Grown Up Thinking

Since last year, the University of Southern California has been using Foursquare to foster a sense of campus community by embracing everything from venues and specials to tips and lists. With over 18,000 followers and 135,000 check-ins to date, USC’s adoption of the location-based social platform has proven that Foursquare can do so much more than dish out badges.

In this case study we see a traditional institution proactively reach students in a way that resonates with them. True, our Class of 2015 study tells us only 12% of college students are on Foursquare. However, with the right formula and a little innovation, USC has proven that Foursquare can thrive among college students when used in a way that benefits them. Bucket list for seniors? Campus event updates? Bookstore discounts? Yes, please.

USC isn’t the only university jumping on the Foursquare bandwagon, and it’s not “new news” either. Last year Foursquare forged a relationship with 20 universities across the country to, as the Foursquare blog says, help “students, alumni, and staff connect with each other, find new and interesting things to do, and earn rewards for exploring their campus and nearby areas.”

So, on your next trip to SoCal be sure to take the virtual campus tour via Foursquare and check into at least five spots along the way. This could earn you some sweet campus swag and maybe even the True Trojan badge!

Mayor Bloomberg tweeted yesterday that the roadmap to make New York the number one digital city has been published. Called “Achieving New York City’s Digital Future” the report is over 60 pages of present situation, public feedback and data, and what’s in store for NYC.

I strongly encourage poring over the whole report, which is beautiful and intriguing. Not only is it inspiring to live in a city championing to be the number one digitally, it is amazing that we live in a place where social is understood and leveraged to the public and the city’s benefit.

As a social marketing agency we were particularly appreciative that the City recognizes the importance of good social strategy. The report reads, “The City’s most successful social media strategies are goal-based, aligning with agency objectives from the start, and employing social media channels appropriate to their audience and desired outcomes.” Bravo.

New York is doing a lot already to foster the development of digital tools and an open government. Here are some fun snippets I didn’t know before reading:

- New York has six official apps. One is dedicated to finding free condoms based on location, and another offers sobriety tests and info on safe rides home. Go NYC.
- The NYC Big Apps (HAH!) competition provided city data to developers to create independent applications – there were over 100 developed using public API
- The Urban Canvas competition wrapped up and features 4 finalists whose designs can be downloaded by building owners to make scaffolding more appealing
- You can use the hashtag #askmike to get your question answered by the Mayor on his Friday radio show

As for what’s next, here are some highlights of the roadmap:

- A new Facebook presence will be unveiled during Internet Week featuring apps that support the open government infrastructure
- A Foursquare badge will be introduced by the City to incentivize residents to explore public places
- Implementation of a DataMine API that gives developers access to 350+ data sets including:

- Citywide Events and Festivals
- Wi-Fi HotSpot Locations
- Map of Playgrounds
- Bicycle Parking Locations
- Tree Census
- Art Gallery Locations
- Subway Entrances
- A hub for all New York City mobile apps
- The launch of geo-targeted mobile notification services for emergencies so you know what’s happening around you

What do you want to see in New York’s future?

It’s that time of year again – Social Media Week has come and gone, leaving us with actionable insights and much anticipated information around our favorite social platforms. For those of you who missed it (or realized an iPad is not actually an effective note-taking device) here are some of the highlights that #SMW11 had to offer:

Foursquare CEO Dennis Crowley’s Gives Us A Peek Into The Company’s Future Plans:

The most interesting revelation to come from @dens was the possibility of location-based recommendations. Whether users are in Soho or South Beach, Foursquare would be able to recommend new spots to dine or explore based on their previous check-ins.

The new feature could prove extremely valuable for users exploring unfamiliar territory, and with a recommendation engine that learns with users’ base activity much like Amazon’s intelligent recommendations engine, Foursquare would position itself with a unique value proposition in the increasingly cluttered sphere of location-based services. Foursquare’s social platform could become more utilitarian guiding the decision-making process of its users.

DOTGO’s Integrative Text Messaging Service:

Through a newly developed coding language called CMRL (Concise Message Routing Language), DOTGO is helping to create a two-way dialogue “that makes accessing concise, relevant, and useful content from any web site as easy as sending a text message.”

Why does this matter? DOTGO could prove to be an extremely valuable tool for marketers to reach young teens, parents, and other audiences who don’t have smartphones or other Internet-enabled mobile devices.

Focusing on the Content:

The main take-away over at Red Bull space was that content is king.  As brands especially in entertainment finally understand the benefit of growing their social media communities, they are also realizing the importance of providing a constant stream of truly engaging content to fans.

Even Mike Lazerow CEO of Buddy Media, who has built his business around providing clients with powerful tools to grow fan bases agrees that brands must strategically work to grow engaged quality fans hubs around meaningful conversations, causes and continuous content.

Furthermore, in an age where content is so widely available, brands must intelligently curate their own content across branded channels if they want to foster growth and engagement. If they fail to provide compelling content, fans will find other resources for discovery.

For those of you who missed the week and would like to gain further insight, most of the panels have been recorded via Livestream.  In addition, Sysomos has provided some interesting monitoring and analytics information from the global event.

This week, the Twitterverse has been buzzing about a new Foursquare visualization tool, Weeplaces. And with 100 million check-ins under their belt, it’s about time Foursquare found a way to visualize them.

How does it work? Blue circles represent places you have visited and even bigger circles with numbers represent places you visit frequently.  A time series chart below the map shows how long you have been a Foursquare user.  Once the animation begins to play, a yellow line connects all your check-ins and the timeline at the bottom follows along.

One of the best features of the visualization is the shaded regions, as places in the areas that you often frequent show up lighter than places you haven’t been.  This way you can see which neighborhoods you’ve been neglecting. @VishalSapra (shown above), for example, seems to have something against the Upper East Side.

All in all, I’m always looking for a new way to impress my friends with my check-in prowess. Thank you Movity for thinking of a way to reinvigorate my Foursquare addiction.

It’s not unusual to see a Gen Yer glued to her Blackberry, tweeting while walking (warning: not advised), updating her Facebook status and checking in at every stop along the way.

While only a year and some change old, Foursquare has been creating serious buzz both here at Mr Youth and in the tech worlds, with talks of some big players eyeing the game for a possible sale. While the Foursquare user base is growing, the start up  is making moves to become more business-friendly.

Foursquare recently added several features to increase its user-friendliness to area businesses. Here’s a run-down of some of the recent updates:

Management Ownership- Foursquare now allows businesses to ‘claim’ their venues on Foursquare to better ‘engage their increasingly mobile customers with specials‘, and track how each venue is performing on foursquare thanks to analytics. The site also gives sample engagement rewards to drive return visits (i.e. mayorship specials, wildcard specials).

Management Stats- By claiming their business on Foursquare, owners can also gather the following real-time stats:

• most recent visitors

• most frequent visitors

• times of day people check in

• total number of unique visitors

So why does this matter? Other than getting a free ice cream or the prestige of becoming the mayor of your favorite lunch spot, Foursquare is giving businesses the tools to shape their social media profile to a world of tech-savvy customers. While review sites have reshaped how customers find and frequent local businesses, Foursquare is giving businesses the tools to shape their perception in the eyes of ever-elusive consumers.

So while local businesses and restaurants catch up with Foursquare’s new offerings, I’ll continue to work on my hard-earned mayorships.

The BEST bait and switch ever. Thank you, Heineken…

And the second best bait and switch. Thank you, Hot Chip.

Kickball, the alternative first Foursquare client for iPhone. (Our prediction= bigger than Tweetdeck).

My Famebook: another example of bringing the online world off. Personalize your own journal with 320 of your Facebook statuses (far cooler than that “Year in Status” update hogwash, we think).

On stealing and borrowing: two sides of the homage coin, from Creative Review and Ad Age respectively.

Unhappy Hipsters: a fun time waster (even for those of us *ahem* who live in Brooklyn).

CMYK Cocktail Contest: Droog & Tasteologie team up to celebrate design and mixology to raise funds for Food Bank of NYC. Tasting color for a great cause? Yum.

When I first downloaded Foursquare, I wasn’t sure what to expect. I mean, I’m already a Facebook and Twitter addict- how much more social media can a girl really need? Do my friends even care to know where I am at all times of the day? How often am I supposed to check in? Do I accept all friend requests or only people who I know? Do I really want complete strangers to know where I am?

After much thought, I came to the conclusion that everyone uses Foursquare for different purposes. Here are the five types of Foursquare users I have encountered:

The Cheater: Every Sunday night at 11:59pm EST the Foursquare leaderboard resets. Ever wake up on Monday morning and wonder how one of your friends already has 150 points? The truth is you probably need to get more honest friends, because this friend is a cheater.

The Hungry Tiger: Have any friends on Foursquare who check in at every single place they go- including every subway stop or convenience store? The friend may be classified as “The Hungry Tiger”, someone who can never get enough of Foursquare.

The Hot ‘n’ Cold: I have a few friends like this- those who can’t decide how they really feel about Foursquare. Sometimes they will check in and once they get a badge they quickly turn into The Hungry Tiger, but that rapidly slows down after about a week.

The Commitment-Phobe: This type of user (such as Melvin) has an account, but never uses it. Simple as that.

The Star Performer: This user in my opinion is the ideal Foursquare user. They check in at the appropriate places, such as restaurants and bars, yet refrain from checking in while simply purchasing a pack of gum at the deli across the street.

Given Foursquare’s rapid popularity, users are bound to encounter at least one of the above types. Some people even believe Foursquare could become the next Twitter. Keep your eyes open, folks- this is one social networking bus you won’t want to miss.

You can almost hear the sound of rubber balls bouncing around the walls of Mr Youth these days, as the epic battle to reign supreme in all things #Foursquare has swept the agency. Our resident mayor recently explained the craze in an earlier post, but developments over the weekend have added a new dimension to the biggest game on the social media scene today.

I was gleefully surprised to receive an email from Foursquare notifying me that I had been upgraded to “Superuser” status based on my, well, super (over)use of the service. While the lack of a VIP card, limited edition sunglasses and other self-identifying accoutrement is slightly disheartening, I was informed that I have the ability to make  edits to the game’s venue database, like de-duplicating venues and matching venues with twitter accounts. The more I exercise my Superuser status the more abilities I’ll unlock.

Foursquare is really hitting the mark when it comes to tapping into its enthusiastic fanbase to drive and improve the game. By inviting users into the fold and allowing them to affect elements of the service, they’re fostering deeper loyalties and creating layers of exclusivity that encourage would-be-Superusers to increase their usage of the game to reach the great heights of Superuser status. Lucky me. Question is…how do I translate this into a Halloween costume?

Where my other Superuser peeps at? Holler below in the comment section.

As the Mr Youth mayor on Foursquare, it is my duty and honor to write this blog post. My first experience with Foursquare was on July 29^th and within this short summer time span, I have become a full-fledged addict. Building off the concept of a location-based social networking application but adding a competitive angle by challenging users to compete against friends to earn points and badges, Foursquare just may be the new Twitter.

The service was created in March 2009 by Dennis Crowley, Harry Heymann and Naveen Selvadurai from its predecessor site, Dodgeball. The premise is simple. You check in at various venues around your major metropolitan city and get awarded points for your activity. Users are awarded badges for various completed tasks. For example, you can earn the School Night Badge (checking in after 3am on a week night) or the ever-coveted and elusive Douchebag badge (I’m not quite sure what you need to do to earn this one, but perhaps Jerpdavis can provide insight). The site takes it’s functionality a step farther than a Google Latitude or Loopt site by adding user-generated To Do and Tips lists, giving users insider information about a particular venue or location.

And just as with all the other social networking sites that I’ve felt strongly about from the very beginning (i.e.: Facebook & Twitter), I am finding myself in heated battles with friends and family defending the value of the site. While I don’t believe Foursquare will gain mainstream popularity like Twitter (my gauge for mass appeal being my mom, who’s on Facebook and at least has a Twitter account, but will never be on Foursquare), I do see the amazing opportunity the site provides.

Beyond it thrilling the social networking dork in me, businesses are now encouraging users to check-in to their venues and are awarding the people with free things (mostly drinks), which is smart. Since the site has the option of pinging both Facebook and Twitter with each check in, every time I go somewhere I am providing free advertising to almost 3,000 of my closest online friends.

Some more background on Foursquare in a great Mashable article by Jennifer Van Grove can be found here.