Foursquare for Profit?

If you’re anything like me, you’re state-of-mind young and dog years old. Not really old, but old enough that you have live-action commitments. A brick and mortar life with time enough for minor indiscretions like Twitter. It’s so easy. It’s right there on my phone! I also have time enough for Facebook. It’s right there on my netbook! I read a couple blogs. I am able to scan 1000 news articles in minutes with my Google reader. I check out Yelp when I need a recommendation. You’re reading this on Blogger. I dig Digg. There are other pleasures, some more guilty than others.

But I don’t have time to be an active participant on everything...

During my misspent youth, during the hey day of pay to play, I spent a lot of time trying to early-adopt any new SM sites/trends. Most accounts went Mad Max with a screen name and little else. Today, while I don’t have time to sign up for, let alone participate in, all the new sites that pop up daily, I keep my ear to the ground for the next up and comer.

foursquare is singing the Sirens’ song. I’ve been thinking ear plugs. I don’t want to be theMayor of anything. It’s enough responsibility keeping our Digis fed. Plus, my Starbucks addiction is embarrassing. But maybe there’s something to it...

In case you aren’t familiar, foursquare “is a cross between a friend-finder, a social city-guide and a game that rewards you for doing interesting things.” The designers “aim to build things to not only help you keep up with the places your friends go, but that encourage you to discover new places and challenge you to explore your neighborhood in new ways.”

Like many new SM technologies, few could blame a business owner or manager, such as a restauranteur who has a thousand other concerns, for thinking this is

little more than an adult hide and seek game with a very limited ability to noticeably impact their bottom line. Why bother when its chances of truly becoming a widely-adopted phenomenon are so slim? But if SM power users have taught us anything, it’s that tech geeks travel in packs and ePacks and they like this particular technology. Look to the various Phoenix Metro Friday night groups or Phoenix’s Social Media Club as examples. This is a small but influential community of mid to upper income, educated consumers. According to Quantcast.com, current foursquare users are 18 to 34 year old college educated males who make between $30-60k per year and have no kids. Not bad. In Scottsdale, this demographic spends like millionaires.

All joking aside, can it really bring customers in the door? Maybe. Try announcing specials for the Mayor and allow the competitive juices to flow. Adding a competitive component to a coupon-like reward that can, by its nature, only be allocated to one person at a time is a small investment with a limited cost, zero upkeep, and has the potential for wide distribution. Additionally, reward users who visit your establishment frequently. After a certain number of visits, offer a small token of your appreciation, because not everyone will want to be the Mayor, but many people carry a broad array of loyalty punch cards around in their wallets. This can easily, and with no cost, serve the same purpose.

If you want examples of local companies that are already taking advantage of foursquare’s pack mentality and competitive allure, look no further than some of the hottest new businesses and one that has been in the Valley for years. Sidebar, a popular lounge destination located

above a Starbucks in downtown, offers the first drink free on Tuesdays and Thursdays to the Mayor, and a free shot every 10th visit for everyone else. Sweet Republic, a SM savvy ice cream shop in Scottsdale, offers a free single scoop for the Mayor. Even Monti’s La Casa Vieja, an institution and landmark in Tempe for decades, sees foursquare’s potential and asks users to help them get acquainted with it in the form of a nickel drink to everyone upon check-in.

It’s too early to know with any certainty whether using marketing tactics that rely on your customers’ competitive nature will pay off but rewarding frequency is a well-supported tactic and you’ll soon be able to stop printing stamp cards if foursquare gains any more steam.

Please let us if your business monitors foursquare or whether you intend to or, if you’re a customer, if you have a favorite local business that offers rewards.