Foursquare, a geo-social media entity will soon provide a new marketing tool designed to their customers with geo-targeted offers from retailers. After a significant amount of testing, ‘Local Updates’ will enable retail stores and restaurants, like Outback Steakhouse, Whole Foods or H&M to offer announcements of product launches, coupons, daily specials information or daily menus. This will allow Foursquare’s retail clients the ability to reach out and “touch” customers who’ve repeatedly liked or posted check-in’s at a store. An example, Whole Foods which advertises different things regionally, has another means to do so.
Foursquare users who subscribe for ‘Local Updates’ will receive messages from nearby messages in their friend feed. These updates will occure upon opeing the app or refreshing the app. The extent to which the user receives messages will depend largely upon how often the user checks in to that store or likes it.
Currently, Foursquare has 20 million users and 1 million retail clients. This seems in some respects like an efficient way to provide analytics to retailers that will help them personally engage with consumers on an individual basis rather than a mass marketing appeal.
Several questions do come to mind however, as I quickly reviewed the post Xiomara Moncada made this week about Salesforce, Twitter and “big brother” knowing our every thought and using it in what seems to be invasive ways. The first question that comes to mind, why is it that it seems that the manner in which Salesforce and Twitter is gathering and using the analytics is being too nosey. Whereas, consumers posting their whereabouts and Foursquare using those analytics to help retailers offer a more personalized marketing approach doesn’t have the same invasion of privacy. Is it because the consumer has readily given information as to where they are and what they like? They’ve readily given their opinion through a tweet. How much emphasis do we as the public really put on our privacy?. Do we care as much as we probably should? Is there a balance that can be struck in terms of privacy, through crafty marketing tactics? Things that make you go hmmmm…….
Heine, C. (2012, July 18, 2012). Foursquare takes aim at retail chains(again): ‘Local updates ‘geo-target offers; H&M and Outback Steakhouse among beta testers. Retrieved from
http://www.adweek.com/news/technology/foursquare-takes-aim-retail-chains-again-141978
Peterson, T. (2012). “Salesforce Radian6 Launches Insights to Make Sense of Social Data Partners include Klout, PeekAnalytics”. Adweek.com. Retrieved July 17, 2012 from: http://www.adweek.com/news/technology/salesforce-radian6-launches-insights-make-sense-social-data-141934
(I have tried for an hour to spruce this up with pictures, but have lost patience with the technology. Please forgive the non-colorful post.)
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