1. “Twitter is your best friend” Crowley speaks of Twitter () as a distribution channel for all types
of communication, and describes it as the most immediate way to
connect with customers.
“At Foursquare we use Twitter for a little bit of everything: Good
news and bad news, press clippings, RTs [retweets] from other users
and customer service inquires. We’ll tweet when new versions of our
apps are ready for download and tweet when our database is
experiencing hiccups. Keeping users in the know doesn’t take any more
than a few seconds and your most loyal users will spread the word via
RTs.The nature of Foursquare may position it to be more heavily
followed than the typical small business, but the point here is that
small business owners should use Twitter to compliment their
day-to-day work experiences. 2. “Keep it light” The Foursquare team lives by this mantra, so while they share
everything from where they are to what they’re doing, they’re doing so
in edible, consumer-sized bites, perfect for the sporadic attention
spans of their audience. On this front, they’ve opted to use Tumblr ()
as a lightweight blogging platform. Crowley explains, “On our company
Tumblr we’ll post the success stories our users send in, write recaps
of what goes down at Foursquare HQ meetings, and post pics of what
we’re having for lunch. Our staff is full of personality and we try to
show that as much as we can. The story of 16 guys and girls crammed
around four tables is much more interesting than the story of a
faceless Internet startup.” Crowley also advises to apply the “keep it light” philosophy to all
customer-facing initiatives. He also suggests that small business
owners don’t have to be “all business, all the time.” 3. “Guerilla customer service” Foursquare is by no means perfect. As a young startup, the company
faces the challenge of keeping their servers running as they attract
record levels of activity, and doing so always in the public eye. It’s
a daunting position to be in unless it’s approached head-on, and
that’s what Crowley and his team do on a daily basis. “We’ll use
Twitter Search to search for things like “foursquare sucks,”
“foursquare broken,” etc. to find people who are experiencing problems
but who would probably never submit a support ticket. With a quick
@reply we can often shed some light on the issue and do it in
public.”The same guerilla-style customer service is perfect for small
businesses, especially with regard to negative press or unflattering
blog posts and comments. Crowley says, “don’t feel shy, jump in and
comment. Making yourself part of the conversation shows users you’re
listening and care about the issues they have.” 4. “Small and scrappy marketing 4eva” Not everything should be expensive, especially when it comes to
marketing. Small businesses could easily be intimidated by the money
that bigger companies can throw at large campaigns, but bigger isn’t
always better.Steal a page from Foursquare’s play book and get
scrappy. Take the SXSW Interactive festival. Inside the convention
center there were dozens of sponsors with huge tents and elaborate
setups. Here’s what Foursquare did: “Instead [of formulating a
marketing plan] we did two things: #1. Took all the swag we had (pins,
stickers, temporary tattoos) and put them in ziplock bags. Everytime
we found a user that told us how much they loved Foursquare (and there
was an army of them!) we gave them a bag of swag to hand out to their
friends. #2. We picked up a rubber Foursquare ball and a box of chalk,
drew a Foursquare court on the ground outside the convention center
and played for four days straight (and yes, we are still sore).” The game was a huge hit and attracted the attention of conference
goers and big media alike. Crowley continues saying, “Thousands of
people stopped by to see what was going on, say hi, play a game or
two, and pick up some swag. It gave people the chance to meet our team
in a super informal setting (playground game!) and hang out with us in
an environment where phones and laptops were completely out of the
way.” 5. “Show off your team” The scrappiness didn’t stop with fun and games. Crowley also used the
offline event as an opportunity to introduce users to team members,
and vice versa, in a playful way.
Crowley states, “We designed our business cards as collectibles —
collect all 6 and unlock a Foursquare badge. Once word of this got
out, people were looking all over downtown Austin for employees just
so they could introduce themselves and collect a badge. Every time we
handed out a card, we got to meet one of our users. Actually
encouraging people to reach out and introduce themselves to your team
puts a name and a face on the products you’re building. It also helped
us start a dialog with people who’d probably never introduce
themselves.”
of communication, and describes it as the most immediate way to
connect with customers.
“At Foursquare we use Twitter for a little bit of everything: Good
news and bad news, press clippings, RTs [retweets] from other users
and customer service inquires. We’ll tweet when new versions of our
apps are ready for download and tweet when our database is
experiencing hiccups. Keeping users in the know doesn’t take any more
than a few seconds and your most loyal users will spread the word via
RTs.The nature of Foursquare may position it to be more heavily
followed than the typical small business, but the point here is that
small business owners should use Twitter to compliment their
day-to-day work experiences. 2. “Keep it light” The Foursquare team lives by this mantra, so while they share
everything from where they are to what they’re doing, they’re doing so
in edible, consumer-sized bites, perfect for the sporadic attention
spans of their audience. On this front, they’ve opted to use Tumblr ()
as a lightweight blogging platform. Crowley explains, “On our company
Tumblr we’ll post the success stories our users send in, write recaps
of what goes down at Foursquare HQ meetings, and post pics of what
we’re having for lunch. Our staff is full of personality and we try to
show that as much as we can. The story of 16 guys and girls crammed
around four tables is much more interesting than the story of a
faceless Internet startup.” Crowley also advises to apply the “keep it light” philosophy to all
customer-facing initiatives. He also suggests that small business
owners don’t have to be “all business, all the time.” 3. “Guerilla customer service” Foursquare is by no means perfect. As a young startup, the company
faces the challenge of keeping their servers running as they attract
record levels of activity, and doing so always in the public eye. It’s
a daunting position to be in unless it’s approached head-on, and
that’s what Crowley and his team do on a daily basis. “We’ll use
Twitter Search to search for things like “foursquare sucks,”
“foursquare broken,” etc. to find people who are experiencing problems
but who would probably never submit a support ticket. With a quick
@reply we can often shed some light on the issue and do it in
public.”The same guerilla-style customer service is perfect for small
businesses, especially with regard to negative press or unflattering
blog posts and comments. Crowley says, “don’t feel shy, jump in and
comment. Making yourself part of the conversation shows users you’re
listening and care about the issues they have.” 4. “Small and scrappy marketing 4eva” Not everything should be expensive, especially when it comes to
marketing. Small businesses could easily be intimidated by the money
that bigger companies can throw at large campaigns, but bigger isn’t
always better.Steal a page from Foursquare’s play book and get
scrappy. Take the SXSW Interactive festival. Inside the convention
center there were dozens of sponsors with huge tents and elaborate
setups. Here’s what Foursquare did: “Instead [of formulating a
marketing plan] we did two things: #1. Took all the swag we had (pins,
stickers, temporary tattoos) and put them in ziplock bags. Everytime
we found a user that told us how much they loved Foursquare (and there
was an army of them!) we gave them a bag of swag to hand out to their
friends. #2. We picked up a rubber Foursquare ball and a box of chalk,
drew a Foursquare court on the ground outside the convention center
and played for four days straight (and yes, we are still sore).” The game was a huge hit and attracted the attention of conference
goers and big media alike. Crowley continues saying, “Thousands of
people stopped by to see what was going on, say hi, play a game or
two, and pick up some swag. It gave people the chance to meet our team
in a super informal setting (playground game!) and hang out with us in
an environment where phones and laptops were completely out of the
way.” 5. “Show off your team” The scrappiness didn’t stop with fun and games. Crowley also used the
offline event as an opportunity to introduce users to team members,
and vice versa, in a playful way.
Crowley states, “We designed our business cards as collectibles —
collect all 6 and unlock a Foursquare badge. Once word of this got
out, people were looking all over downtown Austin for employees just
so they could introduce themselves and collect a badge. Every time we
handed out a card, we got to meet one of our users. Actually
encouraging people to reach out and introduce themselves to your team
puts a name and a face on the products you’re building. It also helped
us start a dialog with people who’d probably never introduce
themselves.”
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