Posted by David Gallant on Tue, Aug 31, 2010 @ 07:54 AM
Guest post by David McKinney
A new app called My Foursquare makes it easy to display your Foursquare information on your Facebook profile, your blog, or your website. You can display your badges, mayorships, last checkin, and last checkin on a Google map.
The Facebook app shows up as a tab on your profile; the Wordpress plugin shows up as a widget on your sidebar; and the javascript embed of code lets you show your stuff wherever you like on any website.
My Foursquare has several customization options that make it easy to display your Foursquare stuff how you like. You can choose which elements you want to show (e.g. show just your badges, or show just your last checkin), and design customization options include variable widget widths, borders, colors and fonts.
The apps use Oauth authentication to connect with the Foursquare API, so that your personal Foursquare login credentials are safe and secure – they are never seen by My Foursquare.
About the developer
As well as putting together My Foursquare, Australian developer Dave McKinney is a UK Top 40 musician and producer, with several records out now including Flow Dynamics, Soul Harmonics, & Rhibosome.
In addition to that, Dave has also worked extensively as a marine biologist on various projects for the Australian Institute of Marine Science in the fields of coral taxonomy, multivariate statistics, and quantitative community analysis.
Website
http://myfoursquare.net
Facebook Page
http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=118325944880789
Wordpress Plugin
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/my-foursquare/
Posted by David Gallant on Fri, Aug 20, 2010 @ 11:50 PM
About Foursquare has a great article about scoring back to school badges, becoming a campus ambassador, and images of the new badges.
Back To School Badges at About Foursquare
Posted by Kyle James on Tue, Aug 17, 2010 @ 02:55 PM
So let me be the first to apologize because this isn't a brand new badge. It has actually been out for over two weeks now. Anyway Gogo Inflight Internet has teamed up with Foursquare and released a badge very similar to the Waze Road Warrior Badge for using their service.
Learn exactly how to unlock the Mile High Badge.
Posted by David Gallant on Mon, Aug 09, 2010 @ 09:00 AM
Earlier today, Foursquare launched a store selling swag and apparel.
Specific items include
- T-shirts
- Buttons
- Stickers
This will certainly disappoint other websites who were printing their own badges on pins and patches.
Posted by David Gallant on Thu, Jul 29, 2010 @ 10:59 PM
For many of us socially connected techies with smart phones, the idea of Foursquare is a no-brainer. Share where you are with friends, earn badges and mayorships and occasionally be rewarded by a venue for your check-ins.
With over two million Foursquare users to date, you might think it is more popular than it really is. In fact, Forrester Research found that only 4% of the adult, internet-using population has used a location-based application and only 1% of all adults check into locations once a week. Compared to social network behemoths like Facebook and Twitter, this is quite a small user base.
While Foursquare has integrated with the History Channel and has an ad on Bravo it is still not mainstream, but is getting there.
While many marketers believe Foursquare is not worth integrating into their marketing program, I think it CAN be a viable marketing channel, if not now, then in the near future.
Take a local restaurant, for example. They could create a check-in for their location, monitor who checks in, see if they tweet about it or share it on Facebook, and keep track of repeat visitors. With some simple monitoring, they could begin to view trends of who comes in on a regular basis and how they share it.
From there, the restaurant manager can create a special promotion or coupon for the user to reward them for their loyalty. Of course, getting a coupon from just using Foursquare will generate some local buzz which can only help the restaurant. Just like any social network, word will spread fast and more people will want to visit this venue and check-in frequently to get rewarded as well.
Now, take a large company like Target or Macy’s, for example. They could use a tool such as developed by Burlington, Mass based Awareness which can help them monitor and track visits to their locations. They can easily see trends and develop a rewards program for frequent visitors, such as 20% off an entire purchase after 5 check-ins.
Many companies and marketing agencies may view creating a Foursquare marketing campaign as a complex process, but all it really needs to have is a simple understanding of the people who check-in and how often, and then a type of promotion to give loyal visitors.
If large companies like Target and Macy’s begin to adopt these reward programs, it is sure to gain traction and press quickly. The great part about Foursquare is that it can be used anywhere, from a local boutique to a large clothing department store, meaning anyone can create a program around the application.
Even with their recent partnership with the History Channel and ad on Bravo, they have gained some serious traction, and now have over 40 million check-ins to date.
It will be very interesting to see how local to world-wide companies begin to use Foursquare in their marketing efforts. As more companies join the bandwagon, users are sure to follow. Within the past year alone they have significantly increased their user base, so it is only expected to grow exponentially from here.
How has your company used Foursquare to engage visitors? Do you see it as a viable marketing channel now or in the near future?
This is a guest post by Kristin Dziadul, a Social Media Marketer.
Posted by Kyle James on Fri, Jul 23, 2010 @ 02:00 PM
It is that time of the year again for another Comic-Con. For this year's event in San Diego, Warner Brothers has come up with a Superman badge. Let's be honest the badge looks really cool and who wouldn't like to have a Superman looking badge? It's also pretty simple to get the badge as all you need to do is checkin to the venue and there isn't anything to follow.
Visit the Comic-Con 2010 website for all the information about the event.
Learn exactly how to unlock the Comic-Con 2010 (Superman) Badge.
Posted by Kyle James on Fri, Jul 23, 2010 @ 08:00 AM
This one came out a few days ago. Basically it looks like VH1 has finally gotten into the game with a badge although you have been able to follow their account on Foursquare for some time now. See the VH1 account page.
It looks like reading through their page you only need three checkins at music venues instead of checking in at locations where they leave tips. If anyone can get a confirmation about this one way or the other please leave a comment.
Learn exactly how to get the VH1 Fanatic Badge.
Posted by Kyle James on Tue, Jul 13, 2010 @ 01:29 PM
It has taken a while, but over the weekend individuals finally started to unlock the Club L Badge. The badge has been known about for a few weeks now, but it looks like this is going to be one of the harder badges to unlock. Club L is named after the popular and niche show The Real L Word show on Showtime.
Learn exactly how to unlock the Club L Badge.
Posted by Kyle James on Tue, Jul 06, 2010 @ 11:21 AM
So a while back we blogged that the Groupie Badge has shown up after SXSW 2010. Well over the weekend thanks to the help of the MattersofGrey foursquare badge list we were able to figure out exactly how to unlock this badge. You need to visit a certain secret URL and pick some specific choices and the badge can be yours too. Yes it really is that easy.
Learn exactly how to unlock the Groupie Badge.
Posted by Kyle James on Fri, Jul 02, 2010 @ 08:51 AM
Here is a new badge for you. As Chris reported on AboutFoursquare this badge isn't really as strange as it claims to be. Looking through the introduced locations it looks like it is going to be hard to get this badge outside of New York and Boston until they tag more locations. The cool thing is you can make suggestions for venues through their website.
Learn exactly how to unlock the Slightly Off (IFC) Badge.
