People who care to read my ramblings already know I'm a Foursquare fan geek both for work purposes and personally. In case this is your first visit, here's why I'm a fan.
I was involved in what many people view as the first Foursquare special in the UK (Dose Espresso, referenced in this article in Marketing Magazine). And for my clients in some of the earliest brand involvement in the UK with Foursquare (same article in Marketing - I was on the Debenhams team).
More recently I've been using Foursquare more and more. Personally I'm finding the many dimensions really useful - networking, earning points, badges and mayorships (the game) and finding places to go to that that my social network rates - or in other words a manifestation of my interest graph.
So today Foursquare relaunched with a ton of new features. Download the app and log into the web version. Here's some of what you'll see:
- It looks and works more like a stream, reminiscent of Instagram, Twitter or Path
- The focus is much more on discovery
- Lots of maps and visualisations of what's near you (as opposed to old-version's lists)
- Easier to get involved. If you don't want to check-in or think of a tip, you can just Like stuff
Here's what the web version looks like - my view of what my social graph thinks are good coffee shops near my office. This is AWESEOME and turns Foursquare into a really powerful crowdsourcing platform. Like a Tripadvisor for everything and without the trolls.
Things brands should think about:
- Get involved. Claim your venue, get the 'cling' and try out specials
- Know your audience. Find out who your VIPs are and do stuff with them, like you would with a blogger or a journalist. Reviews and visits will mean business
- Love your data. You now have an analytics dashboard. Get to know it and you may learn a thing or two
- Look into paid deals like Amex / Pizza Express / Tesco have done
If you want to connect with me on Foursquare here's my profile. Now I'm off to give it a run for its money.
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