Comments on: Local businesses: to use Foursquare (yet) or not, that is the question (part 1).

By: Local businesses: to use Foursquare (yet) or not, that is the … « Social Computing Technology

Sat, 31 Jul 2010 02:14:13 +0000

[...] post: Local businesses: to use Foursquare (yet) or not, that is the … america, smaller-towns-, successful-the, [...]

By: jjprojects

jjprojects — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 05:03:58 +0000

Yes, I think you might be correct about being popular with that age group especially. Some bars and clubs seem to pretty popular on there already.

By: Vivienne Storey

Vivienne Storey — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 04:39:49 +0000

It does amaze me how few retailers know of the existence of Foursquare, though I think that accross the board very few businesses are monitoring what is being said about them on any social media platforms in general. My experience is that there are a few businesses using social media very effectively but most still existing in ignorant bliss…… The good thing about Foursquare is that it's so straightforward and easy to use, so should be a quick implementation with lots of upside.

Looking forward to the next part of your post!

By: K Candrick

K Candrick — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 11:46:11 +0000

Good post. I think the next 6 months will be interesting regarding Foursquare takeup in Australia. I also think it could become very popular with the 18 to 35s who are very social / single.

In America Foursquare is huge in the larger cities such as San Francisco – it doesn't seem to be as successful the smaller towns.

It is another great free social network for small businesses to take advantage of when it becomes popular.

By: jjprojects

jjprojects — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 11:02:38 +0000

Thanks Vivienne, yes, I think there is huge potential too. If it's not Foursquare, it'll eventually be something else, or even possibly Facebook, as I said in the post. What interesting at the moment is that most businesses don't even know they have been posted on Foursquare and comments about them exist, good or bad!

By: jjprojects

jjprojects — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 10:59:09 +0000

Thanks Kelsey, yes I think the popularity (or otherwise) of many service and location-based based businesses will increasingly be driven by online recommendations, including mobile. I often point people towards http://www.yelp.com/ to take a look at what's going on. If local businesses aren't aware of what's being said about them online, they should be. And increasingly, if nothing is being said, that's trouble too.

By: Vivienne Storey

Vivienne Storey — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 10:20:04 +0000

Great post thanks. I think there's huge potential, particularly for small to medium retailers in Australia. I always check on Foursquare what's around me and I also comment as a consumer, so any savvy business would benefit with a presence.

By: Kelsey Brookes

Kelsey Brookes — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 10:04:22 +0000

Great article! Look forward to the next one.

I feel that our 'social media mindset' is a bit behind in Australia, compared with the US. If you check out my recent article on the St Pete Brasserie in Florida, (http://thinksync.com.au/blog/social-media/4-tip...) the one key factor that saved the restaurant was engaging on local community fanpages.

St Petersburg has a population of about 250,000 – their community fanpages combined number in the tens of thousands of fans. Contrast that with my home town of Caloundra: 100,000 residents (iPhones seemingly just as popular here as anywhere else, mind you) and the only Caloundra fanpage is run by the local tourism office and has just 2800 members.

I think we're still at an early stage in our social media development as a country – we're engaging with our friends, but we're not reaching out and forming true, local communities yet.

When that happens, expect the Foursquare revolution here too!

In the meantime, I'm looking for some local businesses willing to experiment with those tools to drive growh – both their own and of social media in small communities.

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Wed, 28 Jul 2010 05:16:26 +0000

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