So, for about the last two weeks, I’ve been playing with FourSquare, a location-based game on most app-based phones. Since it opened to all cities around the world back on January 8th, I’ve seen it’s usage amongst my friends triple.
The idea behind foursquare is that you compete for points with your friends by “checking in” at different locations you travel throughout the day. The points reset every sunday morning, but the power of foursquare is huge.
I recently attended #sofresh in Nashville (blog post coming) and automatically checked myself in to the hotel via foursquare. In that second, it dawned on me just how powerful FourSquare was. I looked at recent checkins and knew who else attending the conference was there, nearly automatically. I saw four others, three of which where chatting in the lobby. I was able to recognize them immediately.
Now, I’ve also had the question from a couple of local users: “But my followers don’t want to know where I am”. Have you asked? As an early adopter, I’m just going with the flow. But I’ve already had a few chance encounters meeting other “plugged-in” people. We talked in passing, or sat and had a coffee. You never know until you ask. If they have said that they don’t like your foursquare tweets, ask them nicely to continue to follow you, then let them make the choice. Again, I’m an early adopter. I go for the gold. Opinions may vary.
Probably my favorite part has got to be the badges. If you check in a certain amount of times, at certain times, in certain places, you can get badges. There’s nothing that they do, other than let others know just how nerdy you are. I have five currently, and am looking for ways to get more.
Overall, I love the idea of FourSquare and think it’s got a good backbone. But it’s still very new to most of the world and will take getting used to. I’m just glad I’ve got a head start. That way I can be Mayor for much longer. 