Location-aware social networks allow you to tell your friends where you are so you can meet up, have a drink, and hang out simply by “checking in” on your smart phone. One of the more popular networks, Foursquare, incorporates competitive elements to keep users interested.
Created by one of the co-founders of Dodgeball (purchased and killed by Google), Foursquare’s popularity has recently pushed it out of the phone and onto a 126-foot LED video screen at the entrance to Las Vegas’ Miracle Mile Shops.
How Does It Work?
After you’ve installed the Foursquare app to your smart phone (iPhone, Blackberry, Android and Palm Pre) and created an account, you can check-in wherever you are, shout out to your friends, make lists of things to do, and earn points for trying new places and frequenting your favorite haunts.
Foursquare draws from a list of known businesses in cities all over the world. However, if you are in a city like mine, Cincinnati, which is not on the “official” Foursquare list, a lot of the information is from other Foursquarers. You can also go through a fairly simply process to add a location.
Once you check-in a number of times you start to earn badges for special achievements (like being on a boat or working out at the gym). If you are a regular, you can become the Mayor of that location.
Earning points works like this:
- +5 points for a first time check-in
- +5 points for adding a new venue
- +1 point for per check-in, increasing by +1 with each subsequent check-in during the day (e.g. you’ll receive +4 points for the 4th venue you check into)
Currently the points don’t translate into any real-world currency, they are mostly for bragging rights among your friends.
And some Foursquarers, particularly in Japan, have a lot of bragging to do. How do they have any time to actually have friends?
How Do They Monetize It?
After you check in, Foursquare can then push you deals from the other establishments around you. For example, a few weeks ago I was in Grand Rapids, MI. I checked in at the local beer mecca, Hopcat, and the tapas place down the street pinged me with an offer of free tapas for checking in.
Or let’s say you’re the Mayor of a local coffee shop, you might earn Mayoral Specials for checking in.
Mr. Gyros on Greenwood Ave in Seattle offers free high fives to Foursquarers who check-in.
By selling businesses the option of offering tangible, real-life rewards (like free tapas or high fives), Foursquare can be fun AND useful.
What Else?
Like many of the location-based mobile apps, Foursquare allows you to sync up your account with Twitter and Facebook. This allows your non-Foursquare friends to find you rather easily so they can (hopefully) buy you a beer, but it also has two unintended consequences:
- Pissing off your friends on Facebook and Twitter who don’t live anywhere near you with a stream of useless updates like, “Craig just checked-in @ Your Mom’s House.”
- Infringing on your privacy (with your permission, of course). The site Please Rob Me streams Foursquare users’ twitter feeds to show who’s not home right now and therefore has an emprty house.
And finally, GPS-be-damned, there is a major flaw in Foursquare’s current model which is the system can be gamed fairly easily. Now to be fair, Foursquare does try to limit rapidfire check-ins, but long-range check-ins are another story.
My brother in Seattle regularly checks into my other brother’s house in St. Louis to try and oust him from the Mayorship.
Jim Bumgardner recently had a lengthy post (“Mayor of the North Pole“) detailing how he cheats on Foursquare:
I created five “Java Monkeys” which grabbed about 120 different Starbucks in different regions (east, west, midwest, south, intl). I identified and targeted hotly contested Starbucks by searching Twitter for recent oustings. My script automatically visited those ones, to the consternation of the new mayors.
I created a fake Martha Stewart who checks into dollar stores and pawnshops when not visiting Martha Stewart Omnimedia and the set of her TV Show.
I created a fake Simon Cowell who visits massage parlors and gets lunch at Hotdog on a Stick when not visiting the Kodak theater.
I created a fake Tommy Chong who is mayor of 130 cannabis clinics.
I created a fake Sammy Davis Jr who checks into casinos and bars in Las Vegas.
I created a “random nerd” who checked into a number of large campuses in the Silicon Valley.
So why is cheating bad? To begin with, you can add locations that don’t exist or locations that no one cares about but you (like your backyard). AND, with the ability for users to check-in practically anywhere they like without actually being there, whatever advertising power businesses have on Foursquare is significantly diminished. If the advertising model is based on impressions, they certainly aren’t as targeted as they are made out to be.
The Bottom Line
Foursquare does a great job of making it fun and easy to connect with your friends. Little touches like badges for special events (I earned an Ignite badge for attending IgniteCincinnati this week) indicate that the folks behind Foursquare care about keeping users engaged. That said, it is a location-based app and the accuracy of its location-awareness could and should be improved.
Creative Department’s Rating
(4 out of 5)
