Over the next few days, thousands of us will converge on New York City for Vision Expo East (#visionexpo). While much of our day will be spent at the Javits Center, when the sun goes down, we will spread out to hotels, restaurants, night clubs, museums, and other assorted venues, sampling the best of the Big Apple. How will you know where to go? What to see and do? You can ask your friends who who have been coming to Vision Expo a few more years than you. You can ask the concierge at the hotel. You can ask some of the reps who live in the area. Or you can open your phone and log into the new Fourquare 3.0 and see in real time where the locals go.
Foursquare is the location-based mobile check-in app that has changed how mobile phones are used. Some 30 million people use programs like Foursquare to check-in at restaurants, hotels, and retail operations such as yours. Foursquare is adding over 100,000 new users every week. Foursquare updated their mobile software last week to include a recommendation engine. When you log into Foursquare now, you can see what’s hot in your immediate area by the number of check-ins at a variety of venues.
So why am I telling you this, other than to give you a new way to check out New York City this week? As part of the updated software, Foursquare will be offering new merchant features such as we discussed recently with Facebook. You and your business will be able to offer check-in specials, flash specials (such as first 5 people to come in on Saturday get 25% off sunglasses), newbie specials ( for 1st time patients), mayor specials (for the person who has checked in the most), and loyalty specials (for returning patients and customers).
If you haven’t yet tried out a location-based check-in program for yourself, Vision Expo is a great time to try and both Facebook and the new Foursquare and worth trying it out with. Then take back what you’ve tried to your business, so both local customers and visitors to your fine city can take advantage of what you have to offer in the future.[/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]
