Foursquare: How New Businesses Are Using It [Stats]

Location based social network Foursquare celebrated 10 million registered users yesterday but how are businesses and organizations using the platform? I wrote a year ago next month about the incredible potential offered by Foursquare accounts for organizations: following a Foursquare page as a user is like opting-in to view the world through the lens of that organization’s geo-annotations. It can be awesome. (My favorites? History Channel and Eater.)

Are businesses getting into it? For one perspective on that question, I extracted some data from the 128 most recent Foursquare Pages that have been created. The 128 most recent Foursquare Page holders have added 728 tips in 311 cities so far. They’ve amassed a total of over 8,000 Foursquare followers and they came in with some social media experience as well: those organizations already had an aggregate of over 800,000 Twitter followers. Above, a map of all the metro areas around the world that new Page holders have added tips in. Below, more stats.

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The 128 Newest Foursquare Page Account Holders…

Their success on Twitter before joining Foursquare…

17% didn’t have linked Twitter accounts at all or have zero followers there
6% have between 200 and 500 twitter followers
20% have between 500 and 2000 twitter followers
24% of the newest have more than 2000 twitter followers

Top tweeters just joining Foursquare: Bon Chic, Interscope Records, Impact Wrestling and Best Friends Animal Society

The top two most popular Twitter accounts to have started a Foursquare page recently both are fast amassing Foursquare fans but have not posted a single Foursquare tip yet.

My take: The majority of new Foursquare business users have not got a lot of experience using Twitter for their businesses yet. That may be because organizations are starting both accounts around the same time or it could be because many businesses are wondering if Foursquare and location will deliver better results than Twitter has. Other possible explanations?

Foursquare followers…

41% of newest 128 accounts have less than 20 Foursquare fans
Only 9 out of the 128 newest Foursquare pages have more than 100 fans
2 of the newest 128 Foursquare pages have more than 1,000 followers already. Interscope Records has 1,937 Foursquare followers but hasn’t posted any tips yet. Seventh Generation paper products has 1,179 and has posted only one tip: come by their headquarters and you can get a free sample.

My take: It’s hard to build up Foursquare followers. Unless you’re already famous, then you hardly have to do anything and you can get 1,000+ quickly.

Tips Left

47% of the have posted zero tips
11% have posted 1 tip
21% have posted 2 to 9 tips
17% have posted 10 or more tips

#1 with 49 tips is Brazilian travel publication Guia Quatro Rodas, that seems to be paying off so far – that page has the 4th largest number of fans with 421.

My take: A whole lot of businesses are starting Foursquare Pages but are being super cautious about posting tips. That makes me wonder if the instructions are unclear. There’s not much purpose to creating a page if you don’t add tips. On the other hand, there appears to be a respectable number that are publishing more than just a few tips.

Tips Locations

The 128 newest pages have added tips in 270 cities
78% have left tips in fewer than 3 locations
4% have left tips in 10 or more locations

My take: Foursquare pages are being adopted by a wide variety of organizations based in specific places, all over the world. Very few of the most recent creators of Pages at least have been globe-trotting types of organizations.

Here’s my data embedded below, what conclusions or analysis can you offer based on this snapshot of recent activity? Are you an organization that’s created a Foursquare page? If so, I’d love to hear what your onboarding experience has been like there.

Discuss