Just how many sesame seeds are needed for this sort of marketing McSuccess, anyway?

That’s the question execs were probably asking when McDonald’s started dabbling with a popular location-based search (LBS) app on World Foursquare Day last spring. McDonald’s social media marketing move was so successful that they increased foot traffic in their restaurants by almost 33 percent in a single day.

According to Mashable:

The company used 100 randomly awarded $5 and $10 giftcards as checkin bait to lure in potential diners. The bait also worked to attract the media’s attention and resulted in more than 50 articles covering McDonald’s Foursquare special.

The campaign worked in both digital and real world capacities. Patrons flocked to McDonald’s restaurants for the chance to win giftcards in exchange for checkins, and 600,000 online denizens opted to follow and fan the brand on social media sites.

“I was able to go to some of our marketing people — some of whom had never heard of Foursquare — and say, ‘Guess what. With this one little effort, we were able to get a 33% increase in foot traffic to the stores’,” Wion explained to conference attendees.

As we mentioned a few weeks ago, both Facebook and Google have no LBS services that could effectively swamp niche LBS apps like Foursquare and Gowalla. But the principles will remain the same, as will the marketing opportunities that will arise for social media-savvy businesses.

So let’s take a look at what McDonald’s did:

1. Took Foursquare seriously

In the big picture, apps like Foursquare are relatively obscure. But those that use them tend to be devoted advocates, and are also the sorts of “early adopters” who tend to be on the forefront of larger technological trends and developments. In other words, it’s a worthy group to impress. New apps are constantly emerging, meaning new opportunities to creatively capitalize on them will as well.

McDonald’s understood this, and was ready with a campaign when the opportunity arose.

2. Paid attention, and grabbed an opportunity

This specific opportunity came back in April, when the app decided to hold “World Foursquare Day” (a savvy marketing move in its own right—even if it does sound like an epic worldwide embrace of recess). It happened on April 16, or 4/4, or—get it?—4 squared, when a grassroots movement of users figured it’d be a fun way to promote usage of the startup all around the world.

McDonald’s was paying enough attention to see this event develop, and quickly came up with a way to join the fun.

3. Gave incentives for people to show up and share the good news

McDonald’s decided to offer Foursquare users who “checked in” at one of their restaurants—in other words, broadcast their location via Foursquare—a chance to win either $5 or $10 giftcards. This created incentive for people to come, and to tell everyone else that they were coming—all on a day when Foursquare was getting a bunch of attention, anyway. McDonald’s received the kind of publicity that would make the Hamburgler run and hide (plus even more from the news coverage of this successful, forward-looking campaign that followed). The company claims to have gained an additional 600,000 online followers and fans on various social media sites from the move.

All told, the chain said they spent around $1,000 on the giftcards. For a company with a multi-million dollar marketing budget, this is like a drop in the bucket.

These sorts of campaigns are cheap, fun, and easy to do. Contact our Dallas social media experts for more information.