Be a Mayor with Foursquare!
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Have you heard of Foursquare? Some of us have, and some have not. If you have not heard of this service, listen up, a lot of people are talking about it lately.
Foursquare is a mobile web service, which is already racking up over 500,000 users, that lets people find their friends depending on where they are. Users can broadcast their current location via mobile phone and check-in at known places, such as the local Starbucks. Once the user does that, their friends can see it and choose to meet you there, or “Shout” you a message (maybe asking why you are there), etc. — you basically tell your friends where you are. If you are thinking it is Twitter-esque, it is… sort of.
The idea behind Foursquare is not so much to manage our friends in a social space or use small messages to get a point across, but the service allows us to manage where we go and what we are doing, so that we can meet others easily and others can know where we are. It is a self-positioning GPS locator, in a nutshell. Of course what fun is that if there weren’t perks for participating in all of this?
Lets say we walk into our favorite cafe, Leet Coffee, frequently to meet friends and socialize. The more we “check-in” to Leet Coffee the more points we accumulate and may even be awarded special trophies. For example, the “Local” trophy is awarded to you if you visit a single location three times in the same week. But, even better than the trophy is becoming the mayor of our location, the ultimate reward. Yes, there are points and trophies however the real trick to the service is this “mayor” status.
Out of everyone that uses Foursquare, if a person “checks-in” the most at a single location, they can be crowned the “mayor” of that place. This seems silly, however Foursquare has gotten such well-received notice from venues that mayors are being given special perks. These places, mostly businesses, likely know the “mayor” personally because they check-in the most and are offered discounts and special “frequency” deals. And, to top it off, because the service is social, the mayor is also expected to bring in more business by inviting his friends, so the mayor’s friends might get a discount as well. See the value in the service already, for both power users and businesses?
Discount, Discount Discount!
Some real discount examples for mayors and frequent visitors:
- Foursquare mayor drinks for free
- Free side of fries for the mayor
- Mayor gets a free beer
- Your 10th check-in earns a free 16oz hot or iced coffee/tea
- Free slice of pizza & drink on your 10th check-in
Small business, in particular, is turning to social networking services to manage their frequent and loyal customers. Foursquare, just happens to be the best tool to keep track of exactly who is loyal in an objective, and easily measurable way. There has not been a service so easy to use and as accessible on-the-go until Foursquare, which explains why the service has gotten such an influx of new users and a newfound respect from many small businesses.
Foursquare is likely to be a big hit if it continues growing at the pace it is. However, some downfalls is that it is yet another social application in an already crowded space. It is one more service for people to log into and keep updated, among the hundreds of others that people use already on a daily basis. The only people who cannot use Foursquare are the people without mobile Internet capabilities on their cellphone. The service has specific iPhone, Blackberry, and Android applications which are much easier to use than the simple mobile text version, even then it is still extremely easy to use.
Twitter updates, Facebook updates, and now Foursquare is here to keep track of where we are for both our friends and the venues we visit. I will be the mayor of my local Starbucks any day now…
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