Jessica Ruth shows you how to use Foursquare..Read Below

Right now, go to Foursquare and find your dealership.  It’s there, isn’t it?  Now claim it.

Ok, you’re back.

Every day, millions of people across the country are checking into venues everywhere on Foursquare.  Now, you’re immediately if not already thinking, “Yeah, who cares?”  Maybe you fall into the group of people who think that broadcasting a check-in at the local grocery store, or gas station is pointless and that no one is interested.  Or, maybe you fall into the group of people who can’t see why it’s useful for your car dealership to use it.  All of that doesn’t matter.  It doesn’t matter because it’s not about your check ins, it’s about who is checking into your dealership and what they’re saying.

Whether you’re active on Foursquare or not, your customers are.  They’re using it to search for the location of the nearest hotel, dog park and local specials.  They’re checking in, and when they do, it’s broadcasted to their thousands of Facebook friends and Twitter followers.

What would they find when searching for your dealership?

Get Started:

1. Create a campaign.

Run a check in campaign for your service department.  Every day people are on Facebook and Twitter talking about how their ‘baby is long overdue for an oil change’.  A service department running a special on an oil change is going to be more appealing than the one who isn’t.  The special could reward the Foursquare user with a discount on their oil change, free wiper blades, free car wash or anything you want.  At the same time, the service department can run a loyalty special; this special rewards a user’s third check-in at the same location.  Imagine the possibilities.

What is your dealership near?  A local hotspot?  Grocery store, convenience store?  When Foursquare users are in the area looking through the list of nearby venues, yours will stick out because of the bright orange ‘special’ tab created once your campaign is up and running.

2. Edit your venue.

Chances are someone else created your venue’s location and it could be full of incorrect information.  The goal is to create more business in your service department, so make sure all the information here is correct.  Check the map, edit the tags, which serve as keywords, for your venue, check the phone number, add your Twitter and Facebook and, of course your website.

3. Market and Monitor.

Now that you’ve got your special running and you’ve edited your venue information it’s time to keep an eye on it.  Who’s going to do that?  Will it be your marketing coordinator, your Internet manager or a sales professional?  Foursquare is user friendly, but it needs to be monitored and maintained.

Put signs up in your dealership about checking in on Foursquare.  Let people know there’s a discount in it for them if they simply check in.  Who doesn’t love getting free stuff?  No one, that’s why this is important for your service department to get involved.

Consumers are more likely to buy from a brand they interact with via social media, 40 percent more likely, in fact.  Stay with me, more stats: In a recent Nielsen Social Media Report it was reported that not only do over 50 percent of social networking users follow a brand; they do so because of the offered discounts.  Why not become a part of that?

DealerFire loves turning our clients onto Foursquare and working closely with them to further their marketing success.  We’re always brainstorming with clients to come up with new specials and campaigns.  These campaigns create a loyalty from the customers, as well as an increased level of satisfaction in experience at the service department.  For us, we know that online presence extends beyond a dealer website.  For more information on how to create and maintain your Foursquare venue, give us a shout, we’d be happy to point you in the right direction.

Jessica Ruth is the Brand Manager @dealerfire, has a mild infatuation with Twitter and tries to hide her Midwest accent while writing.

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