4 Reasons to Foursquare
By Amy Slife
Early this month, foursquare exceeded 40 million check-ins, as reported on Twitter by one of the company’s developers. This means the number of foursquare check-ins is growing at an incredible rate, doubling in approximately a month’s timeframe. We’ve seen foursquare’s incredible growth rate before when 100,000 users signed up over a 10 day period during this year’s SXSW. theKbuzz has already covered examples of companies utilizing foursquare for deals and promotions, but for all of you foursquare hold outs, I’m going to detail four reasons why you should jump on the bandwagon.
- Location-based updates, check-ins and promotions are a way of the future, and the very near future at that. It’s safe to say that the newest craze in the social media world seems to be the location-based feature. From check-ins on foursquare, to adding your location to your tweets on Twitter, to news that Facebook is launching its own location features at some point in time this month, it’s clear that location-based functionality is on the rise and probably here to stay. As more companies sign up to offer deals and promotions through location-based social media platforms you don’t want to miss an opportunity to reap the great rewards.
- Foursquare is fun and competitive. While it might seem a little silly on the outside, I think there are many users out there that can attest to the fact that once you get into foursquare you become a little obsessed with it. After all, it truly is a game and most of us have some competitive nature to us. We strive to have the most check-ins to a venue so we can become “Mayor” for the sake of just being able to brag about it to our friends and coworkers. For example, I proudly hold the title of Mayor of theKbuzz Boston. While I’m not currently receiving any perks for holding the title, it’s still fun to check in and encourage my colleagues to challenge me for the position of Mayor of the office.
- With foursquare, you can get tips left by your friends for places around the location you’re checking in. Not only does checking in to a location allow your friends to figure out where you are, but you can see what your friends liked at that location or at locations nearby. To illustrate, I’ve left the tip for my foursquare friends to try out a breakfast sandwich at one of my favorite coffee shops. When they check-in to the location, or a location nearby, they get a message to try out the Tequila Sunrise at Espresso Royale Café. On the flip side, I’ve received tips from my foursquare friends to try out different menu items or restaurants and bars at locations I’ve checked into. Wouldn’t you be more likely to try out a new eatery or a new menu item if it was recommended by someone you know? I know that would encourage me to expand my horizons.
- You can get useful tips and fun facts from companies and brands. As you can expect with the growing number of folks checking in on foursquare, there’s also a growing number of companies offering deals. But beyond deals and promos, some of these companies are using foursquare to share their expertise, recommendations and fun facts. Bon Appétit is guiding their foursquare friends to “the best epicurean destinations on the planet” with foodie tips based on where you are and what you’re doing. Additionally, HISTORY Channel has a foursquare account, which provides tips to help you “unlock the history of your city.” HISTORY has set up their account to enable their friends to receive tips about America, unlock a special badge and be entered into special sweepstakes and win weekly prizes.
Have you joined foursquare? If so, how do you use it and what’s your favorite part? If you’re a foursquare or other location-based social media network holdout, share with us why you’ve yet to join and if there’s anything that would change your mind about doing so.
We have yet to dip our toes into Foursquare. We’ve just never seen any value to it. We see as many people praising it as we do panning it, and as far as we can tell, NO ONE in our area uses Foursquare, so we’d pretty much be talking to the walls! If someone could enumerate what value it has in a real estate setting, we might be willing to give it a shot and try to convince others in our area to do the same. Your point about becoming obsessed with it is a good point and one we are concerned about, especially as we’re already so deep into so many other social media: FB, Twitter, LinkedIn, Plaxo, Active Rain, etc! Where would we find the time to check in anywhere…except a loony bin??
I can see the questions you raise as slowing your entry into Foursquare, but not as points that should stop you.
The oldest adage in the book is: location, location, location. While it’s true that 4Sq isn’t swamped at this time, if you wait for saturation, you’ll be playing a catch up game with other realtors. Get familiar with it now; especially some of the nuances within the program.
Are you at an incredible home that’s right on top of a great conservation trail? Log on to the trail and leave something along these lines as a ‘tip’: ‘At Walden Pond again; Thoreau knew a great place; BTW, if you want to live here, I’m a realtor for two homes that are for sale in Lincoln and one in Concord”. Whether its trails, shopping centers, great restaurants (while at the elephant Walk, I could check in and read, “a 3 Bdrm, 2 bath Cape is for sale w/in three miles of this restaurant, by X Realtor”.
You’ll be preaching to the choir.
As Real Estate agent you’re probably of the best traveled professionals around. Often you’ll have to wait for prospective homebuyers at a restaurant, coffee-shop or a house. Log on to Foursq and see what’s in the area that people like.
Real Estate is also about people trusting their agent — the more my agent knows about the area obviously the better.
Foursquare is not a business panacea, but it is a great tool to have in your belt that works off one of the primary focuses of real estate: location. Better to become good at it now than to wait for the masses to pile in.
BTW, I have yet to see a legitimate ‘pan’ of the technology, other than ‘not everyone’s doing it, so what can I get out of it?’. To that, I’d say look at the example of the thought leaders in technology and social media: noone within those spheres sees Foursquare as a waste of time.
Also BTW, I do not work for Foursquare, I’m in Cause Marketing at a major Boston hospital. I have both friends and family in Real Estate, and I know there is both very busy times and slower times, when you’re looking for an edge and to communicate to prospective buyers. Foursq is an extra arrow for you quest in hitting the bullseye.
Wow – real estate? I can see so many applications! Even if your agents just went around town, checked in at all of the properties for sale, and then left tips of the unique features of each one, you could create whole list of properties of which you are mayor. Once you’re firmly established, have the local paper write an article about it, and people will likely jump on there and start to use it.