a free ice cream”. In this way, businesses are incentivizing their consumers through the unique platform that Foursquare presents through its GPS-like grid system.
Foursquare’s rapid expansion cannot be solely accredited to the power of the mobile device, but also to its ability to synch with Facebook’s API and twitter. It is now as recognized as Facebook, becoming the optimum tool for businesses to directly communicate and access their clientele as well for a person meet-up with their friends. At this rate, Foursquare is going to remain a giant in the social media world, and is only going to grow exponentially as time elapses, for both business and recreational purposes.
Written By: Alyssa Deitchman
alyssa@ianalyst.com
