4 Tips for Using Foursquare For Restaurants

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The restaurant-hunting application Foursquare and its 50 million users has probably cropped up many times in recent years as your restaurant has researched new and hip food-finding services.  Like Yelp, Foursquare’s platform caters to foodies first, and not to your restaurant – keeping an objective review-based rating of your restaurant that’s constantly changing, and not of your own accord. They also provide this data to other apps and services (like Uber) to help provide location-based information to their users. Because Foursquare, like Yelp, aims to give the consumer the best possible experience, and not give its restaurant’s any free publicity, it takes much more work to respond to and engage with your Foursquare commenters. However, with any application that facilitates conversation and feedback, you can often sway your ratings and market yourself by simply being positive, respectful, and active on their platform. With these four tips on using Foursquare for restaurants, you will maximize the amount of good publicity you receive on the platform, and entice a chunk of that 50 million-large audience into visiting your restaurant.

#4. Develop a Basis for a Foursquare Ranking

If your restaurant isn’t present on any social media, doesn’t respond well to online comments, or hasn’t even claimed your location and address listing on Yelp, then Foursquare, and your audience of guests, will be unable to draw any sorts of conclusions about the value of your cuisine. Foursquare looks at ratings from everywhere, all across the internet, which means your restaurant needs to take ample time to develop some internet “credit”. Like paying your credit card bill on time in order to build confidence for a future loan, investing your time and effort into cultivating the best possible online version of yourself can have a huge impact on your promotional potential on Foursquare. Spend time developing these two particular areas of influence that Foursquare uses to sort its restaurants in order to develop your strongest basis for review:

, will be unable to draw any sorts of conclusions about the value of your cuisine. Foursquare looks at ratings from everywhere, all across the internet, which means your restaurant needs to take ample time to develop some internet “credit”. Like paying your credit card bill on time in order to build confidence for a future

loan, investing your time and effort into cultivating the best possible online version of yourself can have a huge impact on your promotional potential on Foursquare. Spend time developing these two particular areas of influence that Foursquare uses to sort its restaurants in order to develop your strongest basis for review:

  • Information.
    Foursquare allows its users to search for restaurants using specific filters…but if you haven’t specified the answers to their questions anywhere online, your restaurant is that much more likely to be ranked low, or not appear at all, on the platform.
  • Ratings.
    Foursquare bases its location searches and relevant restaurant recommendations on reviews, comments, and ratings found all throughout the world wide web. If your restaurant’s social media manager doesn’t take the time to soothe angry customers, correct problems, or thank those that praise you, your overall ratings could go do, and demote you to a lower ranking on the platform.

#3. Develop Your Human Connection.

  • Foursquare took the idea behind Yelp and developed it twice as far, which means that twice as much importance is placed on what your customers’ experiences are like when they dine with you. From great service to cute cutlery, the guests on Foursquare are typically from a younger demographic, and are less focused on great food being the only concern – they want the whole experience. Every task that gets completed in your restaurant should be done in exactly the way you want to be talked about online – friendly, upbeat, and always ready to please the guest. Your food could be spectacular, but without great service, your Foursquare ratings will plummet, and you’ll miss out on an entire market of guests who could become return customers.

#2. Engage Inside the Platform.

Drawing on the comments your guests leave about your restaurant on Foursquare is the best thing the application offers for your restaurant. Oftentimes, from the inside, you might be entirely unaware that your kitchen expo is taking too long or that your water glasses are too heavy for most people to hold. Small details make an incredible impact on whether or not the picky online customer chooses your establishment or someone else’s. Consistently reading and responding to comments from users will revolutionize the way you see your internal operations and will have a huge impact on the outsider’s opinion of your restaurant. Maintaining a good reputation online also means maintaining a good reputation in person, and reputations aren’t constructed by the people they’re about. Set yourself up for success by correcting any problems or concerns your Foursquare visitors have, and your feedback will be only constructive.

#1. Be Yourself.

The whole point of Foursquare is to create a link between their users’ needs and whichever restaurant the application feels best satisfies them. Because this approach tends to weed out all the restaurants that aren’t a genuinely solid match for their clientele, it’s very hard for an establishment on Foursquare to fake their credentials (especially since so many of their ratings require time and effort from other websites and apps). Furthermore, Foursquare takes the time to indicate which customers have visited a restaurant multiple times, and what they’ve had to say. This features gives your restaurant the incredible opportunity to recognize who your return customers are, and why they like you so much. However, if you aren’t functioning at your best, or don’t know what your best even looks like, then it’s unlikely you’ll be able to create these lasting return-customer bonds on the platform. Foursquare prides itself on seeking out the best of the best, but the best of the honest best. Having faith in your restaurant’s unique vision and the willpower to bring it to life will ensure that Foursquare, and its 50 million users, take notice of your business for all the right reasons.

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