Foursquare is a social media platform that you can use for your own personal use or as an effective strategy of advertising your business. Many businesses large and small are using Foursquare and other social media in order to keep their customers up-to-date on events and to reach out to potential customers.

 

What Is Foursquare?

Foursquare is a location-based social media application. It uses maps of local areas to promote social interaction and also includes games. Users can utilize the Foursquare application on their mobile devices to ‘check in’ at businesses and locations they are patronizing. Foursquare is free for users and the trend for ‘checking in’ is still growing. Users can also add a business they frequent if it is not already listed. For each check-in, Foursquare users will earn points, accumulate badges, and ultimately become the ‘Mayor’ of different businesses based on their check-in frequency.

 

How Does Foursquare Help Grow a Business?

Foursquare, like other social media outlets, can help bring a business to the forefront of the target audience. In many cases, the business itself does not have to be a very active participant in using Foursquare to successfully use it for promotion. As more people are proactive about using the application, businesses are reaping the rewards of word-of-mouth advertising.

Customers do a lot of your promotional work for your business on Foursquare as they can leave tips for other people patronizing your business. This can help to build your reputation in the online community. The more people share their location at your business, the more work will spread.

 

Effective Foursquare Business Strategies

There are a number of ways to use this social media application to improve your business and grow your customer base. Here is a look at some of the common concepts business have been using to promote the products or services:

Race for Mayor – users of Foursquare can hold the distinct honor of becoming the Mayor of your establishment based on how often they check-in at your location. To provide extra incentives for customers to seek the position of Mayor, a business can offer specials including free merchandise, gift cards, or exclusive discounts to whoever is crowned mayor.

Monthly Foursquare Events – through your Foursquare account, a business can offer exclusive deals or events that are only available to users of the application. Not only can this increase the interest in a business, it can also help encourage people to learn more about Foursquare itself thereby growing your potential audience.

Customer Incentives – there are many simple but effective marketing campaigns you can provide to your customers through Foursquare that offer incentives for checking-in that can be promoted through other social medial applications including Facebook.

Since Foursquare is an ideal way to make direct contact with your target audience, it is worth the time to learn more about the many ways it can be used to market your products or services in real-time. Consistency and active participation are the two most important ingredients in a successful Foursquare marketing strategy for any sized business.

Ready to try it for your business? Sign up here. Would you like a hand setting up your account and brainstorming some other social media ideas? Let the experts at IntelliSites and Burst Marketing help.

Filed under: Articles & News, Social Media, Web Tips and How-tos
Tags: business, Foursquare, marketing, social, Social Media
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How many is too many? When it comes to browser toolbars, usually one or two is plenty.

A problem we see all the time is a browser with too many toolbars.

They can crop up unexpectedly – especially if you unintentionally install them.

Like that painting you bought last year and hung in your living room, it’s easy to overlook toolbars after just a short while.

These days it’s not uncommon to still have a small monitor or a laptop screen that’s blown up so you can read small text. But if you have too many toolbars at the top, your browser window size could be diminished by a third or even half (we’ve seen it before)!

First off, why do you need them? Are you really using the toolbars or were they neat for a day and now you’re not sure how to get rid of them?

Second, they could be harming your computer by allowing malware, viruses, etc. in without your knowing.

Third, it could be slowing down your browser. Those little bars are loading every time you open your browser.

Getting rid of toolbars

So you’re ready to delete those space-hogging potentially dangerous toolbars. Congratulations.

Really all you need to do is right click on the toolbar itself and uncheck the toolbars you don’t need. There may be many of them.

You may also have to remove the root program as well through your computer’s Control Panel. You may want to ask your friendly office IT person to help.

Remember that when you’re browsing the Internet, be careful to read those messages that pop up so you don’t get suckered into clicking yes to download something you really don’t want.

Still wondering about how end users might see your site? Let the experts at Burst Marketing and IntelliSites help!

Filed under: Articles & News, Experiencing the Web, General News, Web Tips and How-tos
Tags: browser, Internet, internet browser, malware, popups, surfing, toolbar, toolbars, viruses
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As a follow-up to last week’s post, we’ll be dissecting a recent study that breaks down Facebook best practices.

The group, Buddy Media, analyzed the posts of companies in a wide-range of industries and concluded things like the best time to post, the best lengths of posts and more.

The take-away from their study is basically to follow the KISS rule (Keep it simple, stupid) – aka don’t make your customers think too much. Keep your posts short, simple and to the point.

When to post

More people will engage with your Facebook posts if they’re made between 8 p.m. and 7 a.m., according to the study.

Wednesdays had the highest response rate with weekends having the lowest.

What and how often to post

Simplicity is king on Facebook.

Companies that had the best results made two or fewer posts per day and had posts with 80 characters or fewer. The difference in response to posts under 80 characters compared to those over 80 was 66 percent higher.

And when it comes to discounts, “‘$ OFF’ offers receive twice the engagement of ‘% OFF’ offers,” according to Buddy Media. That keeps potential customers from having to do math.

Need some help getting into the Facebook world or just improving your day-to-day posting? Let IntelliSites’ Albany web design team help.

Filed under: Lead Capture, Social Media, Web Tips and How-tos
Tags: Facebook, marketing, Social Media
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Some companies really get social media. If you’re one of these, you probably know who you are.

Some companies well… they don’t so much. Humorously, they often don’t know they’re clueless. Even more ridiculously, they think they ‘got it’ first.

Have you ever been to a playground where there’s that one parent who never smiles? You know. Their kids are running around laughing, screaming but that parent just sits on the bench with that “why did we decide to have one more” look. And they’re like that every time you see them?

Welcome to the playground that is social media.

Some companies are great at social media and others just try too hard.

Their Tweets are so dumbed down after layers upon layers of corporate red tape that their social media branding comes across as fake (understatement) and contrived.

It’s not even a battle of quality versus quantity. It’s more like that smile a husband gives his wife who puts on her wedding dress on their anniversary.

Or like mom when she tries to sing along to your favorite song.

Take a look at the photo above. Is it obvious to you which ones get it and which one doesn’t get it?

Note the word “social” in social media. Be real. Talk to your followers and fans like you would a friend. Not like a judge. Ask their opinions on things. Make yourself relatable. And actually respond if you ask a question (it’s called a Retweet, people). Don’t spam your followers with stupid sales and gimmicks. Funny photos are great – but not of your crotch.

Don’t just try to be social, actually be social. Otherwise, you become that guy who just stands over your desk at work until you acknowledge his arrival.

People (especially younger ones), current customers and potential clients are more electronically intuitive these days. They know when posts are lifeless.

Not sure where to start? If you’re talking about it in your office, talk about it online, too. The Internet is like one giant water cooler (our water cooler has a life of its own. Follow @intellicooler).

Are you taking in your surroundings every day and enjoying the ride? Do YOU get it?

Filed under: Experiencing the Web, Marketing Your Site, Social Media, Uncategorized, Web Tips and How-tos
Tags: Faceboook, fake, fans, followers, friends, interaction, people, photos, playground, social, Social Media, tweets, twitter
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Maybe you didn’t even know you had a cache until two seconds ago. But you do. And it’s likely that it needs a good clearing. Being an Albany Web Design company, we’re clearing the cache on all of our browsers (yes, we use a bunch) pretty frequently.

Your cache is your collection of temporary internet files. Whenever you surf the web, your browser gathers some souvenirs that will make it easier to return to sites you visit. Instead of having to download every little detail of a site every time you visit, the cache collects files that your computer can use to help display the site next time around.

It’s a great idea…except websites do get updated from time to time, and to make sure you see the full effect of those updates, you need to clear out the old info stored in your browser. Add to that all the websites that you visit once and never return to.  (Like that time one click led to another, and you ended up on a dating site especially for Elvis impersonators.)  And pieces of those particular sites could be taking up room on your hard drive. And the more things that take up room on your hard drive, the more your computer will behave as if it’s trying to dance with a washing machine strapped to its back.

Luckily, it’s a super easy fix. So to clear your cache and make sure things are running smoothly, here’s what you do:

If you’re a Firefox 4 user…

1. Start the browser (a.k.a. go on the internet)
2. Click the “Firefox” button in the upper left
3. Hover over “History”
4. Click on “Clear Recent History”
5. Click “Clear Now”

If you’re a Chrome user…

1. Start the browser
2. Click the little wrench icon on the upper right of the window
3. Click “Options”
4. Select “Under the Hood” on the left side
5. Click the “Clear browsing data” button
6. Click the “Clear browsing data” button again

If you use Internet Explorer 9…

1. Start the browser
2. Click the little gear icon on the upper right of the window
3. Click “Internet options”
4. Click the “Delete” button in the Browser history section
5. Click the “Delete” button

If you have Internet Explorer 8…

1. Start the browser
2. Click on the “Tools” menu and select “Internet Options”
3. Click the “Delete” button in the Browser history section
4. Click the “Delete” button

If you surf with Internet Explorer 7…

1. Start the browser
2. Click on the “Tools” menu and choose “Internet Options”
3. In the “General” tab, find the “Browsing History” section and click “Delete”
4. On the pop up window that comes up, click “Delete files”
5. When a window asks you if you’re sure you want to do this, click “Yes”

If you still have Internet Explorer 6…it’s time to get a new browser. Zing!

(Fine, we’ll help you get that cache cleared anyway. But get browser shopping, will ya?)

1. Start the browser
2. Click on the “Tools” menu and choose “Internet Options”
3. In the “General” tab, click “Delete Files”
4. Click “OK” when the box comes up, and then click “OK” again when the next box comes up.

And if you’re a Safari guy or gal…

1. Start the browser
2. Click on the “Safari” menu and click “Empty Cache”
3. When you’re asked if you’re sure, click “Empty”

So there you have it, instructions for most browsers on how to clear your cache. If you’re into shortcuts, try using ctrl+shift+del to pull up the window to clear your browsing data. This shortcut works on just about every browser, and will save you a few clicks.

Be sure to clear out your cache regularly, then sit back and enjoy that special clear cache feeling.

Filed under: Experiencing the Web, Web Tips and How-tos
Tags: cache, clear your cache, web browsers
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