Dunkin’ Donuts is using social media platform Foursquare to secure loyal customers in the Florida market, Nation’s Restaurant News reported. It recently launched its first Foursquare regional promotion in two markets in Florida. The promotion offers users of the location-based game the chance to win a free donut after they “check in” at the same location six times. About 230 stores in the Orlando and Tampa areas are participating in the promotion. Dunkin’ picked the two markets based on the strength of their local Twitter accounts, and reportedly plans to make Foursquare incentives available in additional areas in 2011.
Starbucks, meanwhile, is one of a handful of companies taking part in a new ad service on Twitter, Advertising Age reported. Select Twitter users, targeted based on brands they are already following, will find branded Starbucks Tweets in their new streams even if they don’t follow the brand. The service is currently limited to users who use HootSuite, a third-party client of Twitter. Twitter reportedly plans to roll out the service to other third-party readers, as well as to Twitter.com, in the future.
Starbucks also is among companies participating in Facebook’s new Deals platform, an extension of Facebook’s new Places feature for mobile users. As part of the combined services, which incorporate features similar to those from Foursquare and Groupon, Facebook users can “check in” to participating business locations via Places and then receive special offers via Facebook Deals. Facebook launched the Deals platform with about 20 big-brand partner companies, including McDonald’s. Deals available to users may include coupons, discounts and charity contributions generated from purchases.
Source: Technomic Inc.