Category: Foursquare

foursquare ‘Specials’

22nd April 2012

In late 2011 I started taking a much closer look at foursquare, the location-based app that encourages users to ‘check-in’ at places to unlock, points, badges, deals and discounts.

I’d read lots about it, but up until that point hadn’t really seen its relevance to me in my life. However, the figures up to April 2012 (on their website) were impressive:

  • Community: Over 20 million people worldwide
  • Over 2 billion check-ins, with millions more every day
  • Businesses: Over 750,000 using the Merchant Platform (more information at foursquare.com/business)
  • Employees: Over 100 between headquarters in New York, an office in San Francisco, and a lovely outpost in London.

As someone who is trying to help small businesses grow, I started playing with foursquare to get a better understanding of how it all worked and why people should/could use it to their benefit.

Gamification

You may have heard the word ‘Gamification‘, a term used to describe psychological techniques typically used in computer games to encourage certain behaviour through regular rewards like points and enhanced features, which are now being used in non-game environments. Of all the things I’ve seen, I think foursquare is the ultimate example of a company bringing Gamification to the real-world environment through people’s mobile devices.

When you first start using foursquare (download the free app for your smartphone and register your details) to check-in at coffee shops, bars, restaurants, clubs, shops, museums, art galleries, offices, train stations, airports, etc – you quickly gain points and unlock badges, the first being the ‘Newbie’ badge. Check-in to a further 9 places and you unlock the ‘Adventurer’ badge, all the while building up your points score which compares you in a Leaderboard to any of your friends who are on foursquare too.

See some some of my unlocked foursquare Badges below:

foursquare badgesSocial Sharing

Social sharing is integral to foursquare and each time you check-in somewhere or unlock a badge you are given the option of sharing it with others on Twitter and Facebook, the idea being that your friends and Followers will notice what you’re doing, show an interest and perhaps check out foursquare or the place you have just been.

You can adjust your settings to turn these notifications off if you like, and I have limited mine so that I only share on Twitter and Facebook when I have unlocked a new badge. Even so, I found it very interesting that in the first week or so of using foursquare and unlocking badges, 3 people who Follow me on Twitter said to me in the real world “You use foursquare a lot don’t you?” I then noticed that they started using foursquare more actively in the following week. Conincidence? Possibly. Although I have a feeling it was an example of Gamification at work, as my actions were subconsiously influencing the actions of those around me, and vice versa. It’s all very clever (and addictive)!

‘Specials’ and ‘Mayorships’

Another very important aspect of foursquare which incentivises the user is the notion of ‘Specials’ and ‘Mayorships’. Any venue has the ability to add ‘Specials’ to foursquare which could be free gifts, %age discounts and any other type of deal you can think of. This could be given to people every time they check-in, just to the ‘Mayor’ or both.

‘Mayorships’ are obtained when somewhere checks-in more times than anyone else at that venue, potentially unlocking further privileges (not to mention the geeky kudos of that title) like freebies or discounts.

From what I have seen from using foursquare quite heavily around Newcastle, Gateshead, London and other parts of the UK, very few businesses are using ‘Specials’ at the moment, but there is huge potential here for attracting new customers and rewarding loyal ones in a simple, fun and modern way. Think of it like cutting edge, loyalty cards but using people’s smartphones instead of a paper card and ink stamper.

The only companies I have seen using it on a wide-scale here in the UK are Wetherspoon’s Pubs, Domino’s Pizza and Starbucks although their ‘Specials’ aren’t really that special to me. For example, Wetherspoon’s gives ‘20% off to the Mayor’ but there can only be one Mayor at a time.

foursquare for Local Businesses

Because of the potential, I’ve been doing my bit to explain how foursquare could be used by small businesses in my local area including Coola Boola coffee kiosk (in Newcastle’s Central Station), Artisan Express (on the Gateshead side of the High Level Bridge) and The Lounge Cafe @ Design Works (next door to the office I work from). As a reward for becoming their ‘Mayor’, Coola Boola gave me a free coffee of my choice so next time you’re in Central Station, go there instead of Starbucks upstairs to help the little guys out and potentially get a freebie as a thank you.

Shark Club Gastro Bar

More recently, I’ve been doing some social media consultancy for Shark Club Gastro Bar in Newcastle (see www.facebook.com/SharkClubNewcastle and http://twitter.com/SharkClubUK) and have persuaded them to introduce what I think are the best foursquare Specials in the city at the moment:

  • Everyone can get 20% off their food bill simply by checking-in on foursquare and showing their phone to the waitress or waiter.
  • The Mayor gets FREE food up to the value of £10 (as long as they aren’t dining alone).

This is a fantastic way for the Shark Club to attract new customers and reward loyal ones in a fun and modern way, providing deeper engagement and making them stand out from their competitors in the city.

So, the next time you’re walking around your local area, try using foursquare to see if there are any Specials around you and if you’re a small business (cafe, restaurant, bar, club, shop, hotel, etc) and would like advice on how to use foursquare to attract new customers, email me at plandigital@live.co.uk or call +44 (0)7734 722716.

‘Social Media for Business’ lecture @ The University of Leeds

22nd February 2012

Slides from the 1hr ‘Social Media for Business‘ lecture I gave to around 50 students at The University of Leeds yesterday (21st February 2012).

Topics include:

  • how technology has changed in the 14yrs since I graduated from Leeds in 1998
  • how these developments have affected my career and personal life
  • how I use a wide range of free Social Media tools in business, with a particular focus on the Shell LiveWIRE programme
  • how people can use Social Media in their personal life to take control of their career and create opportunities for themselves

Please feel free to share this presentation with anyone you feel would be interested. If you’d like me to deliver a similar presentation for your business, organisation or event give me a call on +44(0)7734 722716 or email plandigital@live.co.uk

How influential are you?

21st January 2012

Influence is a powerful currency in society, but it’s always been difficult to quantify and measure in a meaningful way. However, sites like Klout and PeerIndex are doing their very best to provide us with scores that demonstrate how influential we are online through our personal social networks.

My Klout Score increased to 50 for the first time today; the mid-way point in a measure from 1-100 (apparently the average score is 20). But what does this actually mean? Well, to me it suggests that the work I do is having the desired effect, encouraging others to:

Klout Profile

Ok, but what other purpose does Klout serve? Klout’s business model is to offer a free service to users and obtain payment/sponsorship from businesses that wish to offer Klout ‘Perks’ to people with a certain level of influence. So, I may well start to be sent more promotions from now on but unfortunately at the moment they all seem to be aimed at US-based consumers.

Of more interest to me is the way that I (and others have already started doing) can use my Klout Score to demonstrate to my employer, potential clients and business partners that I have a higher than average ‘social influence’ which they can benefit from in return.

One downside to this is the fact that very few businesses understand what the Klout Score actually is. Another is that Klout is still in Beta phase which means that changes and improvements to their algorithm can sometimes result in a temporary reduction of some people’s score. However, Klout is a cool tool and I can only see it’s importance grow in the coming year as more people start to use it and recognise it as a way to validate someone’s influence, particularly those who work in digital marketing / social media (like myself).

One caveat. There are many people whose Klout Score is very low, but you know in real life they are hugely influential, just not online in social networks. A personal example of this would be my uncle, a local councillor who is extremely well-connected and influential, making good things happen for his community each and every day – yet he isn’t on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or any other type of social network. He made a very valid point to me over Christmas when he said that our family gathering was the greatest type of ‘social network’ known to man. Very true and worth remembering when you start using tools like Klout. Nothing ever beats meaningful, face-to-face, human interaction.

6 Tech Predictions for 2012

2nd January 2012

Some tech / digital predictions for 2012 from me:

  • SoLoMo (Social Local Mobile) apps like Foursquare will really start to take off as more businesses start to see the benefit (and necessity) in offering useful and relevant deals and discounts to loyal customers. Foursquare has been around for a while now but heavy investment in the company, sharp uptake in smartphone use and more social media / tech savvy marketers will see it come to the fore, especially if users feel like they are getting exclusive and imaginative offers. I personally didn’t see the point until recently but totally love it now, although there’s still a lack of truly special ‘Specials’ on the system here in the UK!
  • ‘Citizen Journalism‘ and political activism will increase through apps like Bambuser, which enables live video broadcasting through your mobile. Featured in Wired magazine a few months ago as one of Europe’s hottest tech start-up, this Swedish company has recently started to play a major role in sharing the struggle of protestors in the Middle East and North Africa. On a less serious and more fun level, the ’24hr Bambuser Challenge LIVE’ which saw Hans Eriksson (Executive Chairman, Bambuser) do a continuous 24hr broadcast from the streets of London on 9th September, asking viewers to literally guide him around has to be one of the highlights of 2011 for me. This was the ultimate in reality TV! (see http://bambuser.com/channel/HansEriksson/broadcast/1957435 for a taster).
  • ‘Knowledge workers‘ will become increasingly mobile, with the ability to work from anywhere with a wi-fi connection through their laptop/tablet or smartphone, as everything they need is hosted up in ‘The Cloud’. However, despite this freedom, people will still crave being amongst other people so there will be an increased demand for flexible co-working spaces which offer something a bit more professional than Starbucks (see http://www.flickr.com/photos/pneworkspace/sets/72157627339827713/ for photos of the awesome Central in London for a fantastic example of how this will look).
  • ‘Personal Online Branding‘ and ‘Social Influence‘ will become increasingly important as more businesses start to search for and pay well-connected people with strong social networks to blog, Tweet and share information about them online. Not only will your number of Twitter Followers and Facebook ‘Fans’ be seen as important by clients and employees, but a high Klout score will become a recognised tool for winning business and work. It’s already very cool but they’ve had a few hiccups recently with people’s scores going down drastically overnight but I expect this to be very big news in 2012, especially amongst digital marketing / social media experts.
  • The Windows Phone / Nokia partnership will be a huge success for both companies, starting with a strong Christmas 2011. Nokia is still the world’s biggest handset manufacturer and Windows Phones are really beautiful to use (you can tell I’m a big fan)! Both sides seem to have a renewed sense of confidence and are putting everything they have got into some amazing advertising campaigns including the incredible live music event at Millbank Tower, London on 28th November with Deadmau5 (see http://youtu.be/SX2Gd-kqV5s).
  • On a non-technical tip, I predict that South Shields (UK) singer-songwriter Lulu James will be the name on everyone’s lips by the end of the year. A cross between Grace Jones and Rhianna, this girl is seriously hot and talented with a great management team behind her (Dave Stone, Events Director of Digital, Newcastle). It also doesn’t hurt that I’ve been helping them out with their digital marketing / social media campaigns too! ;o)