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

Spring brings new growth for local tourism

A great many attractions have reaped the benefits of the double Bank Holiday and glorious sunshine this year. Tourism operators in the region are reporting an upsurge in visitors from France, China and the USA – due in no small part to the low level of the pound – and accommodation providers say they have been forced to turn people away.

Industry insiders are starting to see improvements this spring, in some cases because visitors are changing their habits. For instance, the National Trust (NT) recently conducted research into the habits of British holidaymakers and found that 27% of them were planning to take at least 10 single-day holidays this year. A further 36% said they intended to take between five and 10 'daycations' during the same period. According to NT, these multiple single days off work will allow Brits to make the most of their time off and have shorter holidays more frequently within the UK.

More good news from our clients

Chester Zoo has a delightful baby elephant named Jamilah to thank for helping it achieve a massive 33% increase in visitor numbers at the start of the year. The popular attraction announced it had 104,856 visitors between 1st January and 27th February, compared with 78,833 in the same period last year. The charity also revealed it was the most visited zoo in the UK during 2010, with 1,154,285 people passing through the gates, making it the 17th most popular visitor attraction in the country.

Cadw has allocated £600,000 from its Heritage Tourism Project to allow Denbigh Castle to begin work on a new visitor facility. Enhancements to the 13th century fortress will include new walks, improvements to its interpretation and upgraded links with Denbigh's wider historic landscape.

On Good Friday, Cambrian Heritage Railways started operating a passenger service from a station in Shropshire for the first time since the 1960s. After twelve months of hard work, the service now operates over half a mile on a restored line from Oswestry Station to Middleton Road Bridge. We are delighted to have been asked to market their promotional leaflet and wish all those involved a fun and profitable season.

Promote your business for free

I am now a Foursquare Ambassador, which means that you can access my page to connect with your loyal customers and gain new ones by finding and claiming your establishment. It’s completely free to sign up and you will be able to manage Specials and monitor your Venue Stats. Click this link and follow three simple steps to verify your business on Foursquare.

Please feel free to contact us if you have questions regarding location based marketing or any other service supplied by LDS Tourism Services.

Image: Cherry Blossom, © Eve Parry, 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

Social Networking & New Clients Keep LDSTS Busy

New leaflets and brochures continue to arrive at the Border Distribution Centre every day, including many from brand new clients such as The Trentham Estate in Staffordshire – which is currently undergoing a £100 million regeneration project aimed at creating a unique visitor destination of national importance.

The Foursquare Revolution

We are rather excited about a relatively new social networking application to arrive on the scene. Foursquare is a geographical guide, which allows users to broadcast their locations via mobile devices and earn points for checking-in.

Savvy business owners are rapidly catching on to the immense marketing potential of a platform that encourages people to explore their neighbourhoods. Indeed, they are starting to engage with loyal customers by offering ‘Specials’ - discounts and prizes - to those who visit their Foursquare venue pages.

Ever since our friends at Cromwells Restaurant first alerted us to Foursquare in a blog article, we have been busily adding the details of LDSTS's clients and TIP hosts to the system. It has been great fun test-driving the application whilst winning ‘Mayorships’ and collecting badges for being the most frequent visitors to local attractions, hotels, pubs, theatres, retail outlets and other popular spots. Our verdict: Foursquare could very well be the next big thing in social networking, equal, perhaps, to Twitter.

We will, of course, include Foursquare in all our Social Media Marketing packages from now on, so please do contact us if you require further details.

From ‘Staycation’ to ‘Kidcation’

There has been a positive glut of good news stories about the UK’s domestic tourism industry emerging in recent weeks. Organisers of the Best of Britain and Ireland Travel Trade Forum reported a 5% increase in the show’s attendance in March, which they believe underlines the growing trend for ‘staycationing’, and according to ABTA, somewhere in the region of 10.5 million people took a holiday in the UK over Easter.

The Thistle Hotels’ group has also reported a substantial rise in enquiries and bookings for what it describes as “kidcations” at its city–based premises across the country. The 33-strong chain says that many families have “traded down” from overseas package holidays and believe the trend signals: “a change in attitudes, with parents looking to treat the family to short breaks that combine fun with learning – showing that city breaks are no longer just the preserve of romantic couples and serious culture vultures.”

Are you seeing bookings picking up? Please post your comments below or drop us an email.


Image: iPhone, Blackberry and Android in use, © Foursquare, 2010