It was FourSquare that started the social “check-in” trend a few years. Since then, it revamped its business model, and much like Yelp!, became a recommendation engine with user ratings and reviews.
Yet it did not abandon the social check-in function but moved it to a new mobile app called Swarm. Using this app will help you find friends, places of interest, activities as well as businesses.
So, Foursquare can be considered as discovery while Swarm is for socializing. It’s likely that your business already has a listing on Foursquare. For this, you can visit ‘Venue’ and find it there. Here are 4 steps to claiming your listing:
1: Enter Your Business Name & Location
If your business already exists, then it will pop up in the Search results. If it isn’t to be found, then you can fill up a form by adding it at the startup page.
2: Claim Your Listing
If you do find it in the search listing, then click ‘Select’ in order to claim it.
3: Verify the Listing
Once you hit the ‘Select’ button, this will verify that you are the owner. Or that you are working on behalf of the business and are authorized to claim it. Now, click the checkbox and select the ‘Get Started’ button to kickstart the verification process. To do this, Foursquare will verify your ownership claim by calling a phone number that you designate.
4: Enter your credit card or the postal verification option
Now, there are two ways to complete the verification process: expedited or postal mail verification. If you pick the former, you will be charged $20.00. The latter is completely free of cost. Businesses can claim up to nine places during this verification process. There’s a separate claim form for those outlets with 10 to 100 locations.