Presentation Advisors Blog

Why Aren't More Restaurants Rewarding Customers via FourSquare?

I'm finally on the FourSquare bandwagon. Click here to follow me!

I joined about a month or so ago but only checked into my first location on Wednesday.  Only reason for the delay was that I hadn't downloaded the FourSquare app for my iPhone until this past week, and checking in without the app is nearly impossible.

As I sat at one of my favorite lunch locations, Liquid Lunch in Milford, CT, my mind (per usual) began to wonder what the possibilities were for restuarants, bars, cafes, and the like to harness and embrace the power of these location apps (Gowalla is a similar competitor).  

To start, I noticed that there was no sign of any social media calls-to-action in the restaurant, urging customers to join their Facebook Fan Page or to follow them on Twitter.  They could easily post today's soups and sandwich of the day, ask for recipe recommendations, offer Twitter or Facebook-only daily coupons, and more.  Definitely a missed opportunity. 

Getting to FourSquare, I immediately likened it to a frequent visitor card.  Encourage your customers to check-in to FourSquare when they arrive, and after their 6th check-in they can get a cup of soup for free!  If they're motivated enough, they could organize a FourSquare party like Joe Sorge did at a Milwaukee burger joint called AJ Bombers to earn the coveted "Swarm Badge" (50+ users in one place). [Editor's Note - There is now a "Super Swarm" badge that requires 250+ check-ins)  In great social media fashion, pictures from the event were posted on Flickr.  Notice the sign in the image below encouraging customers to follow them on Twitter and to check-in on FourSquare.  That's what I'm talking about!

Naturally, Starbucks has embraced FourSquare, creating a "Baristas" badge which can be earned by checking into a Starbucks location five times.  While I feel that a real reward like a free cup of coffee would be better, the unique badge is a step in the right direction.  AJ Bombers knocked it out of the park.  When will we see more establishments embracing these location-based mobile services?

If you have any examples of establishments utilizing location-based mobile services, please let me know in the comments!

AJ Bombers image courtesy of Tray on Flickr

The Positive Effects of Riding the Social Media Wave

Aside: I originally started writing this post about the similarities between Social Media and effective presentations, but it quickly morphed into something much different. While I will write the aforementioned post, I hope you enjoy what became of the original attempt.

Just last week Haiti was probably the last thing on most people’s minds and Conan O’Brien was still the host of the Tonight Show. But today, as I read the Mashable headlines and my Twitter feed, the 7.0 magnitude earthquake in Haiti and Conan’s departure from NBC were being talked about in mass.

While the ability of news to spread at real time is the same, the way readers react to these stories is vastly different than even 3 or 4 years ago. Social Media has given everyone a voice…a way to speak up or help. Campaigns to help all those affected by the earthquake were nearly instantaneous. Not only were the campaigns quick to sprout, but the message spread like wildfire. Tweets promoting the aid campaigns led to ReTweets, spreading the message exponentially every second. "Help Haiti" and "Red Cross" were two of the top trending topics on Twitter. Social Communities reached out to their user base pleading for donations. Blog posts were written, newsletters went out to email lists, videos were posted to YouTube…the list goes on and on. Within hours of the disaster it was nearly impossible to NOT know how you can help. I’ve never seen a disaster relief effort like this, ever. Now you can simply send a text to donate money to the relief fund. In just one day, the Red Cross raised over $1,000,000 via a $10 text-message campaign, spread via Social Media channels.  How recently could this not have been done?  1 year?  2 years maybe? 

While not NEARLY as important (not even in the same galaxy), Conan’s departure from NBC left his fans heated, to say the least. Once again, Facebook and Twitter exploded with "I'm with COCO" related content. A Facebook fan page, with over 60,000 fans (not counting those fans of numerous copycat fan pages) as of this posting, was created to support Conan, complete with a graphic creeping into profile pictures and avatars all over the world. Conan’s fans now have so many outlets to voice their displeasure that it’s impossible for NBC executives to ignore it, although it's probably too late.

And that’s just one week.

The game has changed. That’s it. The consumer has been handed the tools to voice their support or displeasure and watch it spread. Jay Baer’s blog post today highlighted a number of companies that embraced the fact that their customers were talking about how much they suck. This is something that was unheard of even 5-10 years ago. But now they have to. If they didn’t, they’d sink. The power of the consumers’ voice would be too much.

Simply put, I’m amazed at the imaginative ways that social media tools are being put to use. I’m amazed at their power and their ability to make a difference, fast. But easily trumping those two points is how amazed I am by companies who refuse to embrace Social Media. The tidal wave is coming. You can grab a surfboard and let it take your organizations to places it has never been, or you can do nothing and let the wave demolish you. Your choice.

If you'd like to help with the Haitian Earthquake Relief Effort, check out the Red Cross website or read Mashable's post about "9 Ways to Help Now".

Image courtesy of lolapaipro on Flickr