Ever since Foursquare opened up to users in Charlotte last fall, I was fanatically “checking in” to venues all over the city to become “Mayor” of those venues. But over time, I have found less of a need or desire to check into Foursquare venues. Why? No Incentive. Businesses are not giving me a reason to check in at their venue. This could be from lack of awareness or not knowing how to add specials to their venues.

What’s truly amazing is that it is simple to add specials to your venue. All you have to do is become a manager of your venue and add your specials. Let’s take a quick look to see how easy this is.

Step 1 – Find Your Venue on Foursquare

When you visit the Foursquare website, use the search box in the upper right hand corner of the page. If your venue is not listed, now is a great time to add your venue to Foursquare.

Step 2 – Sign-up as the Manager

Just above the venue statistics in the upper right corner, you will see the link you will need to click displayed as “Do you manage this venue? Claim here” (see graphic below).

Step 3 – Enter your Business Information

Foursquare will now ask you to help assist them in proving that you are the manager of your venue. The first item they ask for is a link to a contact page on your website or a link to an online service like Yelp, Citysearch, Google. If you are unable to provide one of these pages, you can supply an email or phone number so that their editors can reach you.

Step 4 – Create your Special

Now that you have the power to reign over your Foursquare venue, you have the ability to add specials to your venue to entice users to visit. Foursquare gives you the ability to create four types of specials:

• Mayor specials can be unlocked only by the Mayor of your venue (the user who has checked in the most in the last 60 days).
• Count-based specials are unlocked when a user checks in a certain number of times.
  (“… on your 10th check-in”)
• Frequency-based specials are unlocked every so many check-ins.
  (“… every 5th check-in”)
• Wildcard specials are always unlocked, but your staff has to verify some extra conditions before awarding the special.
  (“Free drink with purchase of an entree when you check in”)

So what are you waiting for?

I recommend for any venue owner to take advantage of the growing number of users that are on Foursquare. This a great opportunity for geo-based advertisement without the paid placement. And with the market still maturing in smaller metros, you will have an opportunity to get a leg up on your competitors, as well as engage the digital enthusiasts of your venue.

Filed under: Digital

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