Foursquare is a social media platform where users can find places to go, to eat, to relax etc. It’s like your own ‘time out’ or ‘The best of’ in your pocket. Reviews or ‘tips’ can be uploaded to specific venues in a few moments so passing trade can get real advice from real people about where to go on their doorstep. Think of it like a huge neon sign outside your establishment saying what peope really think about you. You as a business owner can’t own it, can’t advertise on it. It is entirely driven by the word of mouth of your customers. The happy ones and the not so happy ones.
Are you interested now?
It’s best used on a mobile device, how many of those are on Xmas lists this year?
For any cafe owner, restauraunter, shop owner. In fact any one with a customer facing profile it can be your best friend or your worst enemy and a huge business headache.
I recently visited a restauraunt, not one with a swish fancy London address a country pub in an insignificant West Country village on a chilly November afternoon. I was playing around with Foursquare, trying to get a mayorship. (yep you can ‘own’ the place and be Mayor if you visit it enough!!) and didn’t believe that this pub where my 90 year old granny brings her family for sunday lunch was into social media.
On closer inspection, the owners of the pub were not involved in social media, they thought it was a load of rubbish and only for young Facebookers and stupid twitterers. It was for ”people with too much time on their hands”, it was not for them, this”new fangled”‘ clap trap (or words to that effect! Ahem!) Oh how the amassed owners and managers laughed self satisfyingly as they dismissed social media with a toss of their blinkered head.
But their customers were!!
And here is where the problem lay. There were one or two ‘reviews’ from supporters of the establishment on Foursquare, which can be linked into Facebook, Twitter, linked-in and about a dozen other social networks with a swish of a finger. Locals who enjoyed a beer or two in the summer. There were also some pretty disgruntled ‘reviewers’ bemoaning the service, the loo’s and the cost of the puddings (i certainly got their point)
When I showed this to the owners , they were ashen!Not surprisingly! Suffice to say we’re in touch about helping them with their social media management.