DREAMING OF A JOB AS MAYOR; TODAY IT IS POSSIBLE!

Today, a completely different subject! I want to avoid you to become bored about my frustrations about social networking sites. As from the start of these blogs I am on a journey to become ‘Liberated’ and find out the positive aspects of social networking websites. This week I was searching the web again to look for some interesting social networking sites, and I found a relatively unknown social networking site; FOURSQUARE! 

You might think; “Where did you live the past years, I already know this forever?”  I still want to grab this opportunity to talk about this social networking site, which I seem to like at this moment, and that is not something which happens very often. 

Foursquare is a location-based social networking website, which is mostly used via a mobile phone application. It is very popular in America. Users check-in via Foursquare on a certain location, where they are at that moment; this could be the library, the supermarket or a very popular club. Every time you check-in on a location you receive points, so the more you check-in on the same location the more points you earn. Furthermore, when checking-in on a ‘new’ location you get bonus points. With this application you can see where your friends are hanging out and if they are near, you can for example join them. The GPS system of your mobile phone is used to connect to your friends.

Pay attention, if you get the badge on the left, you have become the ‘SUPER MAYOR’ of a location. It means that you have checked-in the most at a certain location.  When someone else then checks-ins in at the location of which you are the ‘Super Mayor’, he/ she will get to know you, because you are mentioned as the mayor of that location.  Your own 15 seconds of fame! However, be aware that someone else can easily steal the ‘Super Mayor’ position from you. Being a Mayor means that you are a loyal customers of a certain location; you might get rewarded from certain businesses for being a loyal customer.

However, do not be sad if you do not have the ambition to become a Mayor; there are many other badges to earn. The badges serve like a medal, which you can earn for certain achievements. I selected some nice examples for you:

Another, nice thing about Foursquare is that you can give ‘TIPS & DOS’ to your friends. You could give tips to your fellow users about a certain location you have been to. This could be negative, in a sense of: “Never go there”, but also in a positive way. For example, you know a nice and cheap restaurant, which serves the best spareribs ever and they have a very good discount night a Thursdays. You can add this tip into your Foursquare account, and anyone else who wants to have a good and cheap dinner can see your tip and save this tip to his or hers personal ‘to-do’ list. This can also work beneficial for restaurants; they could generate more guests via Foursquare.

Furthermore, this location-based social networking website already has partnerships with well-known companies.  A good example to mention is that of PEPSICO; Foursquare gives them a live notification if someone is nearby a grocery store, restaurant or gas station, where PepsiCo sells their soda drinks. In turn, PepsiCo can then present these users with an offer which gets them in that specific location. This gives PepsiCo good insides in what is going on at the marketplace and the behavior of their target audience.  In addition, PepsiCo launched an application for the iPhone, called Pepsi Loot. With this location-based application in combination with Foursquare, PepsiCo is rewarding their loyal customers. Customers can collect points by checking-in and drinking a soda from PepsiCo, with these points fee music can be downloaded.

In addition, Foursquare did not forget the ‘die-hard’ Twitter and Facebook users; you can easily link the application to your Facebook and/or Twitter account.  Last but not least, some experts even call Foursquare the new Twitter.  I am not sure if that will be the case, but it is a nice application of which I am sure also becomes popular in the Netherlands. The competition element, earning points for checking-in, and receiving different badges for different achievements makes it fun and certainly not boring. Moreover, it is not only entertaining for the users, many companies could benefit from Foursquare. If someone check-ins very often on a certain location, it could generate more traffic to that place. This could in turn lead to more loyal customers and profits.

I really started to like this location-based social networking website; which is definitely a good step towards my goal to become ‘Liberated’. You should check and explore it yourself; www.foursquare.com, and do not hesitate to tell me what you think of it. I am curious to know!

Watch the following video and find out how to ‘UNLOCK YOUR WORLD’:

Talk to you again next week!  

Special thanks to: Mashable, Frankwatchers and the New York Times.