Yesterday, Foursquare CEO Dennis Crowley announced the new version of Foursquare – Foursquare 3.0 – with new discovery features, and mentioned that businesses would be getting some new types of specials to offer customers this week.
Foursquare is now talking about them more today. There are now seven types of specials available on Foursquare’s new Merchant Platform: Swarm, Friends, Flash, Newbie, Check-in, Loyalty, and Mayor.
Flash specials are offers for the first few customers that arrive at the business after a certain time. Friends specials reward users for checking in together. Swarm specials reward users who check in at a location in large groups. Newbie specials lure new customers.
“Some businesses want Specials that are all about loyalty,” says Foursquare Director of Business Development, Eric Friedman. “For some businesses, they’ll set a Special to unlock at every check-in. For others, its like a coffee shop punchcard where you might get something free on your tenth check-in. For other merchants its about increasing visits – running a frequeuncy Special inviting those who check in 3 times in 7 days the ability to unlock their Special.”
“We’re foursquare, and Mayors are us,” he adds. “So we still have Mayor Specials, too, for the royalty of foursquare.”
The first businesses to offer specials with this launch include: Sports Authority, Applebee’s, Radio Shack, Coffee Bean, Barnes & Noble, Arby’s, Chili’s, Whole Foods, Toys R Us, and H&M.”
Businesses can go here to verify their businesses and begin offering specials within a few days, according to Fousquare. Businesses can now manage campaigns at one or across thousands of venues. Business owners can also now view aggregate stats across multiple venues, and the number of times a special is viewed vs. actually unlocked.
The special approval process is now instant, so you can have one running in a matter of minutes from the time of conception.
The company claims that over a quarter of a million businesses have claimed their business on foursquare. Foursquare has 7 million users.