Racking up the points…and the coins
I’m probably not the best company nowadays to non-Foursquare users, because checking in has become almost an obsession. When I’m too immersed in the events or conversation of an evening to check in, I mentally kick myself when I realise the fact later at home. I like that I’m still discovering new things about the service on a regular basis. Of course, it isn’t perfect – there continue to be a few bugs with the service which frustrate me no end when I encounter them, but in general the boys at Foursquare seem to have a good thing going. At 1.3 million users, Foursquare is almost 7 times as popular as the next most popular location-based service, Gowalla, despite the latter winning in the Mobile category at SXSWi 2010. (The latest edition of Wired UK has a nice article about the founders and evolution of both).
What motivated me to write this post was the observation that the Foursquare reward mechanism has recently inspired a couple of other reward ‘programmes’, as it were, in completely different industries.
First, the Huffington Post has started giving badges to members in return for their participation on the site, specifically sharing HuffPo news links via Facebook and Twitter, collecting friends and fans, and flagging inappropriate comments.
And in the automotive industry, Subaru has started a Free Vehicle Badge programme, where they give badges to Subaru owners based on their hobbies (gardening, music/arts, the environment, biking, animals and so on).
You know how they talk about the difference between leaders and followers? Perhaps this is an indication of the fact that Foursquare’s star has hit big time – I’m sure we haven’t seen the last of the badge phenomenon yet.
Friends and family often ask me what I get in return for my check-ins on Foursquare, and my response is social kudos. But with businesses cottoning on to the Foursquare phenomenon (Starbucks being the most well-known recent entrant to the game) and offering Mayors and first-time check-ins discounts, I think there’s going to be more to it. Below are a range of the options that Foursquare offers businesses (taken from their website):
- Mayor Specials: unlocked only by the Mayor of your venue. (the user who has checked in the most in the last 60 days)
- Check-in Specials: unlocked when a user checks in to your venue a certain number of times.
- Frequency-based Specials: unlocked every X check-ins.
- Wildcard Specials: always unlocked, but staff have to verify some extra conditions before awarding the Special.
So far most specials that I’ve heard of or noticed are Mayor specials – I’m waiting for businesses to tap into the others in a bigger way, or even create custom specials in co-ordination with Foursquare. I think this is only the beginning, though. Who was it who said that first a technology needs to become mainstream, then it becomes ubiquitous or accepted behaviour, and finally you master it and the innovations start?
9 comments
I’m glad you’re being honest about your new obsession. It’s the first step on the road to recovery. I’ve been getting round the clock notifications from you and always know where you are – even at weekends and in the evenings. And you’re now the mayor of Made By Many.
Here’s another clone that took some stick this week: “Pepsi Loot is an exercise in futility”
http://thenextweb.com/us/2010/06/02/pepsis-own-foursquare-pepsi-loot-is-ridiculous/?awesm=tnw.to_16Hli&utm_medium=tnw.to-other&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_content=twitter-publisher-other
http://thenextweb.com/us/2010/06/02/pepsis-own-foursquare-pepsi-loot-is-ridiculous/?awesm=tnw.to_16Hli&utm_medium=tnw.to-other&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_content=twitter-publisher-other
Anjali, you’ve just succeeded where a million Twitter-feed ‘I just unlocked xyz’ updates have failed: I’m joining Foursquare. The social kudos wasn’t enough for me, but if it’s spilling into other industries, I’m interested.
Anjali, nice post.
I’d be keen to hear what you think of WeReward. http://wereward.com/
I feel it taints the honesty of FourSquare by offering rewards beyond social kudos. Any thoughts?
http://wereward.com/
Tim – I’m afraid you speak an untruth (as they’d say in the days before the interwebs). I have disconnected my 4sq account from Twitter so there’s no way you’d know where I am unless you keep refreshing your 4sq app or go the site directly – in which case, my friend, you’re an addict too. Maybe you can join me in the recovery process, whenever that is.
Sara, welcome to the club! I’m glad my post has actually motivated someone to take it up :D
Tive, WeReward, to me, misses one key factor – that of building a community where members come together on the basis of their knowledge of each other in other social spheres (or real life). I wouldn’t add a random stranger on 4sq, for example. 4sq are a community that is NOW tapping into commercial benefits. We Reward seems to be going at it the other way around – the wrong way.
Thanks. I think the problem is that WeReward checks in to FourSquare on your behalf. So if a real friend checks into a deli because they can earn money, then you will just see that as a FourSquare checkin and may think that deli is worth visiting based on the merits of its food. I explain a bit more here: http://ht.ly/1QB4Rf
http://ht.ly/1QB4Rf
PS: Sorry to wade in, but I think Tim is might be getting push notifications from you.
oops – dead link. I meant http://ow.ly/1TZ5s
http://ow.ly/1TZ5s
Much to my own surprise, I’ve just signed up to Foursquare. I never thought I’d end up signing up for any of these check-in/location services, but you’ve made a compelling case for it here!
As you said in the post, now that Foursquare has hit the early majority of the mainstream, I think we’re going to start seeing some really interesting ideas and mashups from a variety of industries.
This reminds me – whatever happened to Yahoo! Fireagle? I hope it’s not another great Yahoo! initiative that’s bitten the dust…
For everyone’s info, Tim needs to turn off push notifications – I’ve unchecked all notifications from 4sq to other networks at my end! :D
Tive, thanks for the kind words earlier, and I like your post on WeReward. Nice one.
Simon – glad I’ve converted yet another person, and hope you have fun with it! And you’re right – Fireagle seems to have disappeared. I guess time is the true test of mettle of a service. I’m waiting to see how much bigger or smaller Facebook and Twitter are in a couple of years’ time myself.
Sara and Simon – yes, with 4sq now spilling into other industries, I think it’s definitely one to watch out for.
Nice talk has over by Anjali, But i found the blog today so i will not leave it without commenting. You have great move to start points and coins campaigns and hope it would get succeed among users. I also like Tive WeRewards website where we can easily earn some amount to buy pizza and coupons of mobile. Thanks for sharing nice discussion. I learn a lot from the post.