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Can Foursquare be an adequate social CRM for small businesses?
I came across a blog post by Parker Smith and he claims that Foursquare can be THE social CRM application for small businesses. Do you agree with this statement? Why or why not? What would Foursquare need to do to truly become a social CRM application?
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3 Answers
Foursquare can become extremely valuable for small businesses if consumers truly adopt its usage. In the early days, 4sq gained users because its "cool" to check into places and have your friends see where you are. Yes, there was the promise of potentially getting a deal but that was not my main intention for checking it. It's easy to do and integrates with Twitter/FB. The problem now lies in the fact that FB now has its own application that allows for checkins at locations. What now is the incentive for users to check-in with 4sq? The original promise that users will qualify for exclusive offers when they checkin at certain locations. That will only happen in mass if in indeed 4sq can figure out how to get small businesses to claim their venue and offer discounts at mass scale. How will they do that? A massive inside sales force, some other mass outreach mechanism to small businesses through a partnership? if they figure that out, then 4sq indeed can become a great tool for small businesses...
The answer is "No, FourSquare is not a social CRM solution."
Social CRM implies a broader strategy of customer engagement: interacting with customers online in the places the frequent and congregate. Think about communities, online forums, Twitter, Facebook, and other spots as channels of interaction. Each channel offers a conduit for engaging with customers.
However, true (and successful) social CRM requires an overall strategy. What are you trying to achieve through the interaction and how does it work within the context of your overall set of business objectives?
FourSquare offers a nice tool to help customers evangelize and spread the word. It can also help you reward frequent customers. But it's only one means to reach out and certainly does not constitute a social CRM strategy.
I suggest reading the work of Paul Greenberg on this topic. He is also a Focus Expert Advisor and has written some great material here on Focus about social CRM.
I think it really depends on the product. If it's a B2B company, it's going to be a lot harder to leverage an app like four square, however, I think local small B2C businesses can definitely leverage it for coupons, deals etc. Also, since the question was more about CRM which tends to be more for B2B, I actually think that B2C companies are starting to behave more like B2B, and referral / loyalty programs are going to be more important than ever.
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