Foursquare has been growing exponentially but it took quit a while to reach one million users, grew more rapidly to reach two million. The last growth spurt was the three million users milestone which occurred in one month.
With the introduction of Facebook Places, Foursquare really caught fire. What can users do with Foursquare? I don't think it has reached its potential. I believe Foursquare, like most social media, has a great upside. Businesses can promote with an incentive for check-ins. You check-in to a location and the frequency can result in you being coronated as the "mayor" if you have been the top visitor that has logged check-ins.
Gowalla is the primary competitor for Foursquare. I think the large and growing group of users will have to see what develops.
I think Foursquare is an interesting tool for dentists... or any business that needs to draw local clients/patients/customers.
ReplyDeleteIt has the added benefit of goosing the search engine results for your website as well. From what I have read Google treats FourSquare very highly in their algorithms.
Were I a dentist, I would use FB Places, Foursquare, Gowalla, and every other location based search site possible. Use all the links pointing to your website/blob that you can find.
Joe Spencer
Transition it Yourself Enthusiast
Great post Dr Fisher, you are completely right
ReplyDeleteabout the the strength of location based websites.
I recommend these tools to my clients
because of the added benefit of being found
on mobile devices. They have seen increases
in their business by 12-14%, simply by
promoting check-in offers.
Yelp.com is another location based tool that
you may want to utilize in order to promote
your dental practice.
Warmest regards, John Komatsoulis