Here is an interesting tale of an innovative businessman, Chamin Mills, who has come up with a new way of giving his loyal customers a poke. She skillfully manages popular social media platform for her chain of seafood restaurants located in the Bay Area. The New York Times has just published a news report on Ms Mills’s adoption of social media to her advantage, from which other budding businesses can sure take a cue.

Attracting customers with special offers on Foursquare

Just a few months ago, Pacific Catch (the name of her restaurant chain) has decided to adopt a geolocation service. Already a user of networking channels like Facebook and Twitter, Ms Mills has also started using Foursquare. It lets customers claim attractive special offers and also earn badges by opting to ‘check in’ to certain select locations.

Foursquare is a fast-growing geolocation tool that claims to have close to about three million users. It also claims to have more than a whopping one million check-ins on daily basis. When people make use of the Foursquare app within a few blocks of the food chain venues, a special offer would pop up on their mobile devices: for example, check in five times and be eligible for a free a Hawaiian poke or a shrimp ceviche.

Another special offer rewarded customers checking in on Foursquare with a yummy side of sweet potato fries. Such sumptuous offers have clearly helped hold on to existing customers and even to lure new ones.  According to the owner, more than 1,300 people have already checked in over 2,800 times at Pacific Catch.

‘Social media lets you connect with people.’

Explaining the secret of her success, Ms. Mills states that social media lets you connect with people and helps you retain customers, something which is really very important these days amidst intense competition. It makes people come back, she notes. The power of the medium has been further accentuated by geolocation services.

The services have become a growingly important tool of marketing, especially for smaller businesses. Those who rely on customer traffic like retailers, bars and restaurants can immensely benefit from the smart usage of geolocation services.

Their growing reliance on the services is understandable since they are keen to access as many customers as the least possible marketing budget. And this exactly what this new powerful tool achieves. It exploits the ability of today’s widespread communication networks to pinpoint the exact location of mobile devices like smartphones.