I’m still so proud that I got to be apart of this interview with Tim from abc15… crazy how much foursquare has changed since this story AND how many more mayorships I now!!

PHOENIX -

Posted: 06/30/2010

By: Tim Vetscher

Every time Paige Dell’Armi makes a Starbucks run, she checks in on Foursquare via her cell phone. To reward her loyalty, the Goodyear Starbucks gives Dell’Armi a dollar off each time she visits. ”There’s one right by my house and I went every morning to check in,” Dell’Armi said. “I got mayorship, showed (the baristas) my phone and got a dollar off.”

Download the Foursquare application to your phone. When you launch it, Foursquare uses GPS technology to determine your location. You then confirm that location by “checking in” at a particular business or venue.

“I’ve been obsessed with checking in,” said Dell’Armi. “I check in at US Airways Center, I check in at the grocery store, I check in everywhere.”

The person who checks in the most becomes “mayor.”

A title that brings with it certain benefits.

And a growing number of businesses in the Valley have started offering deals for Foursquare users.

“Now there are four to five million venues offering promos and 16 million venues as actual locations on Foursquare,” said Amy Martin, owner of Digital Royalty. “In December there were 400 venues. It shows businesses are catching on.”

Martin helps brands build their online presence through social media.

Her clients use Foursquare to help bridge the gap between the virtual and physical world.

“Often times social media seems intangible,” said Martin. “When you can bring customers or fans to your place of business, it becomes very powerful.”

Not convinced?

To encourage visits, Monti’s in Tempe offers Foursquare users a margarita for 5 cents.

Sports Authority stores give Foursquare mayors a ten dollar gift card.

The Vig gives FourSquare mayors a free drink and so does SideBar.

Liberty Market in Gilbert honors it’s mayor with a complimentary signature drink, the Cortadito.

Hana Japanese Eatery gives the mayor a free order of sashimi.

Carrabba’s Italian Grill gives mayors a free dessert.

The mayor eats for free at the Spicy Pickle in Chandler.

We’ve had the pleasure of interview social media director Paige Dell Armi from knoodle, an Advertising & PR agency. She’s very passionate about social media and design. Be sure to follow her on Twitter, @Paigeiam or check out her website DoubleBlueDesign.com.

Paige, do you recommend different social media strategies for different types of companies (like retail versus business-to-business), and can you give some examples?

Yes! We ask our clients what their online marketing goals are and from there we integrate them into a social media strategy… We of course have this magic machine that gives us this information  When we build/brainstorm social media for Dine4az & Gaslamp Hilton the strategy does tend to be more “sexy” than, let’s say Petersen Johnson’s. B2B on social media will always be a challenge, but we know it can be done! We always use one on one interaction and our #secretsauce is remembering who we have interacted with a week ago. This is key for us and it builds instant fan confidence…

What do you tell companies doing social media who feel they’ve “run out of ideas” for things to post?
Never forget the small things in life! It’s always those small events in your life that get the most social interaction…

In your experience, what are the most successful posts in terms of getting a lot of comments or replies, in other words, a lot of engaging dialogue?
The posts where we think and act like our audience and not act “bigger” than them… We’re their friend!  We want to know what their favorite snack is when they’re at a baseball game. We learned that Sherry is a hot dog/beer girl and that Joel is a fan of Garcia’s (#secretsauce of ours… is in return to Joel, we commented back with a direct link to dine4az.com for that 20% off next time he goes to Garcia’s)

What kinds of posts get the most “likes” or positive, happy feedback?
“What is your baking secret?” or “What type of beer are you looking forward to the most? IPA, Ale, Stout…” It’s when we ask questions and mingle in the conversation 

What things should we absolutely avoid in terms of social media posts and tweets?
Never do posting in the first person. Your a team, a company and your audience wants to see that 

How do you turn a fan or follower into a customer, and how do you track that?
Personal engagement along with being there within 24hrs… we use social media as a customer service tool for our clients. We take a comment left on Santan VW’s Facebook page and build trust with that one fan. Let them know we’re here and really care about what color Jetta they are looking for. We took a single persons comment about shopping for a new car and build a relationship out of it. Behind the curtain we were in touch with the Sales GM who is getting that Black Jetta ready  This is our strategy and it works, it works so well that we had a customer come back and buy a second car from Santan.

As far as tracking, we have a library of screen grabs when those “ROI” events happen and build case studies out of them.

Thanks so much Paige for taking the time to answer these questions!

We change, whether we like it or not. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

I’m a big fan of updates and changes below are couple of my favorite ones from Facebook!

I heard Twitter is going to be updating their image uploading as well… Seen it on a couple of your blogs I (sad panda) don’t have it yet…

Facebook added “RECOMMEND THIS PLACE” on Company pages! This something that all brands on Facebook need to get excited about… It’s a user friend area where your fans can write you a recommendation.

These recommendations from your fans will be displayed on the right side of your LIKE page. What I LOVE about this is that when you click on the comment/thumbs up icon it doesn’t take you away from your page… it’s a pop up window! This makes it really easy for fans to interact with each other about your brand

Let’s hope every post is positive of course

The BEST PART is once a fan writes a recommendation it’s display to their network… Your friends can see what you have said and mingle in with the posts. #secretsauce here is hoping my network clicks on the companies link and LIKE’s their page

Facebook did a great job at adding this into your News Feed! After a friend writes a recommendation… next to the Like – Comment they add “Write a Recommendation” link. #awesomesauce!

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Couple more random updates that I noticed are “Favorite Places” I love where this is going! Not everyone can see this option yet, but I have a feeling it will be a great way for you to have all your favorite places in one area. There are still some glitches but I have a good feeling about where this is going