Foursquare and Twitter done right

Frequently when I travel, I check in to hotels and restaurants on Foursquare and send photos of places I find interesting via Instagram and Facebook. I've done this in several hundred places.

Normally nothing happens on the other side. There is no engagement from the hotel or restaurant on Twitter. There is nothing happening on Foursquare. They don't care about instant engagement.

Foursquare done right

When I arrived at The Oberoi Grand in Kalkata (Calcutta), India and checked in via Foursquare, I unlocked a special. Nice. Great real-time connection. The special said: "Extended stay offer: Enjoy a complimentary third night with every two consecutive bights booked at any of our hotels in Agra, Jaipur or Udaipur". It pointed to this link which offered exactly what was promised. (Many such offers point to a generic home page).

Twitter done right

Later I tweeted a photo of the hotel bar and sure enough Oberoi Hotels retweeted me.

Stand out in social media through real-time engagement

Very few hotels and restaurants engage this way. So I found this experience unique and delightful. In a commodity business like hotels (after all there are many options of places to stay), social media can be a great way to stand out. Then people talk about you like I'm doing here.

Comments

[Michael Unan]

... and then you post this on your blog, someone I follow on Twitter tweets your article, I re-tweet it and then add your RSS feed to my reader, I follow you on Twitter, like you on FB, etc. etc.,

What a great example of the circle-of-social-media .. thanks for sharing.

Michael

[David Meerman Scott]

Michael -- Exactly! And maybe someone reading this is planning a trip to Calcutta!

[Ian Brodie]

A year or so ago when I tweeted I'd just eaten in Wahaca the mexican restaurant in London, they tweeted me back checking if I'd had a good time and asking what I'd eaten. When I answered back they replied again - complimenting my choice if I remember rightly.

They didn't have to make an offer or do anything. Just tweeting me back with a human response within an hour of my tweet made me feel rather good about them.

Ian

[Web Application Development]

I, too, was not the biggest fan of FourSquare when I first signed up. I'm not a fan of the world knowing my every move. Now, I religiously use the app for reviews and explore. I've even used it to reference when/where I've been somewhere before as my memory fails. Heading to a new city or a repeat city, check-ins serve as a memory bank for the next visit.

[Colin Warwick]

Here's the trouble. Most of us doing this are doing it because it's right, not because we get brownie points from the high-ups. We're basically doing "new rules" on our own time. There are so many potential sites out there to curate and only a limited amount of time. How to focus? For my business, I can see ROI with search, blogging, and LinkedIn. I don't see value in Foursquare, Facebook, and Twitter. And don't even get me started on Pinterest... I guess you have to pick your battles... and your audience... Cheers!

[Anton Koekemoer]

Hi David,

Great post – Thanks for sharing your experience with us. And couldn’t agree more – One would think with the amount of marketing that a lot of businesses and hotels do they would at least value real-time engagement with their customers , not to mention building relationships and a bigger potential for return business due to customer satisfaction and engagement.

[Kent]

If you are in need, it is a great real time connection. If you are not in need, then the message becomes an annoying and interrupted message.

[Rj_c]

I have coached and help some of my clients in the Restaurant and hotel Industry to engage more.

Some bloggers had even written about one of the restaurants I worked along with and just by commenting on the blog the person was so grateful and became a regular.

Replying back as a business is one of the most critical aspects of online engagement.

[Web Application Developer]

Imagine for a moment if you tried that trick in your off-line business. Let’s say, you put a sign in your shop window saying “Free Newspapers today” but when you have attracted the customer into your store you tell them that in fact the “free” newspaper comes with a Latte costing €4.

[Tools for Web Designers]

People today are very attach to any social media sites and it's common that most hotels and restaurants engage this way.