Location, location, location - Kristal

Foursquare and Tourism
Utilising location based social media in domestic tourism
Kristal Ireland – Head of Digital at Welcome to Yorkshire
@kristalsmile

Welcome to Yorkshire Take Over Yorkshire on Foursquare
In September 2010 WTY became the 1st tourist board in Europe to have an official branded page on Foursquare

How did we do it?
Pretty simple - we asked nicely 
One of my team made contact directly with Foursquare in the States and filled in their application form online
Within a couple of weeks our application was approved and off we went

How did we do it?
Once our branded page was live the fun began
Several of our team spent their own time loading up our profile with tips of things to do at major venues around Yorkshire

Popular venues

Popular Venues

Why did we do it?
We like to innovate!
Its free!
It was a great way to build our brand on social media

Why did we do it?
We have over 9,500 followers on Foursquare
We are all over Foursquare in Yorkshire so our brand message appears on users mobiles at check-in

How did we amplify it?
We trained over 1000 WTY members on social media over 3 months in 2010
Alongside training on Twitter and Facebook we gave specific training to businesses on how to claim and promote their venues on Foursquare

We realised pretty early on that it wasn't about us
Success was based on building a community around Yorkshire on Foursquare
Getting Yorkshire businesses to embrace the technology was key

We created a Tumblr account and got our members to send us in pictures of their window clings

We gave support to many members who wanted to give it a try
Foursquare in the States were great help and sent us a box of window clings

We had lots of businesses putting specials on, including:
Free brownies after 5 check-ins
50% of entry on Foursquare check-in
Free coffee/tea in museum cafes
Free attraction visitor guides

The Future?
Recent research done by Beyond Agency at the Social Loco Conference this year suggested that many users have privacy concerns about location based apps
Only 17% of social media users surveyed use social location apps
63% of those that are doing are engaging with big brands

The Future?
US based research puts Facebook Places firmly out front in the mass consumer market for check-ins

The winning format?
I think it is too soon to tell!
Facebook needs to greatly improve its functionality and commerciality for smaller businesses using deals for it to be viable
Location may be a flash in the pan???!!! Could only be used by niche online early adopters?
We need to look to the 14-20 yr old demographic for success rates

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Location, location, location - Kristal

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