As I was live-tweeting an interview of Foursquare General Manager Evan Cohen Tuesday, Joey Kulkin asked a good question:
I promised an answer:
So here goes. Why do I “check in” every time I eat at a restaurant or attend an event (or even at each train stop as I roll home from New York tonight as I write this)?
As David Heyman and I noted in a later Twitter exchange during the Cohen interview, I don’t actually see a lot of value right now in my use of Foursquare (and my check-ins sometimes annoy Mimi).
I don’t really care about being “Mayor” of Lucia’s Italian Ristorante in Reston, Va., or Premiere Hotel and Suites in New Haven, Conn., though I have checked in at each often enough to win the title.
I don’t even know what I did to earn most of my stinkin’ badges. I take no pride in being No. 11 on the “leaderboard.” I’ve never made it to No. 1, and I’m pretty sure I won’t get anything except tweeting rights if I do.
My Digital First Media colleague Buffy Andrews tried to get a free cup of coffee at a place where she was mayor, and they didn’t know what she was talking about.
Beyond the value of tracking my son’s night life (and I couldn’t do that, except that he agreed to be my friend), I don’t get much out of Foursquare.
So why should I, or any journalist, spend time with Foursquare?
Maybe we shouldn’t, but here’s why I do: I think mobile news, information and commerce play a huge role in the future of journalism and the news business. I think location will play a significant role: providing news, useful information, coupons and other content and commerce relating to a person’s precise location at a particular moment.
I don’t particularly think Foursquare has figured out what that future will be. But it’s the leading player in location now (having beaten back a Facebook challenge), and if I check in and play the silly games, I hope I’ll play a role in finding or shaping that future, or will be in a position to take advantage when someone else finds and shapes it.
I can already see some of the possibilities:
On a breaking story last year, my TBD colleague, Mandy Jenkins, used Foursquare to see who had checked in recently at the Foursquare venue where the news was happening. Similarly, if you checked the “Mayor” of a venue that’s in the news, you might be able to find someone who could be a good source (I’m a loyal customer of Lucia’s and spent last week at Premiere, so I might be a decent source for a story on either).
When police were evacuating Times Square last year because of a would-be bomber, the Wall Street Journal used a Foursquare “shout” to break the story, so that people checking in on Manhattan would know about the danger.
At my encouragement last week, Connecticut Magazine opened a Foursquare account. The magazine chooses a popular “Best of Connecticut” list every year, telling people in the state where they can get the best Buffalo wings, creative cocktail and so on in the state. I noted the opportunity to reach a broader (and younger) audience by posting the “Best” ratings as Foursquare tips for each location selected. (On a California visit last year, Mimi and I ordered a delicious pie based on a Foursquare tip.)
Some media organizations are using Foursquare’s API to sell ads to local merchants, Cohen said Tuesday. As an advocate that news organizations need to seek new revenue sources, I sure want to see where this goes (and will be encouraging Digital First Media sales people to pursue the possibility).
My friend Elaine Clisham tweeted last night that being mayor does have some value:
Then JRC colleague Matt DeRienzo, Mark Loundy and Elaine discussed other possibilities and benefits:
At Tuesday’s interview by Jeff Jarvis, Cohen mentioned a new Foursquare tool called Radar and a social app built on Foursquare’s API, Sonar (I downloaded it). Cohen also said Foursquare will be exploring what to do with checking in about intentions: not where you are right now, but where you’re planning to go.
Clearly, Foursquare is evolving, as any startup (or established company) should. I think Foursquare or some competitor is going to find a way to profit by location-based information, engagement and commerce. I think my company and I will have a better chance of sharing in that prosperity if my colleagues and I pursue some badges and mayorships that don’t seem to count for much. Yet.
The Buttry Diary 
I briefly used Foursquare to check my journalist Twitter account in to locations when I went out on assignment. I thought it might be of interest to people who maybe wanted to approach me and discuss stories. I soon got feedback from followers that they thought it was annoying and spammy, and if I wanted to do that, why not just say so instead of using Foursquare.
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I learned early how annoying it was to sync Foursquare and Twitter automatically. The iPhone Foursquare app lets me actually write a tweet about what I’m doing when I check in (I don’t do it every time). I have not heard complaints about that. It’s the auto-tweets that I see as spammy.
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When I was an online editor at MediaNews Group, we experimented with creating a Foursquare persona for the newspaper and checking it in any place breaking news or local events were happening. We did this for about a month, but so few people in the town were using Foursquare, we decided it wasn’t worth continuing beyond the experiment. Also around the same time, Foursquare introduced more stringent anti-cheating measures, meaning we couldn’t move our virtual account around town from the comfort of our office anymore.
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So call me crazy, but I love badges and mayorships. I have the gym rat badge and the bookworm badge. I just added the baker’s dozen. It’s just plain fun. I did feel sort of weird checking into my church, which I am the mayor of. But hey, the points count, right? I sound like a poster child for the dang app. I’ve written a lot of Foursquare posts on my blog. Best deal was free coffee 24/7 and half-priced subs at local supermarket. Thing was, I had to explain to them, after showing them that I had unlocked the deal, what Foursquare was etc. Turns out corporate didn’t do a great job of getting the word out. I created a Foursquare for the newspaper, but because it’s an office, I’m limited in deals etc. Anyway….
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I can’t wait till they come up with more words than mayor. So you’d be “vicar” of your church or “editor” of your newspapers (how many top editors would actually be the “editor”?)
Maybe when I come to York, you can teach me more about Foursquare?
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Buffy, I’ve thought some more about this: You are clearly part of the target audience of Foursquare. You play because it’s fun for you. I’m not. I really don’t get much fun out of it. But I think journalists and news executives (not just social media specialists such as me) should spend time with Foursquare whether it’s personally fun or not for the reasons I mentioned in the blog: Location-based news, information, engagement and commerce could be part of the formula for a prosperous future for journalism. And we should engage it and study it, even if we don’t care about being mayor or getting badges.
I’m not disagreeing with you about whether Foursquare is fun. We’re different people of different ages, genders, backgrounds and communities. We’re going to enjoy different things. I’m exhorting people in our business to use and understand some tools we don’t find fun, because those tools might help us find a more prosperous future.
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[…] Buttry was asked ‘What are the advantages of Foursquare’ question, and I like his response: Maybe we shouldn’t, but here’s why I do: I think mobile news, […]
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No one has really talked about the “friend” aspect. I check in because I move in a circle in which I legitimately want to know where my friends are, and I want them to know where I am. One of my best friends and I basically keep up with each other’s days by following our check-ins! Yes, specials are great, badges are fun, but that’s like saying Facebook is fun because you can tag photos or play games – sure, but it’s cool BECAUSE other people are there. I see a lot of journalists who don’t friend anyone, and I think… what’s cool about that?
As a side note, I recently became a 4sq “super user, level 1,” and I’m loving it. And I can definitely see the value that 4sq is getting out of this data, and hopefully that businesses/venues are. Why am I willing to sign up for my grocery store’s “BonusCard?” Because I am happy to trade my personal data for sales and marketing that is targeted to me. I know some people really disagree with that, but I’m an open book and if that benefits me, so much the better.
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