I noticed a simple tweet the other day that prompted me to write this post. (Although, this subject has been on my mind for sometime now.) The timing is perfect, when you consider the fact that Yelp is also pushing out some new features on their iPhone App.
So, what in the world is this post about? I’ll get there. Bear with me. If you are like me, you probably hate FourSquare (mainly because I hate seeing annoying 4sq tweets in my stream). But, some people LOVE it -they use it, are probably addicted to it, and generally can’t seem to live without it. So, back to why did I show you the screen shot above? Notice the great job @prattlibrary does monitoring their brand, and that people are using 4sq to talk about them. When @prattlibrary takes the time to make an extra step like this, it makes the user happy, and in turn the user will talk about it, blog about it, or tweet about it. That is a good thing right? Of course, all this is good for the business… they are getting more exposure and potentially bringing new customers to the table.
- Monitoring Your Business In Real Time
I had something interesting happen to me the other day on Yelp. If you are not familiar with some of the new features the Yelp iPhone App has, then let me explain: You can now “check in” to places you frequent, and it has a very similar feel (IMO) to the way things are done on FourSquare. Here are a couple of screen shots to give you an idea of what I am talking about:
- Check In Feature on Yelp
- Find the “Regulars”
So the interesting thing I had happen to me, was after checking in at a certain place I frequent, I received an email from a nearby business offering me (a certain % off a purchase) or something like that. The crazy thing? I thought it was awesome. It was a huge discount, I was going to be shopping around there anyway. I probably would not have gone to that shop, but I did now – and ended up spending money with them.
Chew on that for a minute. Think about the potential. Food, Drinks, Shopping, Entertainment …. money to be made. If you are a business owner that “gets” and understands Yelp and FourSquare, and the people that are using the two services, you are going to see big things happening. So for example, If the business owner recognizes that I check in often to his place, he can then offer me a discount. Now, there is a good chance that I am going to blog about it, tweet about it, or go and write an amazing review about it. When I do that, more people are going to know about them, and it will have a snowball like effect.
These are amazing tools for monitoring your brand in real time, and finding NEW business opportunities. You can either take advantage of them and grow like crazy, or sit back and watch your competitors grow and benefit from them instead. So my friends, embrace them, even reward them, and you will be light years ahead of the game by doing so!
Matt Siltala, owner of Dream Systems Media shares his love and passion for SEO and all things social on his Internet marketing blog. You can follow Matt on Twitter here – http://www.twitter.com/Matt_Siltala
