Thanks to Foursquare, finding new places to eat, shop, and do just about anything else has become easier to do.
Have you ever visited a new town and found yourself relying on guide books, information from friends and family, or other sources to find new and different places? Sometimes, you would get to a recommended spot and the experience would meet — or exceed — your expectations. Other times, though, the effort made in tracking down that new restaurant or museum left you disappointed.
For the past year, however, I’ve seen numerous posts on Facebook and Twitter from people using Foursquare. After watching and wondering, I decided to go ahead, jump in and check out this social media platform.
Let me share with you what I’ve learned. This location-based application is designed to allow you to look for new places to eat, shop or visit from any web-enabled smart phone. Foursquare also lets you utilize social networking through a variety of application-related activities.
When you launch it, you get relevant, location-based tips for nearby places to visit, eat, shop or otherwise socialize. Also, you can become friends with people you know and see what kinds of locations they are visiting, too.
Earn Rewards
You also have the option to “check-in” to locations via Foursquare, allowing you to share with others your location.
Checking in allows you to gain various kinds of rewards. The most basic is a point system, which gives you points based on a few different factors. One point is rewarded for each check-in throughout the day, which increases with each check-in (first check-in gets one point, second gets two, etc.) Five points are earned by checking into a new location for the first time, and an additional five points are awarded by creating a venue that is not currently listed on Foursquare.
Another reward is mayorships. You can become the “mayor” of a location by checking into that place more times than any other user in the past 60 days. Some businesses reward mayors of particular locations with special deals or free items.
Badges
The most popular rewards on Foursquare are virtual badges that show up on your profile as a result of performing some kind of action using the application. Some badges can be unlocked, or earned, for checking in a specific number of times at special locations, such as coffee shops, gyms, or playgrounds. Others recognize you when you’ve checked in at a specific number of unique venues.
There are two types of badges. The basic Foursquare badges are round in shape. Affiliate badges have a shield-like shape and are developed by businesses or organizations affiliated with Foursquare to reward users who visit specific locations or businesses frequently.
Additionally, users can earn special badges for certain holidays, voting, writing special messages when checking in to a location, or attending certain conferences or conventions.
Unlocking Foursquare badges has become so popular that people have sponsored events just to unlock them. “Swarm” parties have been organized among Foursquare users in order to unlock any of the four “Swarm” badges, which are awarded to users at a location when 50, 250, 500, or 1000 Foursquare users have checked into the same venue.
I recommend a couple of blogs that track developments by Foursquare:
Renee Griffin, MBA, APR
My PRgative 
