Foursquare Mayors = Brand Ambassadors

I read a great article written by Nate Riggs and posted at Fast Casual called How to Leverage a relationship with your Foursquare Mayor.  If you’re not familiar with  Foursquare, its a location based service (LBS) available on smart phones and its all the rave with the tech industry at the moment.  There’s another power player in the market located here in Austin, TX called Gowalla that many locals are supporting.  Yelp has also entered the LBS market and Facebook is supposedly coming out with their version that could kill them all over time.  They’re all well funded, so its likely they’ll be battling for supreme adoption for awhile.  In the interim, let’s talk about how they work and how you can use them.

Foursquare Mayor Offer

About Foursquare

I use Foursquare, all my friends are on it.  We use it to brag about all the funs things we’re doing and also to find each other on the weekend.  Basically when you walk into a restaurant, bar, gym, tennis court, etc you check-in.  The GPS feature in your phone finds your location and then you select it and check-in.  It then notifies your friends where you are located.  On foursquare’s latest edition you can add notes to your friends, tips for other Foursquare users, and access nearby Foursquare deals configured by nearby businesses.  You also earn points for checking in often, badges for accomplishing tasks, and become the Mayor if you check in often.  It’s this Mayorship that appeals to me…I haven’t the slightest idea why really as everywhere I am Mayor has no perks at the moment.  I would be more enthusiastic if they did.  Points and badges haven’t been that exciting in my social circle…although I’ve seen friends comparing their badges with enthusiasm.

Turning your Foursquare Mayor into Brand Ambassadors
So Nate’s suggestion is to turn your Foursquare Mayors into Brand Ambassadors.  There tends to be 3-4 people in the running for the Mayor title at any given time.  Find out who they are on Foursquare, track them down, get to  know them, offer them perks, and create competition.  These guys are obviously patronizing your business a lot, why not make sure they know your appreciate it and give them a free something here and there.   That’s certainly going to get them talking.  When Sagra Enoteca told me they were giving the Mayor a free pizza, I immediately added that as a note to my friends while checking in.  It creates a conversation piece…something worthy of posting on Facebook…and that’s where the value comes in as it creates word of mouth advertising about your business.    This is a list of Nate’s suggestions on how to identify, embrace, and honor your Mayor:

• Learn who your mayors are (you can do this by looking it up at www.Foursquare.com).  The mayorship of your business will most likely change hands between the same three to four people over time. Know all of them by name and face.
• Take the time to connect with your mayors across other social networks like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. If they blog, read it and maybe even leave the occasional comment.
• Invite your mayor to meet with you in person. Take the time to have a real-life conversation.
• Ask your mayors why they choose to come to your location.  Learn why they buy from you and ask how you can improve.
• Offer to open an ongoing tab for your mayor.
• On occasion, comp your mayor’s purchase. As the mayor of your business, he or she likely already spends plenty of dough in your location. A pizza or appetizer on the house is a nice gesture of appreciation for their ongoing business.
• Give your mayors a book of buy-one-get-one-free coupons and ask them to bring their friends to your location.
• Find out when your mayor has a birthday or anniversary or any special event. Then, throw him or her a party and ask him or her invite friends.
• Make your mayor a VIP at your location. Does he or she have a favorite place to sit? Reserve it for him or her. Know your mayors’ typical orders and the times they come. Have things ready for them. Go the extra mile to appreciate their business.

Advertisement