The Social Sessions: Foursquare

In order to demystify the wonders of social media, Dangling Carrot is undertaking a unique cyber experiment. We’ll be reviewing the latest developments and shedding a little totally bias and opinionated light on the topic that everyone’s talking about. If you don’t know your feeds from your forums or your tweets from your tags, this is the place to learn (well, perhaps)

Session 2: Foursquare If you’re not down with the cyber kids Foursquare is an American born new(ish) app designed to ‘unlock your world’ – a tagline I can’t help but read in a smooth R&B stylee adding ‘I want too’ and ‘babe’ at the beginning and end of the statement respectively. Utilised via your mobile phone Foursquare offers ‘explorers’ (i.e. consumers) a guide to their surroundings including details of hot in-store offers such as ‘curry and a pint for £5’ or ’20 per cent off kitten heels’. Furthermore Foursquare also divulges the latest news regarding what all your friends are up to ‘like right now’, as well as where they’ve been and when – potentially without you (the filthy cads!).

To put this into real terms, and by ‘real’ I actually mean a sitcom Friends-type-setting – you know The one with Foursquare – and your left with something like this: So Joey and Chandler are sat in Central Perk mulling over why women can’t be more like iphones, as Joey plays Angry Birds on said phone. Absent mindedly ‘checking-in’ to his favourite coffee shop’s Foursquare site via his own iphone, Chandler is just passing comment on the irony of Joeys’s predicament (ironically of course) when the app kicks into action welcoming him back to Central Perk for the ninth time that day.

Just in case Monica’s feeder tendencies are failing to hit the mark, Chandler may like to know there is a delightful BOGOF offer in-store today on Mocha Muffins - but the information doesn’t stop there. Foursquare also informs him that, despite their long and bitter third divorce Rachel and Ross not only met in Central Perk earlier that day, but are now residing in the Li’l Chapel of Love in Vegas. Again. Split screen close up on both Chandler and Joey’s comedy surprised faces.

Ok so I’ve marginally embellished but you get the picture. The thing is Foursquare’s role doesn’t end there, no siree, the app has the whole marketing thing going on too allowing businesses to better communicate with both new and existing customers. So while Chandler and Joey are waxing lyrical in the foreground, good old Gunther is ferreting around out back pimping his wares and building up both his customer profiles and reputation on the whole. All the while weeping into his piny as his beloved Foursquare friend Rachel makes yet another sole destroying life choice.

Foursquare certainly does offer a myriad of means to yet further stalk your nearest and dearest, and the marketing elements are an all together three dimensional step forward for marketers when compared to better established platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. However, there is a third string to this apps bow just to ensure the gamers and under 18 are fully catered for too – Badges!

Now I watched Foursquares online guide four times (funnily enough) and I still gleaned very little about the product overall, not to mention the elusive Badge system. I will admit to having the sound off which may have had an impact. It’s also worth noting that the Betty Rubble styled ‘spokesperson’ is clearly designed for female users so I can only presume men have a sixth sense for apps?

But back to the actual content of the guide (or lack there of) and Foursquare’s six-point mantra reads ‘add friends, check-in, learn tips, get out, gain power, use it everywhere’. Hang on a mo – what was that last bit again? ‘Gain power, use it everywhere?’ Yep, read it as many times as you like but, believe me, it makes no sense whatsoever. Especially given that our online guide is now wearing a gleaming mayor’s badge – now I’m no virtual genius but I know jewellery - surely that should say sheriff or be some weighty gold necklace instead?

Unable to fathom either the mayoral or badge concept I went to someone I knew I could rely on – good old Wikipedia. The lovely Wiki (as I like to call him), reliably informed me badges are in fact earned by checking into venues which is simple enough and, seeing as I was asking, the app overall now has 1.3 million users and is also being pursued by Yahoo who’ve allegedly put $125 million on the table in an attempt to purchase the software.

Then something quite unexpected happened and good old Wiki went all Fight Club on me (‘The first rule of fight club is...’), glancing nervously from side to side he admitted that the badges are indeed shrouded in mystery. In increasingly distraught tones Wiki uttered something about Far Far Away and On a Boat Badges, then he self-destructed. No really, you couldn’t make it up. One thing for it – time to test that bad boy in the real world...

Entering the Foursquare arena I head straight for ‘Places’ and I’m met with a list of most venues in around a one mile radius from where I’m sat. The hospitals there but I can see that out the window so unless they’ve got a special offer on medical scrubs I’m out of there, so to speak! Next I try our local bistro come bar directly down and left of me – it’s got a Mayor, apparently. Still baffled as to what this means I’m starting to think, in a slightly winey voice, that I want to be mayor of somewhere too. This time I remember to actually check-in and Huzah – I get my fist badge – the Newbie – but there’s a Mayor there already so I’m gone. Bingo - the kebab shop’s mayoral status is up for grabs so I try my luck, this time I receive some points but no badge so I decided to see what else is on offer app wise.

Like the Places section Tips feels a little like stating the obvious with review style pearls of wisdom including ‘lovely pint of Butcombe’ for one of the local pubs. Having sifted through quite a few however, I do start to find some that actually live up to their name offering me advice on what’s good and why. Furthermore, while I feel I know this areas shops and broader social seen fairly well some names of long forgotten venues pop up like old friends leaving me wondering why I’ve not been there for so long.

Talking of friends, I’ve managed to find a couple who thankfully ‘approved’ my invite! But as with all new social media platforms I think we’d all need to get a little more engaged to see any telling results.

Increasingly agitated by my non-mayoral status, I go on the rampage! Turns out you can check-in all over the shop without actually going through the doors. The points are racking up and I’ve unlocked my ‘Crunked’ badge meaning I’ve visited four places in one day – yep -get me. Giddy with excitement and the thought of cheating the system, the blinking thing only figures out what I’m doing. ‘Stay-a-while’ it earnestly urges but ‘or we’’ break your fingers’ is what it actually means.

I guess, like all these things, there is that inevitable tipping point when even the local ‘cough cough’ massage club will have a Mayor and you’ll receive friend requests from Aunty Susan’s best friend’s nephew. And when that day comes, Foursquare will become one almost frighteningly powerful tool. I mean imagine visiting anywhere from some sprawling behemoth of a city to a one-horse-town and knowing exactly where to go for the best breakfast. Equally, imagine being that business and knowing you can sustain your steady growth in morning trade due to rather helpful feedback from the British contingent of your client-base regarding the pivotal nature of a decent cup of tea at the start of each day. As yet however, we are not quite there yet.

Granted I do genuinely fear the seemingly unavoidable end of real life face-to-face communication, a dark day when row upon row of zombie-like mutes sit hunched over their iphones, the pale back light of the screens slightly highlighting the minor twitch in the corners of their mouths ‘LOL’ they reply. But hell, if they know where to get the best coffee and make me mayor – then I’m all in!

In brief:

User-friendliness: Press all the buttons till it works (or you get told off)

Function: It serves a purpose but needs more input from individuals and businesses alike

Aesthetics: Simple but effective

Shock factor: None – unless you count your own shock at your previously untapped power hungry mayoral urges

PR value: Could work as part of an integrated campaign or for data capture but as with Function, requires more input