It seems like not a day goes by that I don’t hear a reference to how the mobile social network Foursquare is growing in popularity. Today it was a tweet by Jeremiah Owyang, “See how mobile social network FourSquare struck deals with Media and Zagat http://bit.ly/9a4z4u Retail, Media, CPG should pay attention.” (Original Tweet: http://twitter.com/jowyang/status/8850494854).
I’ve been playing with Foursquare for a couple of weeks and I understand the excitement. So I thought I’d share five reasons why I think Foursquare will be the next Twitter, at least in terms of popularity.
But first a short explanation of Foursquare and how it works (at least how the iPhone version does).
Foursquare is a application designed for mobile devices that gives you a list of places near you as soon as you open it on your mobile device. You can add tips about the places or add new places or check-in at places by clicking “Check In”. This tells your Foursquare friends (people you have friended on Foursquare similar to friending on Facebook) where you are. Those basics, combined with a couple of other neat features, mean Foursquare is heading for killer app status fast. Here’s why:
1. It’s really easy to use.
This is crucial and one of the keys to Twitter’s success.
2. It’s location based.
Foursquare uses smartphones’ GPS feature to tell you useful things about places nearby.
3. It’s social.
You and your friends can tell each other where you are and share tips about places.
4. It uses and respects the wisdom of the crowd.
It let’s people be content creators by adding tips about places.
5. It’s just plain fun.
Foursquare is like a game. When you check in at new places or add new ones you collect points or “badges”. The ever expanding list of badges include Adventurer (10 checkins at different venues), Explorer (25 checkins), Superstar (50 checkins), Gym Rat (10 gym trips in a month), Photogenic (checking in at five places with a photobooth), and Player Please (checking in with 3 members of the opposite sex). You can suggest a badge if the one you’d like doesn’t exist.
If you’ve checked in at a place more than anyone else you become the Mayor of that place and get a mayor badge. But watch out – if someone else checks in more than you can get tossed from office.
Foursquare is in beta so it still has some issues, like not being able to assign tags to places, but with the number of users growing steadily Foursquare’s creators will be getting lots of feedback so issues like this should be fixed quickly. And once they work out all the kinks Foursquare will be coming to a mobile device near you.
