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GROWTH STRATEGIES (continued from page 32)<br />
female split and the percent of users who also connect and share<br />
their Foursquare use with Twitter and Facebook (an offered option<br />
for extra-extraverts).<br />
Knowledge is power. And you can use that knowledge to encourage<br />
repeat customers. Foursquare knows its future rests in playing<br />
well with businesses, and they’ve got ideas to help boost your traffic.<br />
Their first brainstorm was to award “Mayorship” to the user with<br />
the most check-ins at a location. Mayorship is public knowledge—<br />
as of today, the Mayor of the hip, high-traffic Arclight in Los Angeles<br />
(9858 check-ins) goes by the nom de plume KounterKlockwise.<br />
Anyone hoping to unseat him had better get to the theater, and to<br />
sharpen the competition, businesses can offer rewards to patrons<br />
who can prove their Mayorship by showing off their mobile phone.<br />
May I suggest a free popcorn so large they’ll bring a friend to share?<br />
Foursquare also keeps tally of the number of times a user has<br />
visited your theater. You can dangle carrots that encourage repeat<br />
visits—say, a free soda for every five visits. Forget punchcards—this<br />
is the easy, paperless way to reward your loyal fans.<br />
TWEET IT ON<br />
Be Mr. Popularity<br />
by Amy Nicholson<br />
Consider the chain letter. Forgive it for cluttering up your<br />
inbox with lawyer jokes and appreciate the exponential elegance<br />
of the verbal virus that in 1888 swarmed its inventor,<br />
the Bishop of Bedford, with 16,000 responses.<br />
Email made chain letters easy. Twitter has made them useful.<br />
A few retweets can multiply a message for hundreds—if not thousands—of<br />
eyes.<br />
We know that Twitter is good for making a connection to your<br />
community: sharing links, making jokes, sending trailers for this<br />
weekend’s new releases. Followers can use it to directly ask questions<br />
or give feedback, and a fast and friendly response can win over<br />
the disgruntled and solidify ties to your fans.<br />
That’s the person-to-person approach. But once exhibitors have<br />
mastered that, it’s time to think big. Retweeting—a user reposting<br />
your tweet for their readers—is the largest leap forward in spreading<br />
a message since Morse code. How fast can Twitter fly? Last summer,<br />
Cinedigm used it to announce on July 6 th that they’d be broadcasting<br />
the Michael Jackson memorial on July 7 th . Within hours, theaters<br />
across the country had sold out the house.<br />
And that was last year. In July of 2009, users sent just over 10<br />
million tweets a day. As Boxoffice goes to print, that number has<br />
climbed to 90 million.<br />
How can you harness that power? By using Twitter’s users to<br />
advertise your name. Scheme up ways to promote them tweeting,<br />
retweeting and promoting your name, say a free soda for the first<br />
five people who announce what movie they’re seeing at your theater<br />
that night. Declare that anyone who tweets their weekend cinema<br />
plan gets a high five from an usher. Heck, concoct a contest—Worst<br />
imaginary sequels, ie: Overboard 2: Back on the Boat—and announce<br />
that the most retweeted entry will get four movie passes for the<br />
weekend. Think funny, fast and convenient and get Twitterers to<br />
spread the message that you’re the coolest theater in town.<br />
MAKING FACES<br />
Three exhibitors weigh in on the social<br />
networking behemoth<br />
by Phil Contrino<br />
I’m sure most of you reading this are still counting receipts from<br />
the The Social Network. Now, it’s time to start collecting receipts<br />
because of a social network. These three plugged-in exhibitors<br />
can help you do just that.<br />
HOW LONG DID IT TAKE YOU TO “GET THE HANG OF”<br />
FACEBOOK?<br />
Russ Collins, executive director, Michigan Theater (Ann Arbor,<br />
MI): It didn’t take long to get the hang of the Facebook, but we put<br />
younger, social network-savvy staff people in charge of creating and<br />
growing our Facebook presence. The work, however, is constant be-<br />
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34 BOXOFFICE NOVEMBER <strong>2010</strong>
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