Why Are Local Businesses Still Not Using Foursquare?

With 31 million page views per month, 20 million API requests per month and more than 1.8 million members, you would think local businesses would take advantage of the marketing perks of Foursquare to increase sales.

I  recently checked into my 50th venue to discover that more than 50% of my check-ins were local businesses that I manually added to Foursquare. In the one to two months I have been actively checking in, becoming the mayor of some of the locations means nothing.

Why are local businesses hesitant to participate in the fun?  There’s only two possible scenarios — lack of understanding and of time.

Many business owners either don’t have the time or are unable to grasp the concept of social media communication.

Foursquare enables you to communicate directly with your customers.  You can follow and interact with your customer on Twitter or invite them to like your Facebook fan page, while small business owners, or sales reps can even friend them on Foursquare.

Here are a few tips to help you leverage Foursquare to increase sales and customer loyalty:

1. Reward check-ins

Regardless of the type of compensation, if consumers are rewarded, they will remember it.  In many cases, the recipients will spread the word to their social media network about the reward.  Offering 10% to anyone who checks in to your business and tweets about it, for example, is a small price to pay for a potential referral.

2. Reward mayors

Mayors have checked in to your business more than once, which means you either have a niche product or service, or there’s some customer loyalty brewing.  Reward your mayors with more than you would a general check-in and let it be made known on Foursquare.  Posting your special on Foursquare will increase awareness (I can’t tell you how many times I have clicked on the “Special Nearby” link).

3. Be thankful

Send a note of appreciation to someone after they check in.  A simple tweet or a short note on a customer’s or visitor’s wall will let them know you are  paying attention.  They’ll remember you next time they’re out.

4. Pay attention to the conversation

When someone checks into your store, office, warehouse, etc. they can tweet or post an update to their Facebook page about your establishment. One of the key elements to a successful social media campaign is your response. Monitor people’s comments and address concerns as soon as you can.  Whether it’s positive feedback or a problem that needs addressed, people applaud quick action and frown upon being ignored.

Integrating Foursquare into your marketing mix may take some time, but if done correctly, the effort can produce solid results for your business.