I started using Foursquare about a year ago. It was neat, and I hoped that it would catch on in a bigger way with more of my friends. I can imagine a world where you check Foursquare to see where your friends are out and about and go meet up with them.
That world hasn’t materialized, leaving us with just the “game” aspect of Foursquare. Put simply, it just isn’t fun. Sure I was the mayor of my favorite spots. Coincidentally, none of which had mayor offers leaving me with almost no incentive to care whether or not I was the mayor. About a month or two ago I just stopped caring about checking in completely.
I think a lot of people are having the same experience. Here’s the thing though: Foursquare is a lead gen dream come true.
Near Lake Calhoun in Minneapolis there is a Punch Pizza right next to a fantastic new bakery and coffee shop called Rustica. When I say fantastic coffee shop, I don’t take that lightly. They easily have the best espresso in Minneapolis. When you checkin to Punch Pizza on Foursquare, you should get an offer from Rustica. ”Have an espresso on us when you buy a Punch pizza”. That isn’t happening. Which is to say, the people who should be using Foursquare are not.
Another example: hellllllo customer acquisition. Hi, @completelydark, can I offer you a coupon to try Galactic Pizza?
All of these services run into a chicken-and-egg situation. Without users, Foursquare doesn’t get very far. Without checkin locations and offers, Foursquare doesn’t get very far. Except Foursquare is focusing way too much on acquiring users and not enough on getting offers out there to give people an incentive to check-in.
Foursquare should be taking a page out of Yelp’s playbook and creating a massive sales force to get 4sq into the hands of small business owners where it can add dollars to everyone’s bottom line.
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4 Responses to “How Foursquare Could Still Matter”
Had a positive 4sq experience last night. See “Checking in at the Rail Station 5 times gets you a free cocktail.”
That being said I have to be the only person who frequents that dive bar who owns (much less uses) a smart phone.
More free drinks for me!
I agree with you that the potential here is enormous but it going to take a concerted effort on 4sq’s part to shift their concentration…
There are efforts underway to improve the experience and raise awareness already.
http://streetups.tumblr.com/
http://www.joesiewert.com/2010/02/first-twin-cities-foursquare-streetup-at-pazzaluna/
Keep in mind too that Foursquare has not been around that long and is only a startup with a handful of people. Just takes time for stuff to take off. Also if there’s a place you frequent and want to see some kind of deal there, tell the owner/manager about Foursquare directly.
Conor, I’m with you if you can score drinks there is an incentive there. On balance though, most place it’s not worth even bothering to checkin.
Joe, you’re missing my point. Foursquare is about to get decimated by Yelp or Facebook or another big player unless they do something to matter. If they get out there and build an army of businesses that are tied into their platform, they become a very tasty acquisition target (for Yelp, or Facebook, or Google (again)).