Of course you can eat cookies without milk but is it really as fun or enjoyable without them together?  That is the main concept behind foursquare – connecting people with locations.

Foursquare is a social geo-location tool that you use on your phone (Blackberry, Android and iPhone) which gives you and your friends new ways of exploring your city or where you are traveling to. Earn points and unlock badges for discovering new things.

A common question we hear when we tell restaurant business owners about Foursquare is “why are people using this tool to tell people where they are eating lunch?”

Well let me give you 3 reasons why foursquare is getting so huge:

1. Foursquare is extremely helpful when looking for something such as nearby coffee, restaurant, etc. Just launch the application and foursquare will show you all the local businesses around you.  You can see tips and even specials nearby.
2. Becoming the “mayor” of each place that one visits is very addicting. Even California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is on Foursquare.  Hey Foursquare are you going to up the prize and start offering Governor status?
3. We all like to (if we are honest) showing what we accomplished.  By checking into locations you start earning badges.  The gaming aspect around foursquare makes trying out new places really fun.  I am amazed at how many of my friends on Foursquare make decisions on where to go to hopefully earn badges.  There are a ton of different badges you can earn.  Here is a good site that lists many Foursquare Badges that look like below:

Now that foursquare just hit 1,000,000 users it is time you learn what foursquare is and how you can leverage it in your restaurant marketing plan.  Start by watching this video to better understand what foursquare is before we get into the details on how you can use foursquare to market your local business:

Any business, especially restaurants, with a physical location immediately needs to pay attention to how Foursquare can help you connect with current and future customers. There are three primary benefits to Foursquare for your business:

• Brand Awareness
• Customer and market analysis
• Customer Retention through loyalty and rewards

Brand Awareness:

Offer promotions, contests and giveaways - One of the most effective ways to create a buzz around your brand is by offering free or discounted products or services through promotions, contests and giveaways.

With Foursquare, implementing these marketing tactics becomes easy. Whether it’s offering a discount to anyone who checks in to your location on a particular day or awarding the first person to check in a free product or service, Foursquare allows companies to attract and reward new and existing customers.  Make sure someone on your team is monitoring this closely so you can act quickly when customers check in.

As shown below don’t forget to increase awareness through other local search options such as Google Maps and show your customers that your business rewards Foursquare users:

Don’t forget to show extra love to your venue’s Mayor!

Customer and market analysis:

Marketing intelligence - Foursquare recently announced a free analytics tool and dashboard that gives businesses access to valuable customer data on those customers that visit your business location.

Once you are in your Foursquare business dashboard you can review the following and adjust your strategies accordingly:

• most recent visitors
• most frequent visitors
• the time of day people check in
• total number of unique visitors
• histogram of check-ins per day
• gender breakdown of customers
• portion of foursquare check-ins broadcast to Twitter and Facebook

To sign up visit your foursquare venue page and click on “are you the manager of this business” (see below) to get started.  If you are not sure what your foursquare venue page is or if you even have one check out the Foursquare search tool.

Customer Retention through loyalty and rewards:

Create incentives for new customers - For restaurant or retail businesses offering incentives using Foursquare can help to attract new customers to try you out. By offering a discount or special to those who ‘check in’ to your company location, businesses can raise awareness, increase customer traffic and capture new business leads.

Reward Repeat Customer Visits -Make sure you take good care of repeat customers and foursquare is the tool that makes this very easy.  Here are 2 ways you can reward repeat customers:

1. Check-In Specials: unlocked when a user checks in to your venue a certain number of times. For example, Foursquare says you’ve been here 10 times?  That’s a free drink for you!
2. Frequency Based Specials: unlocked every X check-ins. For example, Foursquare users get 20% off any entree every 5th check-in!

The ultimate award is becoming a mayor of a location.  Businesses can easily take advantage of the obsession with Foursquare with customers becoming the ‘Mayor’ of your location.

I would recommend you consider asking your employees to not be overly aggressive with becoming a mayor of your business. Speaking from experience it is frustrating being in competition with someone that is at your business everyday and they oust me as a mayor.  If you are rolling your eyes now based on what I just wrote I have not done my job because you still see this is as silly game.  It is definitely not and the team behind Foursquare are genius.  Let’s try and guess which company (uh Facebook) is going to buy them out.

To get started with Foursquare for your business check out the Foursquare Business page.  Here are a few tips to get the word out on your Foursquare venue:

1. Engage with Foursquare customers who check in at your business. Thank them for playing and let them feel noticed and appreciated.
2. Create materials that advertise your involvement with Foursquare such as window signs and posters for your business.  Maybe have a sign that shows off who the mayor is and give them that celebrity status.
3. Advertise your Foursquare venue on your website, blog, Facebook and Twitter profiles.

Let us know what you think about Foursquare?  Are you using Foursquare for your business today and what stories or experiences can you share?  If you own a restaurant make sure to check out our Restaurant Marketing Arizona page to see how we can help you.