Foursquare Improves, Expands Information For Businesses

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Foursquare is going after local businesses and major brands with an improved and expanded content section that explains how they can take advantage of Foursquare’s platform. (Announced via Twitter about an hour ago.)

The company’s business outreach has been somewhat scattershot in the past, but the new Foursquare for Business makes a much more compelling case for big and small business owners. There are separate sections for venue owners and brands, each with a step-by-step guide to what Foursquare offers to help reach customers.

Venue owners get information about creating special offers, claiming their Foursquare business page, and the analytics that Foursquare offers once a venue has been claimed. It’s very detailed, even explaining to business owners some recommended ways to track special offer redemptions at the register.

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Brands have a new area just for them where they learn how to create a Foursquare page, add tips to it and — for the first time, I believe — what the criteria are for getting a Foursquare Partner Badge.

All in all, it’s a much more cohesive and marketable sales pitch for Foursquare and should go far in converting business owners into active Foursquare participants. It’s not unlike Twitter’s recent upgrade of its business-targeted content.

Foursquare also recently upgraded the actual business/venue profile pages, giving business owners new URL and Description fields to add depth to those pages.

Related Topics: Channel: Local | Foursquare | Top News

About The Author: Matt McGee is Editor-In-Chief of Search Engine Land. His news career includes time spent in TV, radio, and print journalism. His web career continues to include a small number of SEO and social media consulting clients, as well as regular speaking engagements at marketing events around the U.S. He blogs at Small Business Search Marketing and can be found on Twitter at @MattMcGee and/or on Google Plus. You can read Matt's disclosures on his personal blog. See more articles by Matt McGee

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Sarah Douglas

How unfortunate that they don’t seem to have updated their ownership verification process – until that is improved I won’t be recommending their service to clients.
Matt McGee

Hi Sarah – the verification process is pretty similar to Google Places, Bing Maps, etc., isn’t it? You claim the business and then Foursquare asks you to verify by phone or postcard, I think. Or do I have it wrong?
Sarah Douglas

There’s no timeline for it. The last attempt at verification we tried took literally months. That’s a long time to expect a business to sit with their hands tied, since most of the features require verification to access.
Matt McGee

Maybe they just added a timeline? If you go into the “Venues” area, they have this on the last tab (about claiming your venue): “This will bring you straight to the claiming process, where you can verify immediately over the phone or within two weeks by mail verification.”