Turning the Ignition on Your FourSquare Account

It’s a brand new world in the field of auto sales. No more does the local automotive dealership reign in power through references and long time loyal customers. Sure it helps, and everyone loves a good reference – but people want to know more about your business; how it operates, who’s been there, how it looks, what you have, what people have to say about what you have… and that’s before the customer even leaves their house.Welcome to the dawn of social media – where consumers base most of their pre-purchase emotions based on information they can gather easily from their computers. Consumers complete extensive research through your website, Facebook and Twitter pages; to see how you interact with people and how you make yourself available to your customers. People want to know that they’re being taken care of by good people, that the salesperson they meet at the lot doesn’t view them as a just a dollar sign – that they’re actually going to care about the customer’s wants and needs.Mostly every car dealership has a Facebook and Twitter page by now, and some of them have a ton of fans/followers – but there’s a new way to leverage yourself in the world of social media. The site is called FourSquare and it’s a digital hotspot for car dealerships that houses over 10 million users. FourSquare’s key feature is their ‘check-in’ - where people can stake claim that they were at your establishment (titles like ‘Mayor’ are given out to those with the highest number of check-ins). Users can also upload photos and leave comments about their thoughts and experiences… and oh yea – the whole site is free. 

Why this is important to you: By giving users the ability to check-in at your dealership, you’re showing that you’re a real place where real people are visiting; you’re not just a blip courtesy of Google maps. The comments section gives customers the opportunity to boast about their amazing experience with your sales team - “Make sure you ask for John, he’s SO helpful’”. Users will also be able to upload photos of themselves with their new car or a photo of their friend being helped out by ‘John’. Many dealerships are offering free food and drinks for customers while they wait for repairs – FourSquare allows them to upload a photo and comment on how great their coffee and muffin were this morning, followed by before and after photos of the repairs your dealership completed on their car. FourSquare users are BUYING too – technology powerhouse Radio Shack reports that their FourSquare users buy more expensive products and spend, on average, 3.5 times more than their regular customers*.