Using Foursquare to promote your business

Most people with an interest in social media will be familiar with Foursquare - the location-based mobile platform that makes towns and cities more interesting to explore. We have long advocated this service as an essential part of any campaign to promote a tourism business, event or leisure facility, so with the service currently boasting over 8 million members worldwide (not to mention adding somewhere in the region of 35,000 new users each day), our initial instincts about the success of this app have proved correct.

Regular readers of this blog will be aware that we are the people behind Foursquare UK, the information hub on Twitter and Facebook. However, we can now report that our Marketing Director has become an official Foursquare Ambassador and Superuser (Level 1).

The former means that you can go to our 4sq page and follow three easy steps to verify your business. It’s completely free and will allow you to claim your establishment, set up Foursquare Specials and view your Venue Stats. The latter enables you to ask us to edit venues which have incorrect details (addresses, locations etc.).

Should you require assistance running your Foursquare campaign – or indeed, help with social media marketing in general – please drop us a line and we’ll discuss your requirements. You can also follow us on Twitter and Facebook to stay abreast of what’s happening within the local tourism industry.

Image: Foursquare sticker, © LDS Tourism Services Ltd, 2011

Foursquare - Be There or Be Square

Back in April, we ran a piece in this blog about Foursquare, the location-based mobile application that allows users to see where their friends are hanging out and pick up tips from them about the best places to eat, sleep, take the family, watch a film and so on.

Since then, many businesses in the UK have realised the enormous marketing opportunities available through social networking apps like Foursquare, Gowalla, Rummble and their ilk. For example, Domino’s Pizza has launched a Foursquare promotion that encourages users to check-in at its takeaways. The franchise gives away free pizzas to the Mayor of each of its outlets once a week as part of the scheme. In fact, every Foursquare user is allowed a free side dish when spending over £10. Likewise, the Mayor of Debenhams Oxford Street is entitled to free coffee whenever he or she pays a visit – an offer likely to extend to its other UK branches in the near future.

The latest British name to catch on is Glacéau Vitaminwater, which is conducting a treasure hunt in cities throughout the UK (including Liverpool and Manchester) over the next two weeks, where locals are invited to monitor the Company's Twitter announcements for Foursquare check-ins and “i spy with my little i” clues to help track down prizes (ipads in this case).

Similar sales’ generating schemes are taking place in venues of all sizes up and down the country as geo-social services - which combine the GPS systems inside smartphones with real-time updates - generate a colossal amount of interest.

LDS Tourism Services has recently launched Foursquare UK pages on both Twitter and Facebook, which provide up-to-the-minute information for British fans of this fast-growing geo-social craze. Here we announce the creation of new badges, publicise offers available to users in the UK and keep everyone up to date with all the latest news about the game.

If you need help promoting your enterprise on Foursquare or other important social media networks, we are here to help. Simply allow us to create a unique and reasonably priced Social Media Starter Package for your attraction, restaurant, pub, hotel, event or any other business and we will gladly take the stress out of generating digital chatter about your project or organisation.

You can drop us a line at marketing@ldsts.co.uk.

Image: ©Foursquare