Foursquare: The Next Big Thing
Facebook was followed by Twitter, which will be followed by Foursquare. Just remember when the only thing the mainstream media can talk about is foursquare. You heard it here first, it’s going to be huge.*
What does it do?
Foursquare is a mobile location based social networking application. What does that mean? It’s an application you run on a mobile device (iPhone, Blackberry, etc.), that allows you to alert your friends of your location. At this point, a lot of people are going to ask, “why would I want people to know where I am?” To those people I say this: think back to when you first heard about Twitter. You probably asked a similar question, but trust me this is actually a good idea. First of all on Foursquare you have considerably less “friends” than on Facebook or Twitter. The people you’re giving your location to are much closer friends. You also have the option to not broadcast your location when you check-in to a new location. Most people don’t use it to tell everyone they are grocery shopping or running errands. Instead it’s used to tell people about the social places you’re hanging out. Bars, restaurants, coffee shops and other places you would want friends to meet up with you.
What makes it so appealing?
There are several gaming aspects to Foursquare that make it incredibly addictive, but at it’s core is the location based awareness. Now that most smartphones are equipped with gps, the app can determine where you are in a city. There are a ton of useful functions for this. To name a few: finding specials nearby, locating friends nearby, exploring new places, and getting local recommendations.
The gaming aspects of Foursquare are what make it really addictive. First there is a weekly leader board. You earn points by checking in at locations. You can compete with everyone in the city, or just your friends for points and to see who can top the weekly leader board. Next are the badges. By doing different things you can unlock badges which are displayed on your profile. All of the badges are designed to keep you participating with the application. Finally, you can become mayor of a location if you are the person who has visited most in the past sixty days. Some businesses have even offered perks to mayors in an attempt increase business. Here is one example.
Why it will be a huge hit
Foursquare is going to be huge because of the convergance of location awareness, gaming element and integration with other social media sites. It’s not trying to compete against Twitter or Facebook, instead it uses those platforms to have it’s users promote what they are doing and get more people involved. To truly get an understanding of how fun and addictive Foursquare can be I recommend you try it out for yourself. To get the most out of it, find a bunch of friends to try it out with. While they are constantly expanding to new cities, you’re most likely out of luck if you live in a smaller metropolitan area.
*I started writing this before I’d tried out Gowalla, which might turn out to be even better, but for basically all the same reasons. Right now Foursquare is #1, but Gowalla is quickly gaining in popularity.
