Foursquare introduces directory of pages to help users find brands to follow
Apparently today is the day to launch tools that make it easier to find people to follow. Twitter released theirs earlier this afternoon and now foursquare is launching one as well. The new page directory shows a sortable/searchable list of brands that users can follow, making it much easier to find brand pages among the 850+ that exist. They’ve also added new prompts that let users know they’ll need to follow brands in order to unlock partner badges.
The directory can be searched by keyword or brand name. You can also choose to view the top brands, the ones that are currently trending and the ones that have been most recently added. It also shows some of the top brands that are popular among your friends. Brands offering badges are highlighted with a partner shield. You’ll see a link to the new brand directory from your user profile in the badges section.
Foursquare’s moves today are clearly an effort to try to increase awareness about brand profiles. I’ve spent a lot of time over the past few days looking at user profiles to try to find users to invite to Foursquare Day here in Cincinnati. One thing that’s really stood out to me is just how few of them have any partner badges. They tend to have plenty of foursquare’s core badges, but don’t have a team Super Bowl badge or the Groundhog Day badge, for instance. Those badges were easy to get, but required that you both know about them and follow the brands that sponsored them.
The service has long suffered from low numbers of users following their brand partners. MTV, the most followed brand, has a mere 162,000 followers, or 2% of foursquare users. It may seem like a lot of users, but it’s a significantly lower level of engagement compared to the 3% of Facebook users who’ve liked their page — and they’re not paying for any branded badges from Facebook.
The new prompts are a great way to make users more aware of brand pages and encourage them to follow brands. Hopefully they’ll raise foursquare’s user engagement with brands and make the platform even more attractive to them.
There’s not much motivation to follow a brand that doesn’t offer a badge. For instance, why am I following the NCAA if they’re not going to offer a badge tonight similar to the Packers/Steelers or the Celtics/Lakers badges?
Also, I’ve found that this site does a good job of showing you what you’re already and what else you can start following: foursquarebrands.com
So I’ve hit the limit for 1000 brands that I’m following… time for brands to start doing something to prove why they should be in my 1000. Hopefully this will spur some innovation and promotions among brands.
I think this is great for brands that are smaller than some of the large competitors. I think this will help some get their footing off the ground and get moving in the mobile search space.
Agreed. Not entirely sure how this really spurs interest in 4sq brands if nothing new is being offered. And I have to say I thoroughly dislike the badge icon being present when the badge is long retired and unattainable.
I came to comment on the same thing… If a brand offered a badge but has since retired it… do they really have a badge to offer?!? or incentive to follow?!?
Longer answer… Yes with a but… Short answer No…
Although its cool to see what brands are signed up with 4sq…. Ive noticed that even some of the cooler non badge offering brands I follow (threadless tees, highsnobiety, thrillist) dont even use their account for anything…. Again…. making it pointless to follow.. So Im giving foursquare a C+ on this attempt…
***Also noticed when foursquare posted this news on their Facebook page… they said new badges too… Anybody else not notice any new badges?!?!
Nope, haven’t noticed any new badges myself. The only new one that’s showing up is from Showtime, which I knew was coming. It’s the Borgias badge and it’s a B* to get.
[...] Comme ils l’indiquent sur leur blog, ceci va déjà augmenter le nombre de personnes qui suivent des marques sur Foursquare. A long terme et si les marques jouent le jeu en proposant aux internautes de vraies rétributions cela permettra d’attirer de nouveaux membres. Lire la suite sur le blog [...]
For us (Welcome to Yorkshire – http://www.foursquare.com/welcome2yorks), this has made an incredible difference to our following. We usually get around 30 new followers a day, but now we’re closer to 350!
So if you’re ever thinking of exploring the best beautiful part of England, make sure you follow us to get tips on how to make the most of your time here.