Why I decided to go back to foursquare…
by Alicia Franks on May.26, 2010, under Blogging, Consumer Marketing, Personal, Rant and Rave, Social Media
I tried foursquare. Then I left foursquare. And after a lot of thought and cajoling by a few friends, I decided to go back to foursquare…
Why?
Because although I don’t feel it is quite there for the individual, it will be. Businesses will start getting it better and the functionality will improve (at least I hope!). I see huge potential with foursquare and I regret not joining twitter sooner, so I don’t want to make the same mistake here. The biggest concern I have is privacy, but with how much information is available already about me, I figure this can’t really much worse.
Since I’m trying it again, here are the things I am hoping to see:
- Benefits for a first time checkin from the business. “It’s your first time here, enjoy 5% off”. Giving someone a benefit at their first trip will increase the likelihood they come back and you’ll have more repeat customers.
- Reward people for bringing people. Multiple checkin’s for one person who brings in first timers with them? They’re doing marketing for you, reward them!
- On the mobile app – links to the companies website, twitter or facebook to connect them in other ways. This will help the companies to build a stronger network.
- Something between first time and mayorship…maybe rewarding people at different levels, 5 checkins, 3 in a week, etc…
- The ability to checkin at a place without claiming location to everyone. For example, it would be great to be able to checkin at Starbucks and have the exact location know where you are but not send the exact location to your friends, just that you are at a Starbucks.
All in all, I am holding out to see results, and am willing to go with it for a little longer. What can it hurt?
What would you like to see improve with foursquare? Have you found benefits for the individual?
3 Comments for this entry
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May 26th, 2010 on 1:36 pm
@BikingBrian @MagiComedy @VetLovingPetsHB @JGfromOC here’s a few thoughts on going back to foursquare: http://bit.ly/cdWS9z
This comment was originally posted on Twitter
May 26th, 2010 on 4:59 pm
I did a very similar dance with Foursquare, but all in all I just felt that I didn’t want it to explode and I watch everyone else be involved!
This comment was originally posted on Wright Creativity
May 31st, 2010 on 5:51 am
I deleted my Foursquare account a few weeks ago because I was tired of the noise, but I’m probably about to give it another shot. There’s still far more noise than I’d like – I couldn’t care less about anyone just getting a cup of coffee at Starbucks – but I’m starting to come around to the point of view that as Foursquare’s user base grows, the amount of worthwhile information attached to venues will probably make using it more worthwhile.
I still prefer Brightkite since I don’t need to add the venue seemingly every time I want to check in, duplicates aren’t an issue, I can search for people and venues around my current location, I can upload photos, and more, but it’s clear that Brightkite is sputtering while Foursquare grows. Foursquare may prove itself as a useful source of local information as I travel this summer.
This comment was originally posted on Wright Creativity