Claiming Your Business On Foursquare

By Greg Bellan On November 8, 2011 · Leave a Comment · In Education, Social Media

Foursquare – https://foursquare.com/ – is a locations based application that helps you explore the world, meet up with friends, discover new places, save money and have fun doing it. It was founded in 2007 by Dennis Crowley & Naveen Selvaduri while they were working in the same office space for different companies in New York City. Check out what our friends at Acroment had to say about the service here: Foursquare Vs. Facebook Places – Checking In?

Now that you’re familiar with the application itself the next step is to get your business verified. Here’s how:

CLAIM YOUR BUSINESS

Claiming your business on Foursquare is actually a lot easier than you may think. Essentially, it’s just a matter of going to the venue page for your business and letting them know that you’d like to claim the venue:

Once you’ve claimed your venue, you’ll be asked to provide some info about who you are, your business, etc. (You know… they can’t have just anyone claiming venues now can they?) You can see all the details at https://foursquare.com/business/ Once you’ve gone through that process, you’ll need to verify that you are who you say you are. This is handled either via phone or mail (NOT email).

VERIFY YOUR CLAIM

If you go the U.S. mail route, you’ll get this slick little verification package in the mail, complete with your Foursquare window cling.

Go back to the site, enter your verification code and congratulations… you’re now the proud owner of a Foursquare venue! You may be asking yourself, “Why should I go through this? Do I get anything other than a windy cling?“ The answer is a resounding, “Yes!“

CONGRATS – NOW WHAT?

Now that you’re the verified owner of a venue, you can do a couple of things:

Edit Venue – this seems like a no-brainer until you realize that Foursquare allows ANYONE to create the initial location. You’ll want to make sure that everything is spelled correctly (including capitalization you want), your address, phone number and other info (Twitter, website, etc.) is correct.
Manage Specials – For select businesses, you can create Foursquare specific “specials” for your users. Per the site, there are two exceptions/guidelines here. 1) Businesses must be able to instantly fulfill the offer. Advertisements, future offers, and general messaging are not permitted and 2) The special must be unique for foursquare users. Offers available to the general public are not permitted.
Venue Stats – Once you’re verified, you can now see a whole slew of analytics about your business. Some of these stats include: All-time check-ins, current mayor, visits, average check-ins per day, unique visitors, how often check-ins are shared with social networks (Facebook & Twitter) and much more.