Page 218 - Social Media Marketing

c h a p t e r 7: ╇ F ive E ssential T ips╇ ■information. But beyond basic location awareness, these early applications didn’t do
much. That was a problem.

Enter Foursquare. Along with applications like Gowalla and rebuilt versions of
earlier applications, Foursquare combines location awareness with collective knowl-
edge to produce an order of magnitude more useful experience.

Using Foursquare, upon arriving someplace one “checks in.” The GPS in your
phone knows where you are, and Foursquare tells you what’s around you. Typically,
you’ll see the name of the place where you are and some others that are nearby, and
you simply click Check In.

What makes Foursquare relatively more popular is its game-based functionality. As
you check in, you accumulate points. Check in someplace new and add that venue to the
Foursquare database—there’s a form for this right on your phone-based app— and you
get six points. Even better, hit three places in the same day, and you get a traveler badge.
Go out on a weeknight, and you’ll earn the “school night” badge. You can see your points
and badges when you log in online or open Foursquare on your phone (see Figure€7.5).

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Figure€7.5╇â•F‰ oursquare Badges