The Building Blocks of a Great Foursquare List

What’s a Foursquare List?

A Foursquare list is a short itinerary created around a theme, for example:

• Where to Eat, Drink and Buy Local in Andersonville
• Buy Local Guide: Chicago’s Independent Bookstores
• My Favorite Craft Breweries
• Fifty Sweet Scoops: Best Places to Get Ice Cream in Chicago

Why Create a Foursquare List?

Creating a Foursquare list is easy and fun! As a business, here are a few reasons why you might want to create a Foursquare list:

• It’s a free alternative to creating a costly Foursquare badge. Both lists and badges create incentives for game players to visit new places and try new things. Any business can create a Foursquare list for free, while badges are something that only the largest brands can afford.
• It drives visits in real life to new and unfamiliar places. By creating a list that shows cool things to see and do in your neighborhood, you’re creating compelling reasons for a visitor to make a trip to your establishment.
• It links like-minded businesses together. For example, in our list, we’ve highlighted a number of businesses who are green-certified, like us.

How to Create Great Foursquare Tips

A Foursquare list is a collection of Foursquare tips—brief reviews or fun facts—that are complemented by a title and short description that explains the theme of the list.

The first step in writing a Foursquare list is to draft a list of five or more Foursquare tips around a theme. Here are two types of content that work particularly well on Foursquare:

Recommendation-based tips: Foursquare tips can relate helpful information, such as:

• Suggestions: What dish should I try at a local restaurant?
• Directions: How do I get from a public transit stop to a nearby farmer’s market?
• Practical Advice: What days does the Chicago History Museum offer discounted admission? Does a popular restaurant only accept cash? If so, where is the closest ATM?

Fact-based tips: You can also use Foursquare tips to reveal fun and surprising facts about a location, such as:

• It Happened Here: This type of tip relates a little known historical fact about a location. “President George Washington used the cozy dining room of the Village Inn in Englishtown, NJ, to draw up court martial papers after General Charles Lee made a too-hasty retreat from The Battle of Monmouth.”
• The Inside Story: This type of tip shares a little-known fact about a business. “Opened by a local brother and sister, Huey’s Hot Dog menu items are named after friends.”
• Travel Like a Local: This type of tip helps first-time visitors understand a location like a local would. “You may know it as a sub, a hero or even a grinder but in this part of Pennsylvania the sandwich you’re about to eat is called a hoagie!”

You’ve just learned why to make a Foursquare list, and what types of content work best on Foursquare. Stay tuned for our next post, which will teach you how to make a Foursquare list.

What questions do you have about Foursquare tips and lists? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

When she's not blogging or checking in on Foursquare, Sarah Best is hewing logs for her cabin on Walden Pond and putting on amateur theatricals with her neighbors, the March sisters. Mightybytes is a web design and digital marketing firm and a certified B Corporation. Connect with us on Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest or fill out our contact form.