Is Your QSR Foursquaring Yet?

As a QSR professional, you obviously need to know what is hip these days, and let’s face it: coming out with your QSR’s official Pog in the year 2010 just isn’t going to cut it anymore. With more and more people getting smartphones, social media sites are now tailored to make sure they can tap into the mobile markets. So here’s the question of the day: Have you heard of Foursquare yet…and if not, did you know that the city of Manchester, NH, just declared April 16 Foursquare Day?

Foursquare is a social media site where users use mobile devices or text messaging to check into locations they visit all around the world. Like most sites, Foursquare users add each other, and can see where their friends are. As users visit these locations and check in, they earn rewards for visiting certain places, and they have the chance to interact with past and present visitors.

Restaurants are one of the most checked-in locations on Foursquare, largely because users can add feedback about menu items, customer service, and friends can organize a lunch plan using the service.

Telling the world where you are at all times may seem a little strange, but try telling that to a million users as of April 2010.  Restaurants can really capitalize on Foursquare by offering specials exclusively on Foursquare. If you visit this link (http://foursquare.com/businesses/), you can set up a business account for Foursquare so that customers receive incentives every time they check in.  It could be a free soda at a sub shop check-in, or maybe even a free meal after 10 check-ins. Either way, creating a campaign on Foursquare gives users an incentive to choose eating out, instead of staying in.

As qsrbuzz™ lauds social media for its affordability and interaction, one point I always seem to push is making sure that what you do for web marketing is both tangible, and intangible. This means, don’t just hop on Foursquare and hope people check in. Put up a sign in your restaurant telling users to find you on Foursquare, Twitter, Facebook, etc.  The best part about Foursquare is that you can link all of your social media strategies together, so that if one person says, “I love Joe’s Subshop’s Meatball Sub,” both you and your customer can get that on your QSR’s Facebook wall.

People keep adding data plans on cell phones so they can use the Internet. As that number increases, so will the amount of users on Foursquare, and that is a marketing you don’t want to miss.

Ryan O'Hara is Strategic Marketing Manager for Kandessa Media Solutions. Having worked with several startup companies within the New England Area, his expertise ranges from brand development to emerging marketing strategies. A graduate of the University of New Hampshire's Whittemore School of Business and Economics, where he received his bachelor's in Business Administration with a focus in Marketing,  Ryan worked on several market research projects.  The most noteworthy was  a project with former Vice President of Marketing at IBM, Chuck Martin, to help publish a book in 2010 by the American Management Association (AMACOM) on  Cognitive Characteristics with High Performing Individuals in the work place.  For more information, visit: Marketinggun.net.