How to claim your Foursquare page
Foursquare is the latest major player in the social network market, but this is no micro blog or repository for drunk photos (you know who you are twitter and facebook), but the power of geolocation has brought imitators into the market (facebook again). But Foursquare currently reigns supreme, and why? Because it has a purpose, and it can help your business to succeed.
Have you heard of Foursquare but don't know how it could benefit your business? Coast Design Ltd are specialists in online strategy and we can help you increase your ROI by implementing some of these free tools. If you need to book us for consultancy, contact us now.
1 - Visit the foursquare page for the venue that you want to claim. You'll see a button available for you to claim a venue:
Remember: Foursquare has pretty tight controls on who can claim venues so you should only claim venues that are actually yours.
2 - You will be guided through a 'wizard' asking you questions to verify your claim. At the moment (2010), foursquare will only ring you if you're based in America, that's fair enough, those overseas calls can really rack up. You will need to use an official email address and you will probably choose to be mailed a verification code to the address stated on the listing.
Then you wait...
...and wait...
... and after about 2-3 weeks you receive a letter. Do not throw away the envelope - this is where your code is. Visit the foursquare verification page:
3 - Visit: foursquare.com/businesses/verify
4 - Enter your code and voila, you've claimed the venue.
This is where the fun starts, you instantly get access to the stats of the visitors to that venue.
Stats
Here are some examples of the stats you can access.
Key Metrics
Key Demographics that could influence offers that you put on to retain or attract customers.
Top Visitors
Monitor your top visitors and make sure they're not cheating.
Checkins
View the latest people to visit your establishment.
Time
View the time that visitors are checking in to view your busy periods.
Summary
This has been a brief overview of the stats that you can access once you've registered for foursquare and claimed your venues. Other guides will be created on how to edit a venue as well as managing specials. That's where the fun really starts.
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