Listing Distribution: Foursquare as a New Data Aggregator
Acxiom, one of the four primary data aggregators and used in Vendasta’s Listing Distribution product, retired its listing directory services at the end of 2019. You may be wondering, what does this mean for my clients? And what does this mean for Listing Distribution?
No need to worry - the change will be minimal and we at Vendasta will make sure it’s an easy transition for you and your clients. As Acxiom officially ended it’s listing directory services at the end of 2019, Foursquare was released in Listing Distribution as of January 2nd, 2020.
We at Vendasta are excited to partner with Foursquare as a new data aggregator. Our reasoning? Since Acxiom will no longer be providing services, Foursquare will be the new fourth data aggregator in the Listing Distribution product!
What happened on January 2nd, 2020?
January 2nd, 2020 was the official release date of Foursquare in Listing Distribution. All of your clients that are current Listing Distribution users will begin using the new version of Listing Distribution with Foursquare and without Acxiom. This is the only version of Listing Distribution that will be available to sell through your Marketplace; Acxiom is no longer available.
All marketing materials have been switched to include Foursquare as well. The copy within these marketing materials has been updated to better describe what the new product offers.
What do my clients get with Foursquare?
Foursquare provides multiple services for your clients. The first piece of Foursquare’s offering is providing business data to third party partners—in particular, mobile apps. This is a unique offering as Infogroup and Neustar/Localeze do not send data to mobile apps. Foursquare has over 150,000 partners and developers worldwide who access their business data. Companies who access Foursquare’s data include Uber, Apple, Spotify, Snapchat, and Twitter. Submitting business information to Foursquare makes this information attainable to over 150,000+ partners and developers.
The second piece of Foursquare's offering includes its owned and operated Smartphone application, intended for end-user customers. When business data is submitted through Foursquare, this data is published to Foursquare’s mobile app. The Foursquare app has the following features:
- Learns about what customers like and provides recommendations of places they’ll love. Foursquare recommends businesses that align with users’ interests
- Looks for “stops” and proactively suggests the best experiences to try
- 24,000,000 stops detected daily
- Allows users to tell other users about businesses they’ve visited, places they like, and the things they seek out
- Lets users add “tastes” to explicitly state their interests
- Over 100,000,000 tastes added
- Understands where the users' phone has been and nudges them to leave a review
- Allows users to write “tips” about the great things they discover and share photos through the Foursquare app
- Senses visits to new cities & unfamiliar neighborhoods and highlights places they think customers would like
- 1,000,000 pings sent daily
These features are just as beneficial for SMBs, as they are for end-consumers.
Foursquare also has the ability to provide reporting to Partners and SMBs. This reporting is on Foursquare users that visit your business and includes: demographic information such as age, gender, and location, behavioral information such as preference and choices, and psychographic information such as lifestyle and attitude.
How does Foursquare benefit you and your clients?
At Vendasta, we want to make sure we are staying on top of the local search ecosystem. This isn’t just about being found online, but also ensuring your business information is consistent online, offline, on mobile devices, and through voice search. Foursquare is important and beneficial to you and your clients for four reasons:
1. Big brands are going to Foursquare to access your clients’ business information
Uber, Apple, Twitter, Snapchat, and many more Foursquare partners and developers purchase Foursquare's data. This means that your clients’ correct business information will be referenced by some of the biggest brands in the world, ensuring that clients’ business information is accurate across not only the web, but also on the mobile apps of some of the biggest players in the market.
2. It makes business information accurate and accessible through the Foursquare app
The users of the Foursquare app have an easier time finding out about a business and obtaining information on that business such as hours, address, reviews, “tips”, photos, and more. Foursquare also has its own group of superusers that help maintain and verify information.
3. Foursquare sends pings to customers about your business
Foursquare has the ability to create a unique experience for each individual customer, based on their demographic information, previous visits, likes, and interests. Foursquare proactively creates awareness of a business and identifies a customer need before the customer begins a search.
4. Foursquare provides specific reporting on customers that your clients have access to
Foursquare has access to specific customer information, including demographics, psychographics, and behavioral information. This means your clients can find out what type of customer is visiting their business and when. This information can be extremely powerful in terms of marketing, deciding what new products or services to offer, and understanding your target customer.
In summary: Foursquare will ensure your clients are found in more places and by more customers than ever. And when they are found, their information will be consistent and accurate across platforms.