“Hold on, just let me check-in”. It seems like those are now my words of choice whenever my friends and I go out. They often sigh and ignore me for a few minutes until I’m done using my phone and then things return to normal. More and more, this is a common occurrence, all thanks to Foursquare. It’s a social networking game where you travel around, check-in to places where you can earn points, badges and even become Mayor. Does it sound odd? Well, it kind of is at first. But once you start playing, it’s addicting, to say the least.
The whole idea is that as you travel around the city, you can check-in. These check-ins will earn you points and the more times you check-in to one location, you can become Mayor. You can earn badges for various things. For example, the Newbie badge is for your first check-in and the Super User badge is if you check-in 30+ times in a month. There are even funnier badges like the Douchebag badge (which I am still attempting to earn). Based on the number of points you earn, you’re ranked among your friends and other Foursquare users. A bit more technologically savvy than Monopoly, if you ask me.
Foursquare has managed to gain a lot of users in a rather short period of time. In fact, within the time period of 30 days, it grew 109%. Needless to say, that’s rather considerable. It’s gaining popularity so fast that businesses are taking notice. Some places you can get discounts for being the Mayor or even get a First Check-In Special. That’s some incentive to start playing, isn’t it?
More and more it is becoming apparent Foursquare’s impact on society. Recently, they have created major partnerships with Vodafone in the UK and the New York Times. Through Vodafone, Foursquare gets massive mobile distribution in the UK. What more could this start-up ask for? With the New York Times, users could check into Times on Foursquare for recommendations in the Vancouver area for the Olympics. Every day, there is something new and innovative that Foursquare offers, exactly what is needed to keep us Gen-Yers interested.
However, as much as I love Foursquare, it can be annoying. The worst is when someone chooses to tweet every time they check-in. For those like me who check-in often, I don’t want to spam my followers’ feeds with my location. The last thing I need to know is where you went to buy a coffee at 2 in the afternoon. And I know I’m not the only one with this annoyance. So please, check-in responsibly.
Many think that Foursquare is just a passing phase, but didn’t we all say that about things like Twitter and Facebook at first? Personally, I didn’t understand the appeal at first. It’s one of those things you need to experience before you can comprehend it. Foursquare adds a whole new dimension to social media. It’s an interactive game where the world is your playground. As for me, I’m just trying to become the Mayor of everything.
Photo Credit: whatleydude
Awesome post! I'm totally addicted to 4sq, and PLEASE tell me where to find the DB badge!
I check in every day as well. But daily check-ins stay on 4sq. More interesting ones, like obscure weekday stops or out-of-the-ordinary locations go to Twitter and occasionally Facebook.
Good stuff.
This is a great post. Social media users (and more importantly businesses) need to realize the power of this network. I am a avid Foursquare user and nothing annoys me more than when I forget to check in somewhere. Your post had funny timing as I just wrote a post about how Foursquare's momentum paired with the potential ad revenue means that Facebook needs to answer to the growing network.
http://whowhatwherewheny.com/facebook-geo-target
And don't worry, I want badges!! You're not alone