Checking in – I’m at….

I am at Whole Foods…

I love to grill and I will grill out in almost any weather – even in the snow.   So I went to Whole Foods today looking for some good organic chicken for dinner.   If you have never tried Whole Foods’ organic chicken breasts, then you have not experienced the best chicken out there – yum.

While waiting in front of the meat counter I decided to “check in” using Facebook places and FourSquare.  These are two applications that let a person “check in” – telling others where they are and get special vendor deals – when they are out and about.

So I whipped out my iPhone and “checked in”.  FourSquare told me there was a special deal with Whole Foods.  After you check in 10 times at Whole Foods on FourSquare, you get a free pepperoni pizza from their prepared foods department.  I also noticed a friend of mine had checked into FourSquare at Whole Foods, but they already left.

There wasn’t a special deal on Facebook.

Now I know many of you think this is a little creepy, but please read on.

Geo check in is one of the hottest emerging trends in social media.   You can “check in” using a smart phone (like my iPhone) when you are at a store, park, restaurant, airport, etc.  Why would someone check in?

• You can let your friends know where you are (we will cover security in a future tip)
• You can get deals from the store when you check in
• You can get deals by checking in multiple times
• You can see if a friend is at the same location as you
• And It’s fun

The market leader in this space is FourSquare, but Facebook is hot on their tails.  If you own a business with a physical location, then you have to try these new technologies out.  If you don’t own a business with a physical location, you should try it out because it will open your eyes to a new, emerging technology that you will still be able to harness some day.  And it’s fun.

As a business owner you can offer different kinds of deals to your customers.  When a person looks on their phone for what is around them, the fact that you are offering a deal will show up – incentive to get them into your location. Here are the types of deals you can offer using Facebook:

Individual Deal: You can offer something for free, a discount or any type of offer to someone who checks into your store.  All they do is check in and show the person at the cash register the coupon on their phone. 

Friend Deal: You can offer a deal where a group of people have to check in to get the deal.   So bring your best friends and get a great deal! Facebook supports up to 8 people in a deal.  Friend Deals are a great way to build even more exposure for your business because more stories are generated when multiple people check-in.

Loyalty Deal: This is like a punch card for your business.  These deals may be claimed by customers only after a certain number of check-ins – like my Whole Foods example. Depending on your business, the number of check-ins may vary.

Charity Deal: Check in and we will donate $$ to xyz charity.  “A great way for your business to give back to the community while adding a human touch to your business.”

FourSquare also has deals, but they go beyond deals by making the act of checking in fun.  For example, if you check in often you can become the “Mayor” of a place and you can get special badges.   I expect Facebook to add these “fun” features over time.

So try it out!   It’s fun and exciting (and yes, kind of creepy).  In a future tip we will talk about the security settings you need to be aware of when using these cool new tools.

Checking out for now

Dedicated to your success.

Greg Pitstick & Bill Brown