Xenophon Strategies

It's FourSquare - And no, I don't mean the childhood game

Xenophon News

A dear friend, Jim, and I try to get together for lunch occasionally to catch-up with one another. We try every two months, but every two months usually turns into every three to four months.  Recently, I was sitting at work checking my Twitter account when I saw a FourSquare check-in from Jim that was posted mere minutes prior. He was at Breadline which, lo and behold, is just a five minute walk from my office. So, I shot Jim a quick text asking him if he was free for lunch or just grabbing something on the go. Thankfully the former happened to be true and we were able to grab lunch after another one of our three- to four-month hiatuses.  

So what exactly is this service that helped my friend and I connect for an impromptu lunch?  FourSquare is a service that allows its users to “check-in” at a venue, be it work, a movie theater, grocery store, restaurant, post office…you get the idea. It can be used by individuals—like me—and by businesses to promote themselves as well; I discuss that below. But first, let’s look at the basics.

FourSquare uses the GPS system on your phone to locate businesses in your immediate vicinity, allowing you to check-in with just a few clicks. These check-ins can be posted on your FourSquare profile for all your FourSquare friends to see, and if you choose to, you can link your FourSquare profile to your Twitter account, Facebook account and almost any other social media account. Here you can see one of my FourSquare check-ins at Borders which was posted to my Twitter account.

It is a simple service that can allow people to publish their location thereby promoting a particular business or venue. However, as I mentioned above, FourSquare is more important to business than individuals. FourSquare allows businesses to promote themselves, and provides a venue for patrons to be either a company’s biggest fan or its chief watchdog by providing reviews and/or tips.

There are two main practical business purposes for FourSquare. The first allows users to post information about a particular business and the second allows businesses to post deals to FourSquare. When it comes to the portion conducted by an individual user, I will use my FourSquare check-in from Borders as an example again. If I scroll down farther on the page, this is what I see:

On the bottom left-hand side of the page are two tips from FourSquare users who have checked in at this same Borders and both have to do with Border’s Café. Individual users can post informational tidbits for others to see and learn from about various venues.

The businesses themselves have the opportunity to advertise special deals for users who check in at their venue—sometimes these deals only occur during certain hours. In this particular example for California Tortilla, FourSquare users who check-in at certain locations receive a free order of chips and queso with any purchase.

While this is just one example, you can actually check out Snack Square—which is run by FourSquare—to find additional deals like that one.

All in all, FourSquare is simply another way in which to stay connected to people, deals and businesses in your town. Which makes me think…where should I go next? 

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« return to blog | Jun 10, 2010 | digital media education | media relations | social media

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