Seeing how I haven’t posted for a while, I’m going to try to post something about Foursquare each week on a Thursday as a way of encouraging me to actually write something. This week’s post is going to be an introductory one, about why I participate in Foursquare and what I feel sets it apart from its rivals.
I started using Foursquare almost as soon as I bought my iPhone, and, predictably, my first check-in was where I work. In fact, most of my check-ins are either work, or one of the two stations I pass through on my commute, due to the fact that I work full-time five days a week. But some more interesting ones appear at weekends or special events.
Obviously I wouldn’t bother participating in Foursquare if there was no reward for it. I’ve managed to get 17 mayorships (it was 18 earlier this week but I’ve been ousted from a local pub), and 15 badges, which isn’t bad but could be better. It’s certainly fun to get badges and compare with friends.
As yet, I haven’t unlocked any special deals (apart from the Super Bowl one at the weekend, which I didn’t take up as I don’t really have any interest in American Football); unfortunately there aren’t many UK companies taking advantage of Foursquare in that way as yet. Locally, there’s only Wetherspoons and Dominos Pizza. Hopefully that will improve; right now I’m the mayor of a couple of sandwich shops and some tangible rewards would be nice.
My participation in Foursquare goes beyond being a simple player, however: I’ve also been helping to find duplicate or incorrect venues and get them fixed or merged. I’ll mention more about this next week.
Foursquare for me is fun, although a bit limited as only a few of my friends also play it. Plus, the US-orientated nature of most of the brands mean that some of the rewards are out of my reach, which is a shame. Still, I enjoy it.
