Foursquare | Internet Marketing Blog

Facebook checks out of check-ins, but not location

For years, privacy issues have dogged the world's largest social network, Facebook.

From changes that have gradually made the once-closed network more open to the world to advertising programs that were are little too creepy for comfort, Facebook arguably has more experience dealing with privacy flubs than any other company in the world.

So it shouldn't come as a surprise that Facebook continues to tweak its privacy features, as it preparing to do in a big way soon.

by Patricio Robles 24 August 2011 08:46am 2 comments

Foursquare Pages: now open for business

With businesses increasingly embracing social media and expanding their use of it, it's no surprise that they're eager to set up shop on the hottest social media hubs.

Facebook and Twitter have welcomed business users with open arms, and many companies are beating down Google's door in an effort to get the search giant to accelerate the roll-out of brand pages on Google+.

by Patricio Robles 04 August 2011 15:30pm 4 comments

Q&A: Radisson Edwardian on QR codes and social media

Radisson Edwardian, which operates several hotels around the UK, has been running some innovative social media campaigns recently.

These include adding QR codes to its menus, which send users to videos of dishes being prepared, as well as a new Foursquare campaign offering late checkouts.

I've been speaking to Radisson Edwardian's E-commerce Manager Amy Clarke, as well as Aalia Walker from I Spy, the agency behind these campaigns.

by Graham Charlton 05 July 2011 10:07am 0 comments

The A-Z of location-based marketing

Econsultancy’s new Location-based Marketing Smart Pack has just been released as a theory-driven explanatory guide about this rapidly evolving area.

I’ve identified 26 key elements inside this wide and complex channel that you probably need to be aware of. Notice that it’s a mixture of trends, platforms, strategy and more, as I’ve avoided simply listing the main players in the market that everyone knows about.

Let me know if you think I’ve missed anything important!

by Jake Hird 17 March 2011 10:58am 1 comment

Q&A: Kristal Ireland on promoting Yorkshire with social media

Kristal Ireland is Digital Marketing Manager at Welcome to Yorkshire, and has been using social media to crowdsource content and promote the county as a tourist destination.

This has included experiments with Foursquare, Flickr, YouTube, Facebook and Twitter, as well as a couple of iPhone apps.

I've been talking to Kristal about using social media tools to promote tourism, and crowdsourcing great content for the website.

by Graham Charlton 17 March 2011 09:43am 5 comments

Do location-based services really matter yet?

Location-based services like Foursquare saw their popularity increase dramatically in 2010, and along with that popularity came plenty of press attention. To some, location-based services may represent the holy grail of mobile marketing for brick-and-mortar businesses.

But are brick-and-mortar marketers overestimating how much these services can help them?

by Patricio Robles 11 January 2011 15:34pm 8 comments

McDonald’s goes local to launch new coffee flavor – using free content, not ads

Leave the Facebook Deals and sponsored Twitter trends to the other brands. McDonald’s is using a location-based, social media scavenger hunt to promote its new coffee drink, but the company is using free content - not buying any of the new ad units - as part of the campaign.

by Tameka Kee 16 November 2010 01:23am 2 comments

Ready for YourName@Facebook.com?

privacy So email's becoming obsolete, huh?

Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg said as much last June. And of course, everyone knows younger users don't even use email anymore. (Let's just ignore the fact that you can't open a Facebook account without an email address).

Now, Facebook's set to announce Project Titan on Monday, which is almost universally expected to be an unveiling of Facebook's "Gmail killer" email service.

by Rebecca Lieb 12 November 2010 21:06pm 9 comments

Q&A: So, Larry Fink, why did The Palms decide to try Facebook Deals?

Palms Casino Resort webpage

The Palms Casino Resort is one of those spots in Las Vegas that's notorious for its "hip" status. (It even spawned a reality TV show called "Party @ the Palms"). So when the Palms was featured as one of the first companies to offer location-based deals on Facebook, the pairing made sense. After all, "hip" companies are the first to experiment with "hip" new ad units, right?

According to Larry Fink, the Palms Casino Resort's executive director of public relations, offering Facebook Deals is about more than just being hip. It's about creating opportunities to generate incremental revenue from customers already earned through other means.

by Tameka Kee 09 November 2010 13:26pm 1 comment

Facebook launches location-based Deals - will users actually redeem them?

There’s a tug-of-war going on between location-based technology advocates and, well, the rest of the online population. Just 4% of online Americans are actually using location-based services, according to new data from Pew Internet. That paltry adoption hasn’t stopped startups like Foursquare and Gowalla from trying to entice advertisers to offer deals on their location-based platforms.