Foursquare and Yelp

This is the part 2 of Think Mobile

Foursquare, Yelp and where the heck am I.

As a brick and mortar business do you have regular clients or customers such as a pizza place to a chiropractors office or even a regular restaurant. In reality, you can be just about any business that entertains a regular flow people willing to spend money. Then you may be on Foursquare or Yelp and you do not even know it.

Who is the Mayor of your place? Who posted something positive, or for the matter, something negative about your business? What do you do for them? What can you do for them?

Starbucks gave their mayor’s $1 off of frappes in June, some places do free appetizers, a couple bars in Chicago let theirs mayors get free drinks and someplace’s being mayor and .50 cents will get you a bag chips if you are lucky. The real power in Foursquare is the points system, you get point for checking in and win mayorships by checking in the most at one place. People’s belief system wants them to win, and for them to win they need to check-in and they want recognition. so, in that vein, they will check-in where ever they can. It is like giving a stamp of approval on something by the fact they showed up someplace.

I really think that someplace’s are really missing the boat here, by not doing more for their regular customers. Hey, it really does not take much to reward your customers. Really, the smallest of things/items will keep a regular happy, and if you do a little something for new guy that checks-in the one time that they are there. And, with some new numbers out about Twitter and Facebook most people have their accounts tied to either or both, they are reaching a ton of people and with the social graph being so very important now.

A new side note: As of Friday, 4sq just passed it 100 millionth check-in. I think that is very telling stat that is here to stay. While, I am not sure in what form whether they get bought out, or folded into Facebook, but if there are enough users to check-in over 100 million times that simply tells me that it is being used and more than likely being used at your business.

Yelp! I will admit that I am a little behind the 8-ball on Yelp as it is really just hitting NW Indiana, but I was in Chicago late last year and every bar that I hit had a Yelp! sticker in the window as a reminder to people to check-in or give them a good tip.  (I will admit right here that I lost my notes, and am now winging this blog)

While Yelp is on my phone is pretty much unused as it has not hit my end of the world. In Indiana, it is only recognizing 2 cities and they are not in NW Indiana. However, I strongly urge you to check into it and see if you are there or not. As there are plenty of those around who are using to to dish out their opinion and you want to make sure you reward the ones that like you or find out who you can fix what you did wrong.

More and more people are going mobile as the smartphone market grows you are going to find more and more people checking in, praising or vilifying you online. You really will need to stay ahead of the crowd on this one. If you are a business that is found on any of these geo-location sites, broadcast it and put up signs for your clients to see it.

I know both Foursquare and Yelp make it easy as the business owner to moderate activities.  So get there, before someone else does

Dave