If you use Foursquare on a regular basis, do you realize you’re part of a vast conspiracy to trick you into making their board of directors millions?
This is a social network that’s based on getting you to check in wherever you go…just like you refused to do with your parents when you were a teen!
The genius behind this trend in social media games is to reward people with badges, like the Boy and Girl Scouts do (kids go nuts doing good deeds for a simple, colorful badge). Foursquare makes you crave all the fun looking badges that you can only acquire by ‘checking in’ and searching your smartphone to see if a venue is on the list of approved places. Your favorite diggs not on the list? Add it and you could become mayor!
Well guess what entrepreneurs and online business people: You can use this same tactic to grow fans and customers.
The Website Scavenger Hunt
One of the smartest ways to incentivize people to linger on your website is to give them a reason to dig deeper. It’s like the psychology that retail stores rely on. Store owners know the longer you stay in their shop, the more likely you are to make a purchase. So here’s how to improve your odds at scoring new fans, followers and customers:
Run a contest and ‘hide’ the winning ticket deep inside the pages of your website
I’ll give you an example. Instead of driving all your visitors to Facebook, reverse the flow and encourage fans on all the major social networks to head to your website to find a prize like concert tickets. This is perfect for local brick and mortar shops who also have a web presence, because mostly local people will be motivated to win.
Alright, so you want to make this easy or else no one will play.
Rules of the game are: Search our website for the ‘golden ticket’ image, then copy the URL of the page it’s on and post the link on Facebook. When the winner posts the link, ask them to call you for information on picking up the prize. This will build your social media presence and get more people spending more time on your website (looking at more content — remember the store psychology we mentioned earlier?).
Mayors Drink Free — Tell Your Friends
Three of my friends here in Burlington, VT duke it out over Foursquare mayorships like there’s a world championship on the line. I kind of get it. I mean, if you can snag a bunch of mayorships and leave tips for people at your favorite spots, you’ll get more fans almost as a rule. So why aren’t more businesses thinking along these lines?
A lot of big businesses like Starbucks drop major cash on ‘specials’ to draw people into their shops, but you can do the same without all the expense. Again, leverage all the social nets you participate on (including your blog) to spread the word about just how valuable it is to be the mayor of your business.
For example, a local coffee shop could put a picture of the mayor on a board with the announcement that they drink free (within reason anyways). Then encourage this mayor to write favorable reviews on Yelp and Google as a payback.
Bottom Line: Turn your online marketing strategy into a game. And give people a damn good reason to play!
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