3 reasons to use foursqaure
Chances are people are talking about your organization online and you don’t even know it. You’ve been reluctant to engage in online tools for several reasons – unfamiliarity, lack of time or resources, you don’t feel it’s effective…or whatever reasons you’ve come up with.
You may not even have a website, but you already have an online reputation.But what has happened is that people have started it for you. They’ve created Facebook community pages, Google place pages and have already checked-in to social tools like Gowalla and foursquare and have begun talking about your organization. You may not even have a website, but you already have an online reputation.
Your online reputation is one of the most valuable tools that you have in your marketing arsenal because your online reputation has to do with what people are saying about you. And personal reputation is worth more than gold. This is first and foremost why your organization should be engaging an audience on tools like foursquare and Gowalla. By encouraging people to “check-in” to your profile, the first thing they are seeing is what other people are saying about your organization. And by default, this is an automatic encouragement for the user to do the same. Simply by asking people to check in, you are creating a pool of comments that not only reside on those platforms, but that you can pull from and bring into other types of marketing campaigns.
One of the other reasons to use these tools is the personal (well, the online type of personal) interaction that users are able to have with your organization that may otherwise by sort of a challenge. Especially in the church, we know that a cool service and a great message over time is not enough to retain people for the long haul. People want to be included, welcomed and engaged. I’m by no means saying that foursquare and Gowalla are silver bullets in this regard. But nonetheless, they are great tools to move the ball forward and get people engaged in a one on one conversation with you and with each other. That’s worth pursuing.
Last but not least, this may be the term that you are least familiar with…it’s a new one. Gamification. What? Check out gamification.com for some great insights into this new idea. This is the core function of tools like foursquare and Gowalla. If you’ve ever used these apps, then you know that the more places you check-in to, you get points. That point spread is compared amongst your friends to see who’s in the lead for the week. You can even get email updates on your points progress. Also, there are check-in milestones for which you earn badges. Some badges take effort like the Superstar badge I just earned for checking in to over 50 venues. Some are easy like simply checking in somewhere on Halloween. The point is, it just makes it fun. Let’s face it, people are competitive and deep down inside, we like to take down the competition.
But here’s where the gamification idea really takes root for you and your organization…rewards. As often as I can, I try to take a peek in my foursquare account wherever I may be and see if there are any rewards for checking in. For example, one of my favorite local pizza joints with give you a free appetizer if you check-in to foursquare when you enter their restaurant. How cool is that? What do they get out of the deal? Well, when I check in, I’m letting all of my social media friends know that I’m currently at that restaurant, instantly. But additionally, I may also comment on how great the food was. And they got all that for probably what costs them only around $2 net. That’s cheap marketing.
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