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Foursquare vs. Facebook Places – Which is Better for Marketing Your Apartment Community?

Nov 9th, 2010
by daisynguyen.
6 comments

OK, I’ll admit it. I’m a Foursquare GEEK, and now, with the launch of Facebook Places, I am TOTALLY CONFUSED. There’s so much news out about Facebook Places – what will be the best tool for helping your outreach or marketing efforts at your apartment communities? Which application will help you stay connected to more apartment residents, attract more apartment prospects, give you more positive exposure?

Some background:

I use facebook as a place to connect with friends and collegues, keep up with the latest news about places/businesses I “like,” and connect with other like-minded individuals.

I use foursquare to find out about places near me, get tips based on my location, and I hate to admit it, but I secretly covet being “mayor” and earning badges.

If I am a typical user, how does this information help YOU market your apartment communities or connect with prospects and residents?

Let’s put them in the boxing  ring and see who wins:

  1. ROUND ONE: First thing I do when I go somewhere is to look on Foursquare to see which businesses near me have tips, read them, and see if I want to try something new, or stick with my tried and true favorites. Currently very easy to do on Foursquare. AND Foursquare has had A LOT more activity – resulting in lots of tips & deals with local businesses. Facebook Places – I have not found a way to leave a tip or find tips others have left. The only way to see what others think about a place is IF that business has connected their facebook PLACE to their facebook PAGE, and you can see the information and wall of a business’ facebook place/page. This is a big IF. And even IF a business has connected their facebook place to their facebook page, you’ll only see their wall. There’s not really a place that encourages users to leave other information for other users. WINNER: Foursquare
  2. ROUND TWO: When I am marketing an apartment community (or even a retail business), I look for tools where I have control over the content, easy way to communicate my brand and my message. With Foursquare Places, it is easy to claim my “place,” connect it to my community’s facebook page, and manipulate the content users see when they find me. Additionally, if someone leaves an potentially negative remark or comment on my page, in Facebook, I can delete it. With Foursquare, I can claim my business on Foursquare -but there is no way to customize it beyond providing the basic info. Additionally, user can leave whatever comments and tips they want, I have no control over their comments. WINNER: From a business/marketing perspective, Facebook Places is the CLEAR winner.
  3. ROUND THREE: Deals. Everyone loves a deal. How easy is it to find places with “specials” or “deals?” On Facebook Places, when you bring up the app, all the businesses around you will be listed. If there is a “special” or “deal,” there is a little cut-out square icon that resembles a coupon. It was somewhat easy to spot. On Foursquare, when you open the app, it locates all the businesses close to you, and if there are any “specials” or “deals,”  the word “SPECIAL” shows up. Its much easier to spot, and there is no question as to the purpose. So, for all practical purposes, this is almost a tie. HOWEVER, as I searched through local businesses that I know are running deals, I found more deals on Foursquare than I did on Facebook Places. WINNER: FOURSQUARE through a technicality. - This may change if Facebook Places can attract more businesses and “specials” and “deals.”
  4. Round Four: Activity & Users – who has more? According to a recent Business Insider article from October 29th, 2010, although Facebook Places has 7X more users, those users are not as active as the 4 million foursquare users. WINNER: Foursquare
  5. Round Five: The FUN factor. In foursquare, as stupid as it may sound, I enjoy being a “mayor” and receiving”badges” for checking in. One of my friends, a VP of a large company in Minnesota, recently emailed me to say, “I just became the MAYOR at a local joint. I am secretly quite proud!” Facebook places currently does not have an incentive to check-in except for the possibility of a deal or “special.” WINNER: Foursquare.

Foursquare wins 4 out of 5 rounds because it meets the wants of its users. That’s a page from the facebook business book – build an application for the end-users, and the business will come. Score one for the small guy!

As it is with social media, today’s giants can be tomorrow’s cold empty grave. It’ll be interesting to see what Foursquare and Facebook Places have in the way of updates and changes over the next few months! But its clear that things are FAR from over for Foursquare.

I should mention that even though the end-user experience is much better on Foursquare, the Facebook Places application is more business-friendly. AND Facebook has HUGE potential to reach its over 500 million users.

I am still TOTALLY confused. Who will win? Can they continue to co-exist?

Depending on what YOUR marketing needs, goals, or objectives are, you may want to use one or both of these as part of your marketing approach/outreach efforts for your apartment community. If you are using Foursquare or Facebook Places to help market or as an outreach tool for your apartment community, please leave me a comment and share with everyone how you view one or both, or how you are using them!

Below is a comparison Matrix of Location Based Social Networks produced by Mark Fidelman on Flickr.com.



Don’t GET IT? RENT SODA! GET IT!

-Daisy Nguyen in Minneapolis, Minnesota MN

CEO/President

RENTSODA-small

Offering Apartment Marketing, Apartment Business & Operations Consulting & Apartment Industry Training

Web: RentSoda.com Email: Daisy {at} RentSoda(.)com

Become a fan of RENTSODA on facebook.  Connect with RENTSODA on LinkedIn!

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Using Foursquare for Marketing Apartment Communities

Sep 22nd, 2010
by daisynguyen.
2 comments

I LOVE Foursquare, and find it not only a cool app, but a great marketing tool. If you aren’t as geeky as I am, you’re probably wondering, WHAT is Foursquare? WHY would I want to use Foursquare as a marketing tool for my apartment community? HOW would I use foursquare?

WHAT is Foursquare?

For me as an individual, I LOVE Foursquare, as it allows me to not only let all my friends know where I am, its a great way to find out what’s AROUND ME, get tips from seasoned visitors, AND get SPECIALS at some of my local favorite places! In my travels, I’ve been in unfamiliar cities without a single clue as to where to eat/shop, what to order/do. VOILE! Foursquare to the rescue! Once the application is installed on my phone, I can just open the application, Foursquare locates me, and gives me a list of some of the nearby places. If I see anything appealing, there is a section for “TIPS” where other visitors have left little nuggets for other foursquare users. I’ve tried some DELICIOUS foods that I normally would have never ordered, found great little shops that I would otherwise have never ventured, and tried new locations I just would not have even noticed.

WHY would I want to use Foursquare as a marketing tool for my apartment community?

I’ve been pondering this question ever since I got hooked on Foursquare. As I used Foursquare more and more, I found a couple of GREAT reasons to use Foursquare for marketing your apartment community:

  1. As I mentioned, Foursquare let’s the user announce to the world (and more importantly) and to a user’s friends, WHERE they ARE. At the time a user “checks into” an establishment, they have the option of adding a comment.

    2. WHO would want to know where YOU ARE?

    The answer is: YOUR friends and followers! Now this is important folks! Foursquare has extended its reach from it’s 3+ million registered users to YOUR FRIENDS on Facebook and YOUR FOLLOWERS on Twitter. So instead of just accessing the 3+million registered users, you are now accessing the friends and followers of users on facebook & twitter. Again, a skeptic may still pose the question, WHO would want to know “where YOU are AT?” YOUR friends and followers on facebook & twitter have “opted in” with you. For whatever reason, they think you’re a cool cat, and they’ve friended you or they are following you on twitter. THOSE people DO want to know WHERE you are. WHY? If you’re the cool cat, they want to know where the cool cats hang, what the cool cat is doing, how do cool cats live, etc. Perhaps they will try those places too! YOUR network DOES want to know WHERE YOU AT? It’s the most asked question when someone calls you on a cell phone – WHERE YOU AT?

  2. So, now that we’ve established that YOU are a cool cat, and your friends and followers DO want to know WHERE YOU AT, doesn’t it make sense that if you are announcing to the world that you just checked into “ABC Apartments,” that your friends and followers (who we presume are similar to you in some way) see that you just checked in at “ABC Apartments,” and they may want to check it out too? In addition, everytime YOU check in at ABC Apartments, ABC Apartments just got their brand name out there to all YOUR friends who are presumable similar to you in one way or another. Hmmm… its starting to look like we’re marketing to our target market!
  3. Even if YOU aren’t a cool cat, the early adopters of Foursquare ARE. The users of foursquare have an audience of friends on facebook and followers on twitter that see WHERE THEY ARE every time they check into YOUR apartment community. Since they live at YOUR apartment community, it’s not a far stretch to assume that a few of their friends/followers are similar to them and maybe interested in living at your Apartment community too. This is a soft marketing approach – but one that helps to get your brand and your name out there. When someone is ready to look for apartments, they will remember that their friend, John Doe, lives at ABC apartments and has checked in a dozen or so times in the last couple of months.

    4. NAME RECOGNITION! Gotta love that.

  4. TIPS! On Foursquare, there is an option to leave TIPS for other visitors. In the apartment industry, we so often complain about apartmentratings.com . I feel it has a lot to do with the negative connotation of the word “ratings.” What if it was called Apartmenttips.com? Would it change the way people who leave those reviews feel about what they are expected to do? In any case, on Foursquare, its called “TIPS.” And when I think of “tips,” I get a happy/GOOD feeling rather as opposed to the word “review” where I am left thinking I need to be a critic and criticize. TIPS on foursquare are usually positive, often little tidbits of useful information. I seldom see negative comments, although they do exist. Why not encourage people to leave tips about the apartment community? Any positive buzz you can create is ANOTHER positive way to reach YOUR market.

How can I use FOURSQUARE as a marketing tool for my apartment community?

  1. Make sure your apartment community is on foursquare, and that the correct information is listed.
  2. Encourage people to check in on Foursquare!
  3. To encourage prospects to check-in on foursquare, perhaps your apartment community can offer some kind of a special – $$ of the application fee? A rent special? Whatever the case, it can be as big or as small as you deem fit. The specials I have seen are Foursquare are mostly for restaurants and social hangouts – most specials are for free drinks or appetizers of some sort – its never something earth shattering, but it makes you, as a user, pay attention to what your options are – and when you have options, you’re likely to try something new.
  4. To encourage your apartment residents to check-in, perhaps the Mayor of your Apartment Community (the person who checks into your community the most) gets something special. -How about the mayor gets a preferential parking spot? How cool would that be, to have a sign that reads “PARKING for the MAYOR of ABC Apartments…”
  5. Claim your business on Foursquare. That means, go to http://Foursquare.com , set-up an account, and claim your business. Once you have been verified, you can start to run official foursquare “specials.”*
  6. Even if you can’t run official foursquare specials, I’ve seen companies leave their “special” as a “tip” on foursquare.

*At the time of this blog post, Foursquare states that foursquare “specials” are geared for businesses where people “meet, socialize and linger.” I’m curious if this definition extends to apartment communities? If you are an apartment community that is running official foursquare specials, please leave us a comment and let us know!

Do you FOURSQUARE? Please leave us a comment about your experience!

Don’t GET IT? RENT SODA! GET IT!

-Daisy Nguyen in Minneapolis, Minnesota MN

CEO/President

RENTSODA-small

Offering Apartment Marketing, Apartment Business & Operations Consulting & Apartment Industry Training

Web: RentSoda.com Email: Daisy {at} RentSoda(.)com

Become a fan of RENTSODA on facebook.  Connect with RENTSODA on LinkedIn!

Follow RENTSODA on Twitter!

Be the first to like.
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