Foursquare in Real Estate

Foursquare for Real Estate

Foursquare maybe wasn’t designed for REALTOR’s but it could have been given how useful it is for us! An excellent way to be exposed to potential clients who frequent the same areas and businesses you frequent.
When individuals choose real estate agents, they want someone who understands their area. They also would prefer to use someone they have some familiarity with. When a potential agents sees you checking in at the same local businesses they do, they know you are likely to be familiar with their neighbourhood, as well as feel some connection to you.

Your Foursquare Name
Try to incorporate real estate in your name somehow, such as AgentMark, Markinrealestate. Or try to incorporate your brokerage into your avatar.
Then, use Foursquare often! Add a Tip to every place you frequent, so you have the added exposure to those viewing or checking into that location.

Checking In, and Leaving Tips
By adding a tip every time you check in, you are always on the top of the list of “Tips” and therefore more visible.
An example of a Tip that is helpful as Realtor is:
“Only had 15 minutes before I had to show houses to a client, and the sushi was delivered in 5 minutes! Go for the sushi if you are short on time.”
Or
“As a REALTOR in town, I always send my clients to “X venue” for ribs. Can’t beat them anywhere.”
Or
“All of us at RE/MAX Alpine love the cinnamon buns made here only on Sunday mornings!”

These types of Tips remind viewers that you are a REALTOR, at the same time leaving a legitimate helpful hint.








Sign up your Brokerage as a registered venue (Will require your broker’s confirmation)
Offer specials to first time check ins. For example: “First time check in’s receive free latte at SuperFly Cafe next door.”

Become Mayor- Useful for exposure of yourself. Everyone viewing or checking into that venue will see you as Mayor. (Mayor is the person who has then most checks in’s at a particular venue.)


Add Your Listings as Venues:
http://foursquare.com/add_venue

Anyone can create a venue. With the owners permission, you can claim the venue and manage it as well. Currently the claiming of a venue can take 1 week to 3 months, so not all of your listings will be on the market long enough to be claimed, however you can still have it available for checking in.

When creating the venue, give it a name such as: RE/MAX Alpine Listing: 123 Main Street. Or RE/MAX Alpine-For Sale- 123 Main Street.

• -Be consistent
• -have all of your listing venues start the same way
• -name should make it clear that home is a listing for sale

After creating the venue, make sure you leave a tip right away, explaining that it is a listing for sale, you are a REALTOR with X Brokerage, and will potential buyers please check in and leave a tip with what they like best about the property.

• -Word it in a way that it is less likely a buyer will leave a negative comment.
• -Asking specifically for what they like best will be more likely to produce a positive comment)

Added Benefit of Listing Exposure
When your listing is a venue on Foursquare, anyone checking in at a nearby venue will see your listing appear on the list of nearby venues. The public will be exposed to the fact that there is a nearby property for sale, and may be encouraged to drive by and check it out. Any extra exposure is worth while!


Give home viewers incentive to Check In
-when venue is claimed -offer reward for 1st time Check Ins.
- coffee drink at local cafe? Free ice cream cone at shop down the street etc.

Market your Listing with Foursquare

• In comments on MLS, add: “This listing is a registered venue on Foursquare. Please check in when viewing and leave us a Tip telling us what you like best about this home.”
• Excellent exposure for your clients listings.
• Put a sign in house, reminding them “This listing is a registered venue on Foursquare. Check In and leave us a Tip telling us what you think is the best feature of this home.”
• Get your clients permission to do this as you can’t control what people say!
• If a very inappropriate comment, can request Foursquare to remove it. Visit http://support.foursquare.com/entries/196728-how-do-i-delete-a-tip for information on how to do this.

Check In at Open Houses

• You can encourage people to check in during open houses
• Offer gift to those who check in that day.
• Free coffee drink at local bistro or Free video rental etc.
• As an added bonus, benefit of cross marketing and developing a new relationship with local business owner
• By having visitors check in to open houses, you now know who visited your open house. (Most people don’t like to sign in or leave contact info)
• Currently can only communicate with your “Friends” on Foursquare. However most people on Foursquare can be found on other social media, and you can touch base with them through other medias.
• (Send a follow up saying thanks for visiting my open house today. Did you want to look at additional homes in this area?)

Claim your Venues
To offer rewards, you will need to have claimed the venue.
Currently this can take 1 week to 3 months to process, which is sometimes much longer than you listing will last. Therefore, offering rewards might not always be practical at this point. However, you can still create a venue and have people check in, and see and leave Tips.

Offer reward to those agents that show your properties the most. Movie tickets, Starbucks card, etc.

Offer reward to clients ( yours or other agents clients) who view more than 5 of your listings. ( not trying to poach the clients, just trying to get more people to view your listings)

To speed up claim time, view this excerpt from the Four Square Help Page:
http://support.foursquare.com/entries/191153-why-has-my-venue-claim-not-been-processed
To expedite your claim, please do the following:
Open a new ticket by clicking here:
http://support.foursquare.com/anonymous_requests/new
Include "CLAIM HELP" in the title.
In the body of the ticket, please include the foursquare venue url(s) of your location(s), as well as the foursquare user id(s) of whomever you would like to have manage your venues on foursquare.

Remember...

• Be sure to delete venue after sold or expired.
• As you created the venue, you can simply go to your account, click “Edit Venue” and then click the trash can. It will look like this:
• Want to remove this venue from our database?

More Ways to Use Check Ins
Checking in at specific spots tells people a little bit about yourself too. This helps potential clients with similar interests know that you have something in common with them.

For example, I am an avid mountain biker and have created venues for all of the mountain biking trails in my area. This way, bikers can check into the trails they are riding and the community of bikers can be aware of who is riding what trail that day. We can leave tips for each other about current trail conditions and wildlife activity. In addition, the community of bikers in town can see that I am a Realtor, and will see me checking into the trails often and leaving tips. It is regular exposure to a group of people who I have a passion in common with. Bikers want to work with bikers. Just like those people who have similar interests as yours, want to work with you.

As in all social medias, it is not all about work. It is about connecting with those who have similar interests as yours.

People Checking In at a quilting store, or a hunting and fishing gear retailer, or a particular neighbourhood gym, are far more likely to work with a Realtor that is also checking into these specific locations, as it shows you share their interests and passions.

Creating a Venue
If a venue doesn’t exist-add it. The owner may claim it at some point, but in the mean time you and others can check into it.
http://foursquare.com/add_venue

Apps
There are many apps for Foursquare, but there is still a wide open feild of apps waiting to be created. As Foursquare grows and develops, there will be more useful apps available to us.

Venmo app-leave a gift for friends at locations. The app is free but you need to have accounts with both Foursquare and Venmo to use it.
This can be used in the course of your work, by sending your clients to a cafe for a coffee while they consider the offer they have been presented. Let them know to check in on Foursquare at the coffee shop, and they can pick up the gift you have left for them.