Starbucks Gold + Foursquare Mayorship = Double Win!
I love using location-based social media networking (LBSN) apps, my iPhone, and Starbucks, and more often than not, I use them in combination with each other. Wherever I go I always have my social media connections on tap and my Starbucks Gold Card handy. Yesterday I got the bonus of all bonuses – one of my favorite LBSN’s, Foursquare, greeted me with a bright orange banner that said, “as mayor of this store, enjoy $1 off a NEW however-you-want-it Frappuccino blended beverage. Any size, any flavor.” CHA-CHING!
I first signed up for Foursquare when it launched at SXSWi 2009, but didn’t use it much until I began my #WTFAmI cross-country road trips last summer. When Foursquare broadened it’s horizons to include Tampa in late 2009 I was ecstatic. In combination with my Starbucks ‘addiction’ I quickly realized the potential fun I could have with location-based social networks, the free WiFi I get as a reward for using my Starbucks Gold card, and my iPhone.
I’ve been a Starbucks reward card member since it’s introduction in early 2009 and the recent change to the current fee-free membership added extra bonuses to what I was already getting. Gold Card membership scores me sweet deals from Starbucks and now I’m scoring even bigger with Starbucks AND Foursquare…
…and so are thousands of other Foursquare “mayors” of Starbucks around the country.
Starbucks isn’t the only business getting on board to reward customers through social media, business of all types are doing it. I saw this first-hand when I was recently a charter member of the HQ team that planed the first international Foursquare Day. I watched brand loyalty change in my community and shift toward embracing what existing, and potentially future, customers are already doing: Tweeting, Facebook-ing, blogging, and podcasting about every aspect of their life. Social media networks are potential gold mines for business and “word of moth” marketing has gone digital.
We all know it – some things just seem to “go together,” like ketchup and mustard… and Starbucks and Foursquare. It seems like a match made in geek-heaven!
Category: Social Media, Technology
