On Monday I attended an Ad Club event at Microsoft and had the opportunity to listen to some candid Q&A with Dennis Crowley, co-founder of Foursquare. If you have no idea what this is, don’t panic. It’s really just taken off…like a rocket ship. If you missed out on the Twitter surge and want to gain some serious social media cool points in your personal or professional life, jump on Foursquare.
What is it?
Foursquare is a smartphone application that allows you, through your phone’s built-in GPS, to announce your location to your circle of friends. In addition, you can provide other users with inside information about each location, thus offering tremendous marketing value to businesses. A user who frequents a certain venue regularly enough can be awarded the status of “mayor” of that venue. Many social-media savvy businesses are now offering product discounts and specials to “mayors” and loyal customers.
In the world of Foursquare, a “badge” is given to those who meet certain benchmarks or milestones. For example, a “Newbie” badge is given to someone upon their first check-in. A “local” badge is given to someone who checks in at the same venue three times a week. An “adventurer” has checked into 10 different venues, and a “gym rat” has gone to the gym 10 times in 30 days. The more badges you have, well…the cooler you are.
Marketing Ramifications
It is pretty funny to imagine suit-clad executives trying to up each other with badges, or become mayors of their own companies, but this is happening. Is it silly? Yep. This playful, buzzworthy phenomenon may be where marketing is heading, however. The readiness of many companies to accept such an application as part of their “inbound” marketing campaign exemplifies my earlier thought that successful marketing at its core requires two components: a great product/service/company, and the ability to go viral. If you recognize that social media is dominating the marketing scene, consider creating a Foursquare “location” that will let people know your company is in the space.
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