Article
Should your brand have a Foursquare presence?
The location-based social media app has the potential to stand out from the pack.
March 28, 2010
Just as some fast casual concepts have finally gotten the hang of successfully utilizing Twitter and Facebook to promote brand engagement, along comes Foursquare, a location-based social media application for smart phones. The application encourages users to "check in" from wherever they are, including their favorite restaurant. Members earn points and compete to see who checks in to a particular location the most in a week, earning them the designation of "mayor." Restaurants can join in on the game by posting deals -- such as free chips and salsa, given away through Foursquare by a Columbus, Ohio, Qdoba franchisee.
The franchisee, Paula Harer, has two locations in Columbus. The company has been active in social media for about five months and even employs a social media coordinator.
"We've been watching the location-based games in Columbus for a while now," said the social media coordinator, Robb Landon. "There are several others and we waited until we saw that Foursquare was going to be probably the leader in the area. Once we discovered that, we identified other restaurants that would be using it … and we wanted to be on the leading edge of this.
"We've gotten several tweets appreciating the fact we're going to participate in Foursquare," he said.
Currently, the only item the company offers is free chips and salsa for the first check in, but down the road the staff is considering something free for the mayor, or for people who have checked in 10, 20 or even 30 times. Other than a few free offers, the fast casual industry seems to be studying the playing field before jumping onboard. Greg McGuire, author of restaurant-focused The Back Burner blog, says there's little reason to be so cautious about adding these tools to restaurants' social media strategies. Foursquare is one of a couple dozen other location-based apps, including Gowalla and BrightKite, which encourage similar engagement. But Foursquare offers the local marketing operators need plus tie-ins to Twitter and Facebook without much investment. "It's unique in that it is blending geo-locating with social media," a technique that has proven successful for Kogi Korean BBQ and its food truck, McGuire said. Brick-and-mortar fast casuals also can leverage that technique via Foursquare because the app allows operators "to generate very local buzz about a specific place." Posting "Specials Nearby" ads on Foursquare or becoming what the company calls an official venue sponsor is free at this time. Integrating such specials with existing loyalty programs, such as Tasti D-Lite is doing, requires more work but can pay off. Tasti D-Lite is testing the value of integrating Foursquare into its loyalty program via its point-of-sale system at five stores in New York and Nashville, Tenn. The integration gives customers the opportunity to earn points on Foursquare as well as extra TastiRewards points, which go toward free Tasti products. The feature allows automatic check-ins for connected Foursquare members and auto posts to Twitter proclaiming their earning of TastiRewards. Tasti-D-Lite also can promote those customers who earn the designation of mayor. Social technology officer for Tasti D-Lite, BJ Emerson, said the test has led to an increase in foot traffic at participating stores, thanks to the location-based advertising. Because customers show their check-in status to the staff, customer interaction has increased. Those stores also are seeing new customers, and loyalty activity has grown among existing ones. Emerson said Tasti D-Lite executives see potential for the app in multiple areas, such as in menu development and promotions, but especially for local marketing. "Foursquare provides us the ability to connect with regulars in the area who check in at nearby establishments, creating a greater bond with the local community," he said. "Their check-in at Tasti D-Lite is shared with friends, which spreads the word. (More importantly,) the check-in metric goes a huge step beyond clicks and impressions and is the critical piece that shows actual feet in the door." Promoting engagement McGuire agrees that the true value in Foursquare is its ability to attract people to visit the store — and to motivate them to compete with their friends to get there. The challenge for national chains is that the promotions are locations based, but a brand could manage it, he said. Casual dining chain Carrabba's Italian Grill seems to have figured it out, since all of its locations are listed among Foursquare's official venue sponsors. "I do see value in simply taking some of this marketing promotional budget and giving people 10 to 15 percent off. Because they checked in with Foursquare (operators) know they're actually there," McGuire said. "That's incredibly valuable information." The added value of Foursquare is its connection to social media giants Facebook and Twitter. Foursquare users can find fellow members among their friends and followers on those sites. Then, when they check in, they can tweet tips about any specials offered or crow about being crowned mayor. However, the ROI in regard to using the platform is difficult to define.
"Anytime you increase engagement with customers you hope that eventually turns into more dollars at the register, but especially at a fast casual setting it's very difficult to measure," Qdoba's Landon said.
While the franchisee monitors the number of coupons used from other advertising vehicles, "with Foursquare, we're going to monitor the number of check ins," Landon said. "We can find out how many unique visitors there are (via check ins); we can also use the habits of each Foursquare member that checks into the location. That can be an advantageous down the road also." Challenge of getting in early The boon for fast casuals is that the early adopters of Foursquare fit their core demographic: urban young adults. The challenge is that it's somewhat limited in reach, and extracting metrics is difficult. Tristan Walker, an executive at Foursquare, said the app has more than 500,000 users so far. The company tracks its members' frequency of visits for advertisers, and a dashboard application is in test. Until such dashboard tools for tracking and measuring engagement are in place, restaurants that aren't advertisers would have to do the legwork themselves, said Marshall Sponder, founder of WebMetricsGuru.com and an expert in social media and analytics. Multiple applications, including HootSuite and TweetDeck, allow brands to follow their Twitter users as well as read any tweets that include their brand name. Such tools for Foursquare would be helpful since its data is more elusive because the app only shows the people who have visited in the last three to four hours. But companies could track their mentions and check-ins nationwide, much like they data mined Facebook in the past. "But it might be hard to get a full, comprehensive list," he said. Sponder said he expects the social media game to be mainstream by mid-2011. By that time, tracking and measurement tools could in place, which would give greater benefit to restaurants.
McGuire said it may take some time for other groups, especially older adults, to pick up Foursquare. And the app may be somewhat slow to go mainstream because it is limited to smart phones and the iPod touch. As consumers increasingly move to adopt those phones, that may change. The other challenge is determining whether Foursquare is the niche where a fast casual's core customers are engaged. More social media and location-based apps are being developed, further fragmenting the social media sphere. "That's why it's important for anybody, including restaurants, to make sure that they're finding their existing customer base through a specific niche," McGuire said. "The nice thing is you can really gauge who you're reaching and who you're not based on running creative promotions that give you feedback from your customers. "If you're running through a specific targeted media niche, and it's not reaching your customers, you'll be able to tell that. And you'll be able to decide whether you need to continue to communicate in that channel or not."
* Additional reporting by Valerie Killifer
Related Media
Subscribe
Get the latest news and resources from Fast Casual.
