Archive for category Business

Foursquare launched a change to their brand pages last night that makes the pages much more friendly to chains.

When claimed venues are linked to a brand page, users now get a map showing all the nearest stores from the particular chain right on the page. A new box has been added that shows which of their friends have visited any of the chain’s stores.

On the venue pages, each store that’s part of a chain now also gets a box that shows its three nearest sister stores and a link back to the page. This makes it easy to find another nearby store that might be more convenient.

For chains whose venues were already claimed by a page, the venues are already linked. For chains without a page, it’s easy to link venues to a new page either one by one or in bulk.

These features work the same for colleges, too.

Brand pages were once recommended mainly for companies that didn’t have physical locations, but they’ve become more and more common for chains. With these new features, they’re now a must, since they really tie all of a company’s venues together. Expect even more benefits when these features trickle down to the mobile apps.

What do you think of the change?

For the past eleven days, the Fox Valley YMCA in Plano, IL has been offering a different foursquare special each day. They’re calling it the 12 Days of Christmas on foursquare. It’s a fun, creative way to celebrate the season and stir some interest among local foursquare users and their Twitter followers.

They’ve been tweeting their special each day. Here they are, in order:

What do you think of the idea?

Foursquare has quietly launched a new option that makes it much easier for users to follow brands from their mobile phones. Users can now do so simply by texting the brand’s Twitter handle to 368777.

Foursquare is primarily a smartphone application, so why is an SMS gateway like this relevant? Because it gives one simple, easily understood instruction that a brand can give their customers.

Toys”R”Us, for instance, could post signage in their stores advertising their Holiday 2011 badge, which requires users to follow Toys”R”Us in order to unlock it. Rather than explaining the steps for following their brand in each version of the app (which is a hit or miss proposition anyway), they can just say “Text TOYSRUS to 368777.”

It’s fast. It’s simple. Everyone gets it.

The same trick also works for sending a friend request to a regular user. Just text their Twitter handle to 368777 and foursquare will automatically send them a friend request. It’s a handy tool if you meet someone that you’d like to friend while you’re out and about.

What do you think of the addition?

Dunkin’ Donuts in the New York area are offering a unique sweepstakes for foursquare users called “Check in, Get GifteD’D”. By connecting their foursquare accounts on the Dunkin’ Donuts Facebook page, they become eligible to win prizes when checking in at participating stores in New York, Connecticut and New Jersey.

Almost 1,800 prizes are up for grabs, including the grand prize of a $1,000 gift card and a TravelPro luggage package. Other prizes include Dunkin’ Donuts gift cards, coffee for a year, 1800flowers.com packages, tablets, eReaders, Keurig machines, tickets to the Pinstripe bowl, and more. Winners are notified immediately by email.

The campaign is powered by Placepunch, a location-based contest and analytics provider that was recently purchased by SilverPop. It runs through December 23.

Check in, Get GifteD’D is a novel campaign, but it’s biggest weakness is the requirement that users pre-register on Facebook. As far as I can tell, that means it’s not possible to register on a mobile phone, so the only hope for the marketer is to capture customers’ attention when they’re at their desktop instead of with in-store signage (which won’t help for the first check-in will likely be forgotten by the time they get back to their home or office).

Dunkin’ Donuts would be much better served to make use of the venue push API or with a registration site that could be accessed via mobile phone. The contest would be much more effective without the huge barrier to entry.

What do you think of the contest?

Two new options have recently appeared for venue managers who want to run specials on foursquare. One makes it possible to run completely automated scheduled campaigns, while one encourages brand loyalty across entire chains.

The first option lets managers choose whether a loyalty special counts for a specific venue or all their venues that have the same special. The option is available for both the Newbie specials (i.e., first time at a particular store or at any store in the chain) and loyalty specials (e.g., three checkins at one store or three checkins within the chain).

If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you probably know I’m a Dunkin’ Donuts loyalist. I’m not choosy about the location at which I get my Dunkin’ Donuts coffee, however; this week, in fact, I’ve been to three different stores. With this new option, they could set up a special that rewards me for five checkins at any of their stores, instead of requiring them all to be at a single store as was previously allowed.

It’s a huge benefit to large chains who can now run loyalty specials to the chain and not just to the individual stores.

The second option allows managers to schedule their campaigns with both a start date and an end date. Previously only an end date was allowed. This lets specials be more automated since they can be set up ahead of time and then automatically activated at the appropriate time. Venue managers (or their interns) no longer need to log on at midnight to manually start a special. (For more on scheduling specials, see the foursquare support article)

Both of these options should make the foursquare specials platform more appealing to companies looking to entice foursquare users. I especially look forward to seeing how companies make use of the chain-wide loyalty specials, since loyalty to a brand isn’t really defined by individual location but by the brand itself.

The pocket change you throw in the Salvation Army kettle on your way out of the mall is nothing in comparison to what jcpenney will be giving them on Black Friday. For each foursquare checkin at one of their stores between 4 am and 1 pm, jcpenney will donate $25 to the Salvation Army (up to $100,000).

To encourage shoppers to check in, jcpenney is offering a shopping party to the store with the most checkins on Black Friday. They’ll bring in a food truck on December 17 that will distribute free snacks and beverages to help energize shoppers on the last shopping weekend before Christmas.

You can also help by adopting an Angel — someone in need — directly from their website on Thanksgiving Day. You’ll get a list of their Christmas needs and wants to help make sure their needs are taken care of. jcpenney will donate $50 (up to $400,000) to the Salvation Army for every Angel adopted online.

This is the highest donation amount I’ve seen for any checkin based campaign. With 1,100 stores, they’ll only need to average four checkins per store to reach their goal donation, so it’s a very reachable goal. Hopefully foursquare users will step up and make it happen.

Fast food chain Arby’s announced today that they’ll be donating $1 to help fight childhood hunger for each checkin at their restaurants during November.

The Arby’s Foundation has already made a donation of $300,000 to Share Our Strength’s No Kid Hungry campaign and they’re looking to raise another million with the help of customers. In addition to the $1 Arby’s will be donating for each checkin, they’re also soliciting in-store donations from customers and additional donations via their Facebook page.

“The impact of hunger is universal in a child’s life. It affects everything from their ability to concentrate in school, to their ability to sleep well. And yes, hunger does affect a child’s mood,” said Kate Atwood, executive director of the Arby’s Foundation in a press release. “One in five children in America is suffering from hunger, so it’s easy to understand the urgency for change. We’re already seeing that Arby’s customers really care about this cause. They get it and they want to help.”

Social media users can help increase the awareness of childhood hunger by taking the pledge on Arby’s Facebook page, where they can also keep track of the campaign’s progress. A chart tracks the amount donated from check-ins and in-store donations.

Arby’s is currently promoting the campaign as their foursquare special and via their social media channels on Twitter and Facebook.

What do you think of the campaign? Will we see more charity-related foursquare specials this year?