How to Use Foursquare For Fun and Specials in Virginia-Highland

I'm David Eckoff. I'm on a mission to help businesses and residents in Virginia-Highland use social media and technology to their advantage.

This week we'll explore location-based mobile platform Foursquare and how you can use it in the neighborhood and beyond.

Location, Location, Location

Foursquare is a location-based mobile app that helps make cities easier to use and more interesting to explore.

There are over 8 million users worldwide, with 35,000 new users added each day. The app and service is free to users and merchants.

When you use the app, the GPS in your smart phone identifies your location. Once it knows your current location, the app is able to show you what venues are nearby. And you're able to see which of those venues are offering specials for Foursquare users.

Matt Coggin, owner of D.B.A. Barbecue in Virginia-Highland, has used Foursquare for more than a year.

"If you're standing in our parking lot, it will show you on your smartphone that D.B.A. Barbecue is 20 feet away from you. , 120 feet. , 1,500 feet. So you could be standing at the intersection of Virginia and N. Highland and know every restaurant that is around you and also that they have a special," Coggin said.

Check-Ins

You can use the Foursquare app to "check in" at a restaurant, bar, café, museum, or any other venue in a city.

When you check in, your Foursquare friends can see your location and meet up with you. Similarly, you can see which of your Foursquare friends are nearby and meet up with them.

"Foursquare is a network of your friends," Coggin said. "Unlike Facebook where you can post about anything, it's all about where are you right now. As a merchant, it enables me to show there are a lot of people at my place. It creates a buzz. So people can see, 'Hey I've got three friends over at D.B.A. today, I want to go there.' It creates a desire to go there later. Or even say, I'm on my way now."

Earning Points and Badges

Fun and playfulness are big parts of the Foursquare experience. When you check in, you get rewarded a point for visiting the location. Along the way, you collect points and virtual badges from Foursquare. For example, the person who checks in the most days during a two month period earns the "Mayor" badge, conveying status on Foursquare.

"People compete to be the Mayor," Coggin said. "It's sort of like when you were a kid and you got a gold star on your spelling test. Adults haven't changed that much. Right now, our Mayor is Jordan Bowen. He and his ten friends come in on a regular basis and they all compete to be the mayor. They're competing to come here! You can't ask for a better thing."

Dennis Crowley, co-founder and CEO of Foursquare explained the essence of the service.

"The core functionality of Foursquare is, what does it mean for this user to be at this latitude and longitude at this specific time," Crowley said at SXSW Interactive. "What would they like to do? Who are the people they should meet nearby? If they have an hour to kill, what should they be doing? The core vision of the product is let's make cities easier to use. Let's make the world easier to explore."

How Merchants Use Foursquare

Jesse Altman, owner of Whynatte and a Virginia-Highland native, says that Foursquare is like a loyalty program without the loyalty card.

"It's an easy way to set up something like that without the administrative hassle of a loyalty card program," Altman said. "The purpose is to give someone a little more incentive to go to your place instead of somewhere else."

If you're a merchant, you can offer specials to people who check in at your venue.

"I've set up Foursquare specials to develop loyalty, so for example, on the third time you check in you get an appetizer or chicken wings or something," Coggin of D.B.A. said. "People might get free wings for checking in. Then they get to try our wings. I think we have the best wings in the neighborhood."

And as a merchant, you can see metrics about customers who are checking in at your venue.

"The stuff we're doing with merchants has never been done before," Crowley of Foursquare said. "No one has ever made tools for local merchants to see a dashboard showing these are your best customers; these potentially could be your best customers; these used to be your best customers. We're allowing merchants to come in and claim their venue for free. We've got 250,000 venues that are already doing this."

According to Coggin, it took about four minutes to get set up. And then you can submit your specials.

"You choose which type of special you do," Coggin said. "And then you type a short description. It takes about 12 hours to get a special approved."

Foursquare recently introduced a variety of new specials for merchants.

"We just launched the new specials platform that has six different types of specials," Crowley of Foursquare said. "Giving merchants the ability to reach out to targeted customers is a huge opportunity."

Foursquare in Virginia-Highland

Standing the intersection of Virginia Avenue and N. Highland Avenue, I look at the Foursquare app on my smartphone and see all the local restaurants and shops listed.

One click shows me the following restaurants are offering specials to Foursquare users.

is offering a loyalty special: 30 percent off your bill with every 2nd check-in. Looking at the stats, I see that 729 people have checked in 1,152 times at Yeah! Burger. I also notice that Derrick T. is the mayor, with 14 check-ins during the last 60 days. I feel the need to catch up. How cool would it be to be the mayor of Yeah! Burger?

is offering a loyalty special: for every 5th check in (5th, 10th, 15th, etc) show the bartender for a free "WhyBomb" (Whynatte & Jager) shooter. Diesel is popular, with 892 people checking in 5,045 times. Chad J. is the mayor with a whopping 45 check-ins during the last 60 days. If Chad visits any more often, he's going to be like Norm at Cheers!

is offering a check-in special: receive a free Whippet (Whynatte Latte and Pinnacle Whip Cream Vodka) shooter with any purchase when you check-in. In total, 1,233 people have checked in 2,798 times. Jordan B. is the mayor with 28 check-ins.

has a check-in special: check in at El Taco for weekend lunch and get one complimentary house margarita. In total 829 people have checked in 1,709 times. Timothy M. is the mayor with 8 check-ins during the last 60 days. Timothy, I'm aiming to unseat you as mayor of El Taco!

The bottom line: Location-based mobile app Foursquare helps make it easier for people to discover a city. Merchants can run a loyalty program with special offers, game mechanics and metrics built in, resulting in repeat business.

Coming Next

In Part 2 of this report, we'll explore how to use Foursquare to create raving fans. Detail the business results that can be achieved – with real numbers. Talk about advice for small businesses. And take a look at the future of location-based marketing.