If any restaurant has learned the right way to use foursquare, it’s AJ Bombers in Milwaukee, WI. They’ve seen tremendous success promoting special foursquare parties, recognizing their “loyalty royalty” in a unique way and tracking their program through foursquare’s dashboard. Their efforts have been recognized by foursquare on a number of occasions, earning them even more recognition. Now owner Joe Sorge is sharing his secrets in a free eBook, #FoursquareWorks, that will be helpful for any business trying to get started with foursquare.

Sorge previously co-authored an eBook to teach restaurants how to use Twitter. He’s taken that knowledge about social media and turned it into a winning strategy with foursquare. In comparison to Twitter, where you can amass followers from anywhere in the world, he says foursquare is “imminently local.”

He details exactly the steps a business needs to take to make their initial start with foursquare and goes on to discuss the unique elements he’s promoted in his restaurants that have brought great success. One was “I’m on a Boat!” Day, where he brought in a kayak that foursquare users could sit in and earn their “I’m on a Boat!” badge.

What happened on “I’m on a Boat!” day? The lines stretched out the door before the official event even kicked off. We had 231 visitors that day, and 55 of them checked in for the very first time. Not only did we have a full house, we got some new
customers that we might not have had before. It was our busiest lunch day ever. Customers were waiting for 30 minutes, which is also our longest wait time ever.

Sorge also discusses his “Loyalty Royalty” program, which rewards his top three customers instead of just the mayor. They’re allowed to create their own special menu for the month and can choose a day to open the menu up to everyone else in the restaurant. He advises restaurants to offer creative deals for their “Loyalty Royalty:”

You can come up with your own ideas. A special table that allows your Top 10 to meet one another, thus fostering the social aspect of Foursquare? Free coffee for your Loyalty Royalty all month long? Taking the Royalty’s pictures and posting them up on the wall? Once you gather up a group of Royalty, ask them what would be the most valuable incentive for them, and listen to them. Create a program they’d like, not the program you think they’d like.

Foursquare’s business dashboard is an important point in the book. Sorge tells how he’s used it to track his “Loyalty Royalty” and top visitors. He also offers suggestions for way you can use the dashboard to time your specials and events or find new and different things to offer your customers based on the insights in provides.

#FoursquareWorks is a great book for any business trying to get started with foursquare. Sorge offers creative ideas in an easy-to-read, lighthearted format. While most of his examples are restaurant-specific, they offer best practices that can be applied to any business. It’s free, so you’ve got nothing to lose by giving it a read. You can view it on SlideShare or embedded below.

What do you think of the book? What other case studies would you include?

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