When websites or web programs start to feel a bit to close to my personal life, I tend to stand back and watch others dive into the facebooks, and twitters before I even dip my toes in the water. Facebook felt exposing at first, and even more so once I was teaching in a High School (thank goodness for privacy settings)... but needless to say I’m now a Facebook-er. Then came Twitter. Twitter made me feel tired and annoyed the first time I heard about it. Who wants to know what I’m doing all the time? Informing the internet public that “I just found $5 in my coat pocket” felt a bit ridiculous. Who needs a 140 character electronic diary? However, I now realize that the best part of Twitter is not being followed, but following others. Twitter has become my number one resource for upcoming concerts, events, current events, recipes, passed legislation, and recently published journals or articles. Currently I find myself in a stand-off with the new web phenomenon, FourSquare. In the case that “Foursquare” is a new term to your web-ulary, it is a web program where you “check-in” at your current location, which can be anywhere around the world. Your current location will then be announced to your friends and followers. For example, you are about to enjoy dinner at Red Bamboo in Greenwich Village. Before you order, you check in with FourSquare, which will find your actual location via satellite and will narrow down the possible places you might be... you choose Red Bamboo, and within a second... everyone knows where you are (You can check in via computer, but the majority of Foursquare participants check-in using their smartphone).
When a friend of mine explained FourSquare, my initial reaction to FourSquare was... yikes... sounds like someone can stalk you! She said “yeah, I guess someone could, but I do it because the program suggests near by places I might want to go... plus, I want to be the mayor.” Huh??? The mayor, what is this? The mayor is the person who checks into a particular location the MOST over the course of a month. Other than those two reasons, there didn’t seem to be another reason why I might want to join and participate in FourSquare, I wasn’t sold on the concept.
I should note, that I am NOT a member of FourSquare, but I’m seriously considering it. The reason being, I’m a sucker for a discount and clever advertising. FourSquare check-ins are small, free, but targeted advertising tools. For instance, if I check in at Trader Joe’s, the chance that my followers on FourSquare would also shop there, are rather high. Not to mention, the chance that a follower might then inquire about what I bought at Trader Joe’s, or what I saw on sale, or what I saw that they might like... so to encourage these interactions...restaurants/retail stores are now using FourSquare to draw in business by offering discounts to customers that frequently check-in at their locations. And if you are really dedicated, and become mayor... you may just receive a large discount or free food/merchandise. "Online PR" stated it nicely with...
“People won’t continue to use foursquare just because of the game aspect. They want awesome discounts and they want information about places they’ve never been before. This is where businesses need to step up and offer compelling deals and provide information about their own venue.”
So what can you get? Chilis’ Bar and Grill gives FourSquare guests free chips and salsa. Kona Grill awards their monthly mayor a free sushi roll. Starbucks mayors receive $1 off any frappuccino. One restaurant chain in MIlwaukee awards its monthly FourSquare mayor a free meal. Other restaurants are rewarding the top-3 “Check-in”ers, with a free meal from a specially formulated mayor menu that contains food items not found on the menu. Ann Taylor offers everyone who checks in at their NYC location a 15% discount on any one item. Most of these deals are received by simply showing the waitress, or barista your phone displaying the “check-in.” So if you’re like me, you might just to join FourSquare for the savings and deal with the possible stalkers later
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