Last week, it seems a number of Americans enjoying the holiday took time to spread the Christmas cheer by checking in at various retail locations. But even while check-ins saw holiday gains, foursquare may not have gained widespread adoption yet.
Data published by Advertising Age shows that big brands saw big gains in check ins during Christmas week. Major retailers, including Best Buy and Barnes & Noble, saw significant positive changes as consumers purchased last-minute gifts.
The biggest improvement went to Macy's, with a 25 percent increase in weekly check-ins during December 19-26 for a total of 10,418 check-ins. (Nonetheless, Starbucks – which went down 7 percent – still saw 139,226 check-ins and other retailers, including Target, McDonald's and others saw more than 40,000 check-ins.)
These numbers seem impressive, and real-time updates about being at store locations serve as brand advocacy and can certainly help draw more foot traffic. Paired with recent updates to foursquare that let users make comments and share pictures, some might argue that the site is on the path to becoming a major marketing channel.
Others might say it's not there yet. Take for instance, a comparison of social mentions for Walmart. The company received 43,467 last week, but a Google Realtime search shows Twitter mentions for the company occur every few second – many of which seem to perform similarly to check ins. For instance, at press time, one of the top tweets says, "Chillin at Walmart." Another reads, "Buying a Justin [Bieber] poster at Walmart." One simply says, "I am tweeting from Walmart." While Walmart got more than 40,000 check ins last week, it arguably gets thousands of Twitter users to check in via Tweets each day.
With the benefits of mayorships aside, marketers may want to see what other features foursquare pulls out of its pocket before worrying about campaigning via the social app. As Brafton reported, Forrester research suggests it may be awhile before foursquare and other geosocial apps gain a strong following.
While local and mobile marketing will be a must in 2011, solid content strategies may be more beneficial; Brafton has reported that on-the-go consumers are likely to look for timely information while deciding where to shop.
