Park. Step Out. Check-in. Order. Ever since I came across foursquare (@foursquare), I’ve been checking into coffee shops before I order a cup of coffee. Foursquare updates my Twitter account (@coffeeshopchat) with my location, and introduces me to fellow foursquare visitors.
Now mayor of a local coffee shop, I recently replaced Kevin Urie (@kevinurie) who sent me a tweet within minutes of this change in badge status.
now that hurts! ;?) I was proud of that one, since I only had 3 checkins.
I replied, asking Kevin if he’d like to meet for coffee, which we plan to soon. Things got even more interesting when I checked out Kevin’s profile where I learned that he’s the founder of Social Media Club Seattle (@SMCSeattle). I learned about this group a few months prior, but our exchange of tweets was the tipping point; I signed up to attend their next event and off I went.
I drove to the Microsoft Conference Center in Redmond to listen to Veronica Belmont (@VERONICA) talk about engaging and building passionate communities. I parked, stepped out, but passed on checking in; coffee wasn’t on the agenda; conversation only (I ended up drinking two cups though).
Sponsored by Windows Phone (@WindowsPhone), Alaska Air (@AlaskaAir), Hotel1000 (@hotel1000), and possibly a few others, this networking event was second to none. With 250 people in attendance and nearly everyone tweeting with the #SMCSeattle hashtag, I wondered how many people checked-in. I probably should have…
The Q&A was almost over, but I approached Veronica, introduced myself, and asked her about foursquare for business, referring to coffee shops that offer discounts when checking in. There are at least two in Seattle using it, which include Aster Coffee Lounge and Bedlam Coffee (@BedlamCoffee). 83 people have checked into Aster with 22 unique visitors while 662 people have checked into Bedlam with 88 unique visitors. What this means for revenue, I’m not sure yet. But local businesses using foursquare are encouraging users to show their phones. Michael J. Lis says:
…the thing that’s unique about it [foursquare] is that it has the opportunity to monetize restaurants, locations and activities that people would do — a little bit better than Facebook or Twitter does.
Veronica is a fan and regularly uses the foursquare iPhone Application. Her concern, and mine as well, is that anyone can check-in, even if they’re not actually present. Maybe that will change in future updates.
Regardless, strangers can become less strange, and more consequential with a little Twitter and foursquare. If it wasn’t for my new mayor status and the exchange of tweets with Kevin Urie, I wouldn’t have thought to attend the SMC event, and the many important conversations had that night with would not have been.
Have any of your check-ins lead to a conversation?
4 Comments
Interesting stories about connecting via FourSquare. I have received some interesting text messages from existing friends who see where I’ve checked in, but so far, I have not transformed any collocated strangers into new acquaintances.
FWIW, Dennis Crowley, co-founder of FourSquare, offered his views on the pros and cons of differing levels of constraints in checking in via FourSquare on a comment to Robert Scoble’s post on Antifeatures: Big Mistakes that Location App Developers Make (I can’t figure out how to reference a specific comment, but you can go to the post and search for “dens”). I find FourSquare is as much of a place-based game as it is a location-based social networking application, and so they are careful to find a balance between limiting the impact of “excessive” gaming, while not taking too much away from the game itself.
And speaking of unintended consequences, in an earlier comment on that same thread, Gowalla co-founder Josh Williams revealed considerably more about his personality, his philosophy, his communication style and why Gowalla check-ins are far more constrained than he probably intended … among other things, by accusing Scoble of lying to his readers (!).
Finally, in addition to experimenting with FourSquare and Gowalla, I’ve also been experimenting with Whrrl, which was developed by a Seattle-based Startup (Pelago), and also has an iPhone app … and allows people to post photos and text in order to create a place-based narrative after they check-in.
I am not familiar with Whrrl, but I’ll check it out. Also, it will be interesting to see what Google has up its sleeve since it has Latitude, which allows you to locate friends, and is interested in buying Yelp, which allows you to review coffee shops, restaurants, etc. As more iPhones and other GPS enabled mobile devices hit the market and become the norm, I think more location / place based applications will emerge. And most will probably complement Twitter.
Jason, I love that you are so conscious of your connections and your various communities. My goal in writing “Consequential Strangers” was to make readers aware of how important these peripheral contacts are–the people outside our family and close friends. Although there have always been consequential strangers (aka “acquaintances”), social media allows us to meet and manage larger social herd. Many of us are still struggling to understand how these new apps facilitate the process, so thanks for walking me through one of them.
@Melinda Blau No problem. Foursquare is now offering a new Facebook integration that will probably interest users.