I hope you enjoy this 101 guide to getting started with foursquare for business. And while our stories are primarily examples from our success using the tools in the restaurant business, I think ...
I hope you enjoy this 101 guide to getting started with foursquare for business. And while our stories are primarily examples from our success using the tools in the restaurant business, I think you'll find many applications. Please feel free to share as much as you'd like.
Restaurant 2.0 Edition
#FoursquareWorks
“Any business looking to create
a social media presence could
employ the strategy and tactics
inside to create a personal
connection with customers.”
- Tristan Walker,
Director of Business Development,
Foursquare
By Joe Sorge, Co-Author of #Twitter Works! and owner of AJ Bombers.
Forward and illustrations by Scott Baitinger.
#TwitterWorks
Restaurant 2.0 Edition
The story of how social media built a restaurant,
a pizza truck and thousands of relationships.
“I read a lot of business
“Operators can learn books and I can tell “Read TwitterWorks and
a lot from the stories of you TwitterWorks has save yourself 8 months
their tenacious peers all the answers provided of apologizing for
in this book.” by guys who have learning on the job.”
Mark Brandau walked the walk.” Chris Brogan
Senior Desk New York Times
Editor - Nation’s
Jack Covert
Founder and President Best Selling Author
Restaurant News - Social Media 101
800-CEO-READ
Phil Gerbyshak - Joe Sorge - Scott Baitinger
2
Make sure to check #TwitterWorks!,
co-written by Joe Sorge.
“Phil, Joe, and Scott are the right guys to write this book because
they LIVE THIS STUFF. There, that’s 140 characters. Well, actually,
it’s a lot less than 140, because you need room to let people retweet.
And you really need room to let people comment. And to be honest,
if YOU are checking this book out, I’m going to say you didn’t really
know you needed that. And that’s the point. Read #Twitter Works
and save yourself 8 months of apologizing for learning on the job.”
- Chris Brogan, New York Times Bestselling Author:
Social Media 101 and Trust Agents
“Your relationship with your customer doesn’t have to be over the
minute they leave your establishment or website. Social media
services such as Twitter allow you to continue your good service
beyond the point of sale, create long-lasting relationships, and reap
the kind of unparalleled customer loyalty that only good two-way
communication can build. Not sure where to start? I read a lot of
business books, and I can tell you #Twitter Works has all the answers
provided by guys who have walked the walk.”
- Jack Covert, Founder and President 800-CEO-READ
3
Chapter 1
4
Are You Tuned In To Checking In?
They’re appearing all over town—signs announcing who the
mayor is, signs encouraging people to “check in here,” circles
with funny pictures inside of them with rewards attached to
them. Have you wondered what’s going on? Wonder no longer,
because you’ve found the answer. People everywhere are start-
ing to “check in” with a new localized social media platform
called Foursquare.
Do you need to pay attention, or is this just a fad? As it happens,
Mashable.com, one of the leading social media expert blogs,
called Foursquare “the next Twitter.” Twitter, of course, was and
is phenomenal enough to grow businesses to heights they might
never have imagined otherwise. Twitter allowed people to enter
a two-way communication with the businesses they knew, loved,
and supported most.
That proved to be pretty awesome for the restaurant business.
5
Using social media right isn’t just an online thing. It’s an offline thing too. Here’s our
“things to do while waiting for a table” signage at AJ Bombers, encouraging our guests to
get connected while they wait.
But, of course, there was always one problem with Twitter. You
could end up with a whole bunch of followers from all over the
world—but in general, most of your customers are going to
come from within your own city or town. Foursquare, however,
is immanently local. It’s also very easy to incorporate into your
restaurant, bar, club, or other establishment. In fact, if I were to
say anything about Foursquare, it is that this social media
platform is made for our industry. Think about some of the
primary ways people use Foursquare:
• To tell their friends in the city where they are, perhaps to
arrange impromptu meet-ups. Where is this most likely to
happen? At a bar, restaurant, coffee shop, or club, of course!
• To help one another explore what’s cool, hip, and hot in their
city. Your establishment could be right at the top of this list.
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• To tell one another what’s great on the menu, how their
service was, and when that great new band is going to be
playing the venue next.
• Just to enjoy playing the game itself—some people love
collecting badges, competing for Mayorships, and crossing
a net game with a real life application.
Sure, the people using Foursquare could check in at the local
library too, but the primary motivation is to identify social
meet-ups and hot spots, to perhaps meet friends who are
interested in the same sorts of places they are, and to explore the
city where they live. A casual tour around Foursquare can help
suggest 3 or 4 places worth visiting without you even having
to try hard.
It’s catching on among the highly “plugged in” mobile phone
users, the social media savvy, the networkers. That means you
can make it work for your business. Just imagine this scenario.
A local social butterfly with about 150 real life friends on her
Twitter network arrives at your restaurant and checks in.
The message goes to their other social media networks, and
the invitation is implicit—“hey, join me there!”
Suddenly, you might have 4-5 more people at your restaurant
that you wouldn’t have gotten before. The customer has acted
as an advocate on your behalf, and you haven’t had to do a thing
to get that kind of word of mouth excellence, except, of course,
to be the wonderful establishment that you are!
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This is all before you have plugged into Foursquare at all.
Our aim with this book is to show you how to take that power
and increase it to 10, 20, 50, or even 250 more visitors—in a
single night—that you might not have gotten before. When you
engage with Foursquare you meet customers right where they
are, an opportunity to engage with them at the very point of ex-
perience. Let’s face it, eating out isn’t just about getting a quick
meal you didn’t have to cook. It’s about having fun!
In #Twitter Works!my partners and I pointed out that using
social media does something to your restaurant. It helps your
restaurant evolve into something that isn’t yours, but is theirs—
your customers, your regulars, your most loyal and engaged.
These customers shape the restaurant by speaking out, you
listen, you respond, and you reap the benefits.
Foursquare takes this a step further.
I’m going to show you exactly how to further build your brand
with Foursquare: how to use it, and how to use it to further en-
gage your guests to outstanding effect. I encourage you to print
this book out, take notes for your own use, and follow along.
This is the kind of advertising power that puts you on par with
huge chains with multibillion dollar budgets. And it’s absolutely
free. It’s one of the 21st century’s most powerful amplifiers of
a very important marketing tool: word of mouth. And thanks
to this technology, you can finally step in directly and do some
things to help that word of mouth along.
8
What is Foursquare?
To understand Foursquare, you need to understand the new
wave of mobile phones. Blackberries, iPhones, Androids, and
other tech-savvy phones are getting used, increasingly, as a way
for people to connect with the Internet. Usually, they’re con-
necting with two things: their e-mail, and social networks.
Many of these phones is equipped with a GPS device. It’s handy
for telling 911 where you are if you call during an emergency.
It’s also handy for geolocation, which is the force behind Four-
square.Geolocation uses the GPS in your smart phone to figure
out where you are, and then allows you to tell others on your
friends list through a social media application. Foursquare isn’t
the only one of these applications out there…but it is the only
one that has started picking up speed. Why?Because Foursquare
changed things. It’s not just a shout-out of your location.
Foursquare has made it a game.
Each time a user goes to a location, Foursquare allows them to
“Check In.” Every time the user checks in to Foursquare, they
gather points. Points can be used to earn badges. Those badges
can sometimes lead to real prizes, but users seem to enjoy rack-
ing them up with or without the prizes. Everyone likes a game,
even when the points and the prizes don’t amount to anything.
11
That’s been true since long before Foursquare…just look at all
your Facebook friends playing Farmville. Or, taking it back
further, think back to your last game of Monopoly!
And there’s more. Users don’t just report where they are.
There’s the very powerful matter of the tips they can leave about
each location. If I want to find somewhere cool to go in the city,
I can see where my friends have been—then look and see what
they had to say about their experience there. This adds the kind
of value to the site that guarantees continued growth for
Foursquare.
The “To-Do” list represents another part of the site. Even if your
friends can’t join you at AJ Bomber’s right now, they can add a
visit to AJ Bombers and having a Barrie Burger on their “To-Do”
list after reading your awesome tips about it.
There are also leader boards—important for any game! The site
fosters friendly competition and, like any social media properly
used, can help people start making real life friendships with
other people in the city who are interested in the same things
they are.
As it stands, in August 2010, Mashable reported that Four-
square had topped the 3 million user registration mark! That
alone should tell you this method of reaching out to people isn’t
something you want to ignore.
Foursquare started out as a location-restricted service. But
anything on the Internet that tells you a list of places that are
available is out of date. Foursquare is available anywhere now—
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In Chapter 4, we’re going to teach you how to interact with
Foursquare in a step-by-step manner. One of the things we’ll
be showing you is how to set yourself as the manager of your
venue, so you can begin interacting with Foursquare from a
business perspective, and not just a personal perspective. Still,
a good understanding of the fun of Foursquare is pretty vital to
“tapping in” to the service at your restaurant. Fail to understand
that point, fail to understand it as a tool for making or meet-
ing new friends, and you’ll find it does very little for you. But of
course, the more you use it and interact with it, the more useful
it will become for your city.
It’s the Mayor! Or a Mayor, of somewhere…visiting us here at AJ Bombers. He might be
our mayor today. Or, someone might have knocked him out of his spot!
What else is Foursquare? Thanks to the merchandise—t-shirts,
buttons, and signs you can hang in your window, it’s also the
perfect marriage of online and offline social fun. Start a party.
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Reward loyal customers. Let everybody know that you play the
game too.
Additional Reading: http://www.dailyfinance.com/story/compa-
ny-news/foursquare-and-rival-geo-location-games-find-lots-of-
love-at-sxs/19399581/
Brainstorm Here:
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15
Chapter 3
16
What is Foursquare to
a Restaurant?
So with all of this in mind, let’s look at what Foursquare means
specifically to your restaurant, bar, club, or coffee house.
The first thing you should focus on is the fact that Foursquare,
like Twitter before it, is a fantastic way to beat the recession.
Even in a recession, as we know, people go out to eat. The ques-
tion is where they’ll spend those squeezed entertainment dol-
lars. Naturally, they will gravitate to “their” places—places their
friends like, places where they are known, places that they’re
loyal too. Foursquare gives you an unprecedented ability to
actually build that loyalty, above and beyond the more organic
tools of great food and great service.
Everybody likes to feel like they’re known. For a long time,
generating that kind of atmosphere was very difficult to achieve.
People were busy. People didn’t take the time to talk to people.
Foursquare lets you return that “neighborhood feel” to your
establishment.
Still not convinced?
17
No problem. I’ve gathered some stats on Foursquare for you.
Foursquare currently hosts 1.4 million venues and 15.5 million
check-ins. The number is getting bigger every single day.
77.38% of Foursquare users have checked in 30 or more times in
one month.
57.41% of them have checked into 50 different venues in a
month.
Foursquare users also tend to have a higher income than aver-
age. 39% of users have an income ranging from $25,000 a year
to $74,999 a year. 35% of them have an income from $75,000 a
year to over $200,000.
In short, they have money to spend. If you use the tool correct-
ly, build the loyalty and become a hip hot spot on Foursquare,
they can and will spend it with you.
*Source: www.bart.gov/docs/BART_Foursquare_survey_report.pdf
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Who’s on a boat? Here’s Joe IN a boat during our 4square day event!
I’m sharing these stats with you to show you just how many sol-
id customers you can reach through the power of Foursquare!
Foursquare Dictionary
Before we get ahead of ourselves, let’s define some Foursquare
terms so that we all stay on the same page.
Badges: A badge is a special award based on activities Four-
square users complete. For example, the “Don’t Stop Believin’”
Badge is for people who check into three different locations
that have the “karaoke” tag. You can get the Historian badge for
following the History Channel account and visiting 2 locations
marked with the “history channel” tag.
Check-in: How you let Foursquare—and your friends—know
where you are! Or, more importantly for you as a restaurant
owner, how your guests let their friends (and Foursquare)
19
know where they are.
Dashboard: The business analytics page that Foursquare sets up
for you when you claim a venue as your own. This will help you
see who your best customers are, what your busiest times of day
are, and who has been by most recently.
Friends: Like Facebook and Twitter friends, those who connect
with you and each other on Foursquare! This is where infor-
mation about your restaurant “goes viral”—that is, spreads to
everyone in town through 21st century word of mouth.
Leaderboard: This will tell you who is ahead on check-ins for
your city. Foursquare arranges this by proximity so that you’re
only competing with others. This will also give you valuable
data on the number of Foursquare users who are nearby and
thus likely to visit your restaurant.
Mayor: The customer who has checked into your establishment
the most. Foursquare users sometimes end up quite competitive
over taking the Mayorship of various venues.
Tips: The site’s value builder: insider information from users
about particular venues. You can also add your own tips about
your own venue—i.e. your latest new menu items or the special
of the day.
Additional Reading: http://venturebeat.com/2010/05/17/star-
bucks-discount-foursquare-mayors/
20
Brainstorm Here:
21
Chapter 4
22
What is Foursquare to
a Restaurant?
Before you dive in to utilize Foursquare for your business, I’d
recommend that you simply enjoy it as a user, and learn what
makes it fun for your guests. Remember, your Foursquare
experience is not my Foursquare experience, so take the time to
talk to others about theirs!
To get started, go to www.foursquare.com and set up your
account.
23
If you’ve set up an account anywhere else before you’ll find this
an extremely easy and un-intimidating process. In fact, if you
have a Facebook account, you can just use that to connect to
Foursquare. If not, you can simply fill in the form.
Next, the site will offer to find some friends for you by farming
your Facebook, Twitter, and Gmail accounts. You can either do
that now, or wait and do it later—the “Find Friends” option is
always available in the menu. You can also invite friends to join
Foursquare if they aren’t there already.
24
You want to update all of your profile information. Make sure
that you upload your picture, too. There are two reasons for
this. Number one, you’re going to want to use this as a way to
make personal connections between people, and that means
showing off your smiling face. Number two, if you end up the
Mayor of your favorite spot the managers of the venue won’t be
able to give you specials if they don’t know who you are! Your
picture is the primary way you’ll be identified, so pick a good
one.
Now,
u
se the search bar at the top of the page to find a venue. Just type
a place in your city that you like. You’ll see a page that looks like
this:
There are several important parts of this page. First, there’s the
map and address, which will help you get to a new venue. Sec-
ond, there’s the tips list. This will show you other people’s tips,
as well as allowing you to enter your own. You’ll see the staff
bar, too. This will be important later, when you start setting up
your own venue’s page. You don’t want you or your staff check-
ing in and becoming the mayor of your venue. That’s just lame,
25
and it defeats the whole purpose of the game. You can also see
the current Mayor, the total number of people who have visited
on Foursquare, and the total check-ins. Finally, you’ll see the
special offer for Foursquare users.
In the case of the AJ Bombers page, the offer is: Check-in, get
a free Pnut Bomb! (shhhh....everyone gets a Pnut Bomb) De-
throne the Mayor, get a free burger! Add a tip or todo and get a
free cookie. Note the different elements of our offer—there’s an
incentive to check in, an incentive to try to dethrone the Mayor,
and an incentive to add a tip or to do. We’ll revisit this later,
when it comes time to set up your own offer.
You’ll also notice that there’s a grey bar that tells you to add the
venue to your to-do list. Go ahead and do that now. Then go
click on the “Me” tab. You’ll see the tips you’ve added in a little
box. That box has a tab for your To-Do list.
26
If you look down at the very bottom there are also some brands
that would like you to follow them. By doing so, you can un-
lock additional badges, and perhaps find some new, interesting
things in your city. Click on any one of those.
As you can see, following a brand is relatively easy. You can
also see the tips the brand has left, so look for a place in your
area that you might want to visit. Another thing I like to do is
see where my friends have gone. I might find somewhere new.
(Useful tip, if you see someone who has a lot of Mayorships they
might be worth following for that reason alone).
For example, this fellow with the towel on his head has a stag-
gering thirty-four mayorships. He’s likely to know some cool
places to go. Click on one that sparks your interest:
27
Take note of the orange, “Do you manage this venue? Claim
here,” button. That’s the button you’re going to use when it
comes time to claim your own establishment. This is what
shows up when nobody has set themselves up as the manager
yet, instead of the special offers or staff pages.
Let’s say a venue you like, or the venue you manage, isn’t avail-
able on Foursquare yet. You’ll see a page that looks like this
when you try to search for it:
I’m going to go ahead and walk you through adding your venue
and working with your page, as this is the chapter for the techni-
cal stuff. Don’t forget to have some fun with Foursquare before
you get too far into this process, however!
28
Don’t forget to add your Twitter name! Linking Foursquare to
other social media is one of its big strengths. Once you claim
your venue, you’ll see a page like the one below. Scroll all the
way down to the “Let’s Get Started” button. After you do that,
it will take you to the first step, where you confirm that you are
authorized to speak for this business.
29
Note that it will give you the option to create a business account
rather than going ahead with your personal Foursquare account.
That is definitely something you’re going to want to do:
Go ahead and set up your new account. Once you do that you’ll
have to go back and claim the venue again. Go ahead and click
on the orange button, then follow all the steps that it tells you
to follow. You’ll have to verify your business by phone in order
to be allowed to continue. Then you’ll be able to create specials
and view your dashboard. For now, let’s leave that behind and
work on getting Foursquare where it really counts—your mobile
phone.
Go to http://foursquare.com/learn_more. This will give you
links to each of the 4 phones Foursquare supports: the iPhone,
the Android, the Blackberry, and the Palm. If you don’t have
one of those phones, it’s no problem…you can just Text your tip
to 50500 to “check-in” on a regular mobile phone. But assum-
ing you do have a phone that supports the actual Foursquare
30
app, click on the type of phone that you use. It will give you the
exact directions on how to proceed:
Once you have the app downloaded to your phone, you can load
it up on the device and start using it from there. It’s very easy
to use! The phone will generally figure out where you are, and
then allow you to check-in with a clearly visible button. Got
the hang of it yet? Great! Go to a couple of places and check in.
Earn your first badge. You know you wanna.
Additional Reading: http://support.foursquare.com/home
Brainstorm Here:
31
Chapter 5
32
The Mayor and the Loyalty Royalty.
Now that you’ve had a chance to experience the game for your-
self, you should be aware of a couple of things:
• Nobody’s “checking-in” just to say where they went. That’s
kind of boring. They’re checking in to get recognition,
whether that’s in the form of badges, becoming the Mayor,
or special offers.
• Some are checking in because they’re genuinely passionate
about the places they check in to. Some people really want
to leave you that tip!
This is where we start getting into using Foursquare as a
customer loyalty tool. This is about rewarding people for trying
you out, rewarding people for telling others about us, and
rewarding people for coming back again and again. As
mentioned before, I set up my special offers at AJ Bombers to
gather up all three types of people. But you can’t stop there.
33
Many businesses have caught on to giving something cool to the
Mayor. Competition for that Mayor slot can be pretty fierce,
and it can be a fun element of the game—a little something
extra for being the “most loyal” of customers. Yet sometimes,
it gets hard to knock that mayor off his perch. That might be
great bragging rights for the current mayor, but it’s not great for
you. Here’s why.
First, in most Mayor programs, the Mayor gets that reward only
once. My Mayor gets a free burger as soon as he takes that spot,
but after he gets that free burger—that’s it. Nobody else gets a
free burger till they claim the Mayor’s spot. And I don’t want to
reward one customer over and over again. That could have an
adverse affect on the rest of my customers. It’s really tough to
dethrone our mayor, and that can lead to what I call “Check-in
fatigue” for the rest of our regulars who actually use Foursquare.
Why? Because those customers feel like they can’t ever reap the
rewards of the program. They’re loyal, but they maybe came in
one time less than the current Mayor this month.
That’s why we created the “Loyalty Royalty” program. We use
our Dashboard utility to track the three Foursquare users with
the most check-ins for the last 30 days. Then, next month, those
customers get to help us create the Loyalty Royalty menu.
34
We post our Loyalty Royalty menu right on a public chalkboard, as well as the names of
the Royalty.
35
This menu is built by and for our Loyalty Royalty customers.
They can decide what items go on it. They can name those
items. They can even bring in their own recipes if they want
to. To include others in the fun, the Royalty also picks a day
when the Loyalty Royalty menu is open to all of the guests at the
restaurant. This gives others a taste of the fun, gives them an
incentive to compete next month, and gives us a chance to do
something a little different every month, too.
You can come up with your own ideas. A special table that al-
lows your Top 10 to meet one another, thus fostering the social
aspect of Foursquare?Free coffee for your Loyalty Royalty all
month long?Taking the Royalty’s pictures and posting them up
on the wall? Once you gather up a group of Royalty, ask them
what would be the most valuable incentive for them, and listen
to them. Create a program they’d like, not the program you
think they’d like.
This is pretty vital, because my place is not your place. My cus-
tomers are not your customers. Take advantage of your ability
to meet with these folks and talk to them. Connect with them
through other social media, or talk with them face to face. You
won’t regret taking that kind of effort.
Additional Reading: http://joesorge.tumblr.com/pri-
vate/1109393701/tumblr_l8n24w76Y71qcwft8
http://blog.steffanantonas.com/check-in-royalty-customer-loy-
alty-and-foursquares-evolving-strategy.htm
36
Brainstorm Here:
37
Chapter 6
38
Badge Envy
You’ll find that badges are the most talked about part of the
game. How many badges do you have? How did you get them?
There’s a lot of buzz about badges, and much like in boy scouts
or girl scouts, people will work to earn them by doing the
activities associated with those badges.
Which is fine. That’s exactly the sort of behavior you want to
encourage. Not only is the badge game a form of reward and
incentive that doesn’t cost you anything as a business owner, it
also will help generate a sense of fun and energy around your
establishment.
And so you can help your guests figure out how to get badges—
and start thinking about how you can make these badges work
for you even more—I’m going to teach you about some of the
badges that are available.
39
I’m not going to try to cover all of them. First, many badges are
location specific, and won’t really apply to you or your clientele.
Badges about New York City aren’t very relevant here in Mil-
waukee, for example. Also, badges do go inactive. If I tried to
list them all, some of them might have gone out of use by some-
time next year. Instead, I’m going to cover some of the “core”
badges.
First up is the Newbie Badge. This is the very first badge some-
one gets, the moment they check in for the first time. So getting
it is pretty easy!
This is the Adventurer Badge. Players gain this one after they
check in to 10 different venues.
The Explorer Badge, for checking in to 25 different venues.
The Superstar Badge! I bet you can’t guess how you get this one.
40
This is the “Crunked” badge. It means you checked into 4 dif-
ferent venues between the hours of 8 pm and Midnight.
This is the “Bender” badge, but it doesn’t have anything to do
with drinking too much beer. Instead, it means you “Checked
In” four nights in a row.
This is the “Local” badge. It means you checked into the same
place (such as your favorite restaurant!) 3 times in a row.
Checking in 30 times in one month earns you this Super User
badge.
Remarkably coveted given the name, this is the increasingly
elusive “Douchebag” badge. You have to check into 25 different
venues with the douchebag tag to get this one.
41
Over 12 check-ins in 10 hours gets you this “Overshare” badge.
5 different check-ins at an airport will gain you this “Jet Setter”
badge.
Get 10 check-ins at movie theatres to earn the “Zoetrope” badge.
Here is the Pizzaiolo badge, earned for 20 different check-ins at
various pizza places around town.
10 Playground check-ins will earn you this “Babysitter” badge.
42
If 50 people check into the same location in 3 hours, every one
of them get this “Swarm” badge. I’ve got a story to tell you
about the “Swarm” badge soon, as it is perhaps one of the most
useful badges for us venue owners.
As is its sister badge, the 250 person “Super Swarm.” Well—as-
suming the fire department lets you have that many people in
your establishment at once, anyway.
We’ve had some fun with this “I’m on a Boat!” badge, which is
another great story I’ll have for you soon. You probably
remember seeing the picture of me in the boat in an earlier
chapter. The story behind AJ Bombers and this badge offers
a great example of how you can be creative with helping your
guests get coveted or rare badges.
43
At any given moment you can get the full list of active Four-
square badges at this link: http://www.4squarebadges.com/
foursquare-badge-list/active-badges/. It’s a good idea to check
in with this board every now and then to see what your guests
might be aching to add to their collection soon. Every badge
someone earns shows up on their Foursquare “Me” page.
You can help foster your guest’s desire for badges by giving them
a story to tell with the badges they can earn at your venue.
Additional Reading: http://mashable.com/2010/08/04/unusual-
foursquare-badges/
44
Brainstorm Here:
45
Chapter 7
46
Swarming, and Other Fun
Foursquare Events.
So let’s talk about increasing your sales in a BIG way by using
Foursquare events. I have developed a systemized process for
doing this that’s very easy to duplicate. But before I get into the
method, I’m going to tell you two stories about my own success-
ful Foursquare events.
Our first event was our Foursquare Flash Mob meet-up on Feb-
ruary 28, 2010. The purpose of this event was twofold: to sup-
port a local charity and to help visitors get the elusive “Swarm”
badge. We used Twitter and Facebook to spread the word about
our event, then waited to see what would happen.
The place was packed. Our sales that day were 110% over the
normal sales. What could an eventlike this do for your venue?
But we didn’t stop there. We created another event for the of-
ficial Foursquare day, April 16. This time, we put together an
event to help our customers earn the elusive, “I’m on a Boat!”
badge. We didn’t have a boat, but that was okay. We partnered
with another local business to get a kayak.
47
We contacted Foursquare to see what our customers would have
to do in order to get the badge, and found out they could use the
“Shout-Out” function on their Foursquare app (it’s right next to
the check-in button) while sitting in the boat.
What happened on “I’m on a Boat!” day? The lines stretched
out the door before the official event even kicked off. We had
231 visitors that day, and 55 of them checked in for the very first
time. Not only did we have a full house, we got some new
customers that we might not have had before. It was our busiest
lunch day ever. Customers were waiting for 30 minutes, which
is also our longest wait time ever.
What’s the lesson here? Just this. People like to participate in
community events. If you can create an awesome, creative event
that centers around one of their interests (such as participating
in Foursquare), then you’re going to make money. Be creative!
This isn’t a fluke. I’ve done this twice, and will do it again. And
thanks to social media, my customers helped to promote the
event as much as, or more than, I did.
So here’s the method, step by step. Duplicate this formula, and
I’m confident you will see the same level of success that I did.
The bigger your following on Twitter and Facebook the better
this will work—but then, that’s just all the more reason to
embrace social media, right?
Step 1: Select a badge or reward that your event will help
customers acquire. It works best when you use badges that
are difficult to get.
48
Step 2: Contact Foursquare so that you know the exact process
that will get your customers their badge. One thing I’ve learned
about Foursquare as a company is they are extremely friendly!
You don’t want to skip this step even if you think you know,
because sometimes this can uncover alternate ways to get the
badge, and if you get it wrong you’re going to disappoint your
customers.
Step 3: Use the Twtvite application to invite people, just as you
would for a Tweetup. Found at http://twtvite.com
Step 4: Begin promoting the event on Twitter and Facebook the
week before the event.
Step 5: Change your Twitter avatar to the event badge.
Then open your doors on the day of the event and prepare to
get in on the fun.
If you’re not familiar with Twtvite it’s pretty easy to find and use.
49
It took me approximately 2 hours to follow these steps each time
I set up my event. 2 hours for my venue to enjoy some of the
most successful days since it opened, to develop new loyal cus-
tomers, and to offer my customers some fun.
Additional Reading: http://blog.steffanantonas.com/im-on-a-
boat-how-to-use-foursquare-to-boost-your-restaurants-busi-
ness-part-ii.htm
http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/5879/Restaurant-
Uses-Foursquare-and-a-Boat-to-Hit-Sales-Record.aspx
50
Brainstorm Here:
51
Chapter 8
52
Helping Guests Learn
About Foursquare.
Foursquare is still relatively new, and it won’t work very well for
you as a tool if nobody knows about it. Fortunately, it’s very,
very easy to help your customers find out about it.
This has more advantages than simply teaching your customers
how to use a social media application. It helps you add more
value to your venue by establishing it as a place of education.
Establish your business in this fashion, and you will earn more,
because your customers will trust you, and your business, more.
Besides, who
doesn’t want to be the one to tell people all about the hottest
new trend in town?
This education doesn’t have to be complicated. It can be very
simple. Tell people all about Foursquare offline, right at your
restaurant.
53
This is an almost famous picture on the Internet as far as Foursquare promotion goes.
It’s pretty simple, too. It tells people what’s in it for them first, gives details second, and
then down at the bottom it tells people where to go to find out more about Foursquare.
Simple. To the point. And very effective.
It can be as simple as putting up a sign or a chalkboard memo.
Get a set of badge buttons from the Foursquare Online Store
and offer them up to your customers as they achieve different
badges at your location, just as a small freebie. Wear a
Foursquare t-shirt behind the counter one day (also available
at the Foursquare Online Store). Put a Foursquare “Check In
Here” square on your window.
54
Window stickers like these might even get you more walk-in traffic as existing Foursquare
users realize that you’re a “Foursquare Aware” business.
Follow all of that offline marketing up by mentioning
Foursquare on Twitter and Facebook (perhaps in the context
of telling people about your Foursquare event) and you’ll find
more and more people in your area are getting clued into the
game and enjoying the heck out of themselves playing it.
We educated our customers about Twitter, and it was a wild
success. In fact, it became such a cornerstone of AJ Bombers
that we made it official. We encourage people to write their
Twitter usernames on our walls, and to actively make AJ Bomb-
ers their restaurant by telling us about what they’d like to see.
55
Can you top our Twitter performance with Foursquare? Can
you find a way to make it a cornerstone of your venue and your
brand? All you need is a little bit of creativity and energy to
make it happen.
Additional Reading: http://blog.presentationadvisors.com/pre-
sentationadvisors/2010/03/why-arent-more-restaurants-reward-
ing-customers-via-foursquare.html
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Brainstorm Here:
57
Chapter 9
58
Foursquare and Other
Social Media.
A big part of the success of Foursquare is due to this system’s
ability to share your check-ins with Facebook and Twitter. As a
business, you should be monitoring this activity with the search
features. This will tell you exactly what someone tweets when
they check in at your venue.
This gives you another opportunity to tell your customers,
“Thank you for your business!” You can treat your customers
in the public domain the same way you’d treat them in person.
You cannot only thank your guests for coming, but you can also
tell them about the best meal at your restaurant, or which server
to ask for.
When people take the time to tell others about your restaurant,
and they use their social networks to do it, they want to be heard
and acknowledged.
59
Remember, their shout outs, check-ins, and reviews are all
instant feedback that gets back to hundreds, sometimes
thousands, of other people. And Foursquare’s very set-up
encourages—even demands—reviews from your customers.
Of course, it’s always fun when all the Tweets and check in reviews you see are good ones.
60
People have compared Foursquare to Yelp. If you don’t know,
Yelp is a review site for various restaurants and stores. Now,
there’s been a lot of chatter about Yelp, and the things that
happen when you get a negative review. We’re not going to get
into the ins and outs of the Yelp debate. For now, all that I want
you to understand is that Yelp is not integrated with Facebook
and Twitter to the same degree. That means there’s opportuni-
ties for you on Foursquare that just don’t exist on Yelp or sites
like it.
What are these opportunities? Namely, the ability to fix the
problems, whatever they are, immediately and in a very public
way.
Problems happen. They happen even to the best of us. Fortu-
nately, when your Twitter stream or Foursquare page shows you
something negative, it’s pretty easy to handle it:
Step 1: Admit your mistake and apologize, with no qualifying
and no excuses.
Step 2: Offer to make it right—whatever that means for your
guest. For some guests, knowing they were heard and receiving
an apology will be enough. Others might want a complimen-
tary meal or a discount of some form.
Pretty simple stuff, but you’d be surprised how many people just
ignore the problem. But admitting a mistake and then fixing it
doesn’t hurt your reputation—it helps it. Ignoring the problem
only sends the message that you don’t really care.
61
On another note, be careful that the tips and reviews you
leave stay positive. Who needs a reputation for bashing the
competition?
Additional Reading: http://www.digitaleyemedia.com/internet-
marketing-blog/2010/socially-edible-the-menu-to-online-net-
working-and-conversations-for-restaurants/
62
Brainstorm Here:
63
Chapter 10
64
Don’t Forget to Tip!
In my experience, the most powerful parts of your actual venue
page within Foursquare are the Tips and To Do sections. This
is where new users can discover the best of the best about your
business. These are personal recommendations from other sat-
isfied Foursquare users that have experienced your products.
At AJ Bombers, we’re careful to encourage our guests to add a
Tip or To Do with each visit. We offer a free dessert as an in-
centive. If I tell the customer something about my business, it
might be viewed with some suspicion. If my happy customers
say it, however, it rings true. This is called Social Proof, and it’s
been the basis of Word of Mouth long before social networking
was ever created.
If you don’t understand the concept of Social Proof, you cer-
tainly will after seeing the effect these tips can have on sales.
65
Our special offer on AJ Bombers Foursquare venue page.
If your customers aren’t leaving tips, you really are missing
out on one of the strongest applications of Foursquare. Some
customers will share their experience with no prompting from
you, but not all of them will. A positive reminder will generate
pages and pages of tips in time, which just increases your cred-
ibility more and more. New customers are more likely to try
your business because they’ll go in with an increased level of
trust. And as anyone familiar with today’s marketing will tell
you, building that trust is absolutely key to gaining, and keeping,
customers.
66
Foursquare Lessons that
Come from Twitter.
Restaurants, bars, clubs, and coffee houses who try to treat
any kind of social media as just another billboard are doomed
to fail. Hopefully, you like people and really enjoy them, and
that is why you entered the hospitality industry at all. Because
whether it’s Foursquare, Twitter, or tomorrow’s next new big so-
cial media application, two-way communication and customer
engagement are the way you make it work.
This means more than just saying thank you or handling cus-
tomer service issues. It also means listening to the customer to
the point where the customer takes partial ownership of your
venue. It goes beyond having “your” restaurant and enters the
realm of “their” restaurant.
Does that sound scary? Does it sound like you’d be losing some-
thing? Trust me, it’s anything but. Our signature burger was
born this way. It’s called the Barrie Burger, and it developed
because of an idea offered by Kate Barrie, one of our regulars.
69
Not only is the Barrie Burger one of our most popular items,
but it’s gone on to gain quite a bit of recognition. The Barrie
Burger was the star of the show when we appeared on the Travel
Channel’s Food Wars, and it is probably the only burger in the
world to have its very own social media following (@barrieburger)
‘
Presenting the Barrie Burger! Good things happen when your customers own you business.
70
What could sell better than giving your guests exactly what they
want, the way that they want it? What could delight guests more
than being personally recognized and gaining the ability to have
a real impact on your restaurant?
We encourage our customers to “leave their mark” in more
casual ways as well. We encourage our customers to write their
@signs all over the restaurant (we call it twitffiti).
Here I am, with twitffiti all around!
71
We have guests who show their mark to their friends when they
come in. Some guests have “their” booth or “their” seat at the bar.
Customers are more engaged when they have a place to call their
own. Encourage them to make that place your place.
Additional Reading: http://nateriggs.com/2010/02/15/how-to-use-
a-foursquare-strategy-for-customer-retention-foot-traffic/
72
Brainstorm Here:
73
Chapter 12
74
Your Foursquare Dashboard.
As a venue owner you have access to your Foursquare dashboard.
This is a powerful tool for helping you assess the strength of your
business and social media reach. Now, I don’t spend a lot of time
worrying about the ROI on my social media figures. But it is use-
ful and helpful to watch whether or not my presence is growing on
these services…or stagnating.
75
A shot of our dashboard and all it has to offer. One useful feature is the time break down,
which is very useful for scheduling events—it tells me exactly when I should start them!
So let’s break down the data step by step. Note that you can view
this data by time period: today, yesterday, 30 days ago, 60 days ago,
90 days ago, or for all time. The data is only useful when compared
to the time period, so be sure you pay attention to which you’ve
selected before you start trying to evaluate your dashboard.
76
First, you’ll see your total check-ins. If this number is really low
you might need to work a bit at promoting Foursquare to people
in your business, because it has possible it hasn’t taken off in your
area yet. You can be a major part of helping Foursquare gain local
acceptance!
The next number you’ll want to look at is your number of “unique
visitors.” A growing number here is healthy—it means you’re get-
ting new customers all the time (or new Foursquare users all the
time). It really represents a mix between the two types of unique
visitor, but enough unique visitors at least tells you that your efforts
are catching on.
The dashboard will also tell you the percentage of check-ins shared
with Facebook and Twitter. This will show you how far your reach
is extending on other social media networks. If these numbers
seem low to you, you might try offering an incentive for the extra
nudge to Twitter and Facebook.
This will also share your gender data, which might tell you if it
would be profitable to start a ladies night or offer things which
would appeal more to one gender or another. Or it could be com-
pletely irrelevant to you, but the data is there for you to use if you
need it.
The top 3 visitors helps me know who my “Loyalty Royalty” is for
the month. It will certainly tell you what customers you need to
personally introduce yourself to, if you’re not in the habit of per-
sonally introducing yourself to customers. You’ll also see a detailed
listing of overall check-ins.
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Finally, you’ll see a breakdown of when visitors are checking in,
which is extremely useful information for planning and scheduling
events.
You don’t have to stare at this data every day, but it’s certainly good
to have once you start making a serious effort to use Foursquare to
your advantage.
Additional Reading: http://socialfresh.com/how-to-use-the-four-
square-dashboard/
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/09/foursquare-introduces-
new-tools-for-businesses/
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Brainstorm Here:
79
Chapter 13
80
After The Check-In.
Social media alone won’t lead to your success. If you and your staff
aren’t providing an excellent experience to your customer once they
walk in the door, in fact, you’ll find social media working against
you. Before making any serious social media effort you should sit
down and take stock of what the customer’s experience would look
like after they check in to Foursquare. Make a serious commitment
to making that experience as outstanding as possible.
An initial search of Twitter can tell you a lot. Are people saying
positive things? Negative things? Nothing at all? If you can’t find
the answers there, it’s time to get serious about getting to know
your customers face to face. After all, that’s the final piece of the
social media puzzle anyway: creating relationships.
A burger is just a burger. A cup of coffee is just a cup of coffee. It’s
the experience, the relationships, and the sense of belonging that
define whether or not you are able to create a loyal community of
followers and fans. Your restaurant, club, bar, or coffeehouse has to
have great food and service FIRST—and then it has to take custom-
ers beyond the food to create a space where people truly want to be.
81
A place they associate with fun, with warmth, with being known,
with being valued, with the presence of their community. Every
business will have to do this differently, because every experience is
different.
Focus on building a brand and relationships instead of relying on
discounts and price to drive sales. Think about who you are, and
who your restaurant is, and who your customers are, to create that
brand, to craft an experience.
Give great service, serve great food, and create an experience that is
remarkable.
Additional Reading: http://feedcastmedia.com/2010/09/28/they-
are-talking-about-you/
82
Brainstorm Here:
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84
About The Author
Joe Sorge was practically born in a restaurant. His family has
owned and operated an Italian American restaurant in central
New York since June 5, 1951. At the age of 11, he began working
there, and learned the business from the ground up. Joe then at-
tended Cornell University and earned his BS in Hospitality, with
a minor in Entrepreneurship in 1993. His career in the hospital-
ity industry began with a seven year stint in South Carolina that
included working with the House of Blues and two other privately
held hospitality groups.
In 2000, Joe and his wife Angie moved to Milwaukee, WI, where
they now make their home with their two Bullmastiffs, Ferguson
and Isabel. Together, they have built a hospitality company that
includes four restaurants (AJ Bombers, Smoke Shack, Swig, and
Water Buffalo) a bar, (Sullivan’s), and an event space (The Roasting
Room)—all in the downtown area of Milwaukee.
85
Recently, Joe’s work with various social media tools has earned him
national recognition from CNN, the Wall Street Journal, The NY
Times, Nations Restaurant News, the Travel Channel’s Food Wars,
Hospitality 101, Hubspot, Tech Crunch, Mashable, Forrester
Research, the Business Journal, SoHo Biz Tube, and Twitter
Talk Radio, as well as in blogs, case studies, and websites around
the world.
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As a business owner, you can use foursquare to engage your
increasingly mobile customers with foursquare “Specials,” which are
discounts and prizes you can offer your loyal customers when they
check in on foursquare at your venue.
See how Joe Sorge, owner of AJ Bombers in Milwaukee used Foursquare
drive traffic, increase sales and to able to track everything over time with
a robust set of venue analytics.
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