Today Foursquare announced their own social button to add to websites and it seems this is one many businesses should pay attention to. Yes, that’s right, another button to add to your site…
What is Foursquare’s new “Save” button for and how does it work?
Foursquare’s new save button is meant for websites of businesses with physical locations (such as shops, restaurants, tourist activities, etc. ) in order to allow online users to add the location to their queue of places to visit next time they are in that geographic area. The idea is quite brilliant and I predict it will have the necessary kick to move Foursquare into bigger leagues sooner than later. This positive outlook for Foursquare is greatly improved from my impression of the service (which I was an early adopter of) over the past while; which has been lackluster at best since Facebook and Google launched similar check-in services.
A quick sideline: what is Foursquare? You would be easily forgiven for not knowing much if anything about this company because it has largely been an app-driven service for smartphones. Here is a bit of background from their About Page:
Foursquare is a location-based mobile platform that makes cities easier to use and more interesting to explore. By “checking in” via a smartphone app or SMS, users share their location with friends while collecting points and virtual badges. Foursquare guides real-world experiences by allowing users to bookmark information about venues that they want to visit and surfacing relevant suggestions about nearby venues. Merchants and brands leverage the foursquare platform by utilizing a wide set of tools to obtain, engage, and retain customers and audiences.
What is the advantage of the Foursquare Save button for businesses?
Foursquare explains this best in their news release:
When readers use the ‘save to foursquare’ button, the saved places will show up in their foursquare app with your branding, along with a link back to the original article on your site. Find out how to add the button to your site here.
In addition to this, consider that Foursquare’s button is the perfect compliment for your physical business if it tends to convert visitors to customers better in-person because it will increase the likelihood your physical location will get visits from those who found your business online. Taking this a step further, in my opinion Foursquare is setting itself up nicely as the social media leader of converting online traffic into offline business which means this button will be a MUST for all bricks & mortar establishments with an online presence.
Here is an example of the button on a profile shown on New York Magazine’s website:
This is a 12 second clip showing the button in action (I have no idea why Foursquare didn’t jazz this up a bit):
Here are some sites who already have the Foursquare button in-place: Time Out Boston, CBS’s list of “The Best Burgers in New York”, Frommer’s Travel.