This week I wanted to share my experiences with a new social media site called Foursquare. Foursquare is one of the new concept web sites and it is actually a lot of fun to use.
The principal behind Foursqure is that all Smartphone have some GPS coordinate locating. As you spend your day going around town, you will “Check In” in various locations in your travels. By Checking in, you basically say to Foursquare I am here. Foursquare acknowledges that you have checked in and then assigns you points for checking in. Bonus points are often assigned if you are the first one to check in at that location, checking in while travelling or this is the first time checking in at that location.
To make things interesting, Foursquares treats this as a bit of a game. By being the person who has checked into a location the most, you are made the Mayor of that location. Currently I am the Mayor in over 10 locations.
Foursquare has a system of badges. This include checking in at many new locations to my favorite called the Super Mayor badge. The Super Mayor Badge is awarded for being the Mayor in over 10 locations.
Foursquare has all kinds of possibilities for monetization. It can be used in many ways such as location based advertising. For example, a bar decides to entice people to come and use their establishment. They offer a coupon for a free drink if anyone can bring their smartphone to the bard tender and show that they have checked in at this particular bar. This is just one example, the possibilities are endless.
Foursquare has the option of aggregating your feed into Twitter and Facebook. Personally I do not always do this because it clutters up my Facebook and Twitter Feeds.
One thing privacy advocates should be aware off, since you have checked in at a location Foursquare knows exactly where you are. This can be a concern for privacy. I subscribe to a a couple of views. I never check in in a private dwelling or location. I never check in when at home. When I am at home, I actually check in at the Starbucks down the street because of my privacy concerns.
Try it out. Foursquare can be a lot of fun and interesting. Below I have included a YouTube video which Steven Rubel did with Foursquare co-founder Dennis Crowley:
What do you think?
