So far, there are 35 NYC based businesses (mostly bars and restaurants) actively using Foursquare to promote return visits and promotions. Here are a few examples of what they’re doing:

@Angels and Kings: Hey Hey! Every 5th check in on Foursquare get a well drink or beer for free! Show your bartender to redeem! 

user comments on Angels and Kings promo

@ Nurse Bettie: Show the bartender you’ve checked-in and get 1 drink free after your 1st purchase. Mayor gets happy hour pricing all night!

@ Gustorganics: Hey Hey! Free 100% organic basil martini on your 10th check-in on Foursquare!

@ Haakon’s Hall: Mayor gets a Haakon’s Hall Amber Ale or a Norwegian Ice-Cream Sandwich!!

@ Foos Burgers: Free game of foosball on your first check in. Beat the reigning champion and win a beer and burger at Lucky Strike. (Mon – Fri 10-6)

@ The Lite Choice: Hey Hey! Buy any size cup or cone and get a FREE “upgrade” to the next size! Show your server that you’ve checked in on foursquare to redeem!

And I had to add Foursquare’s headquarters, just because I thought it was a great example of their use of humor and the tone/language they use.

@ 4SQ HQ: If you’ve been here more than 5x, help yourself to one free make-out session with Naveen. Ladies only, please.

As you can see, businesses are using Foursquare similar to a coupon or customer loyalty card. With the small user-base right now, I think the advantage to this is Foursquare’s linkage to Twitter and Facebook, spreading word-of-mouth to all of the customer’s friends who may not be registered Foursquare users.

When you check-in to a venue, Foursquare automatically alerts the user of the promotions being offered, and will alert users to promotions and recommendations in the surrounding area as well (on the same block or street) – the advertisements are in real-time, personalized, and relevant to what the individual is doing at that exact moment. There’s great potential here for businesses to implement hyper-local marketing. 

There has also been talk of sponsored badges – the partnership with BART allows users to receive a BART badge, and TechCrunch believes this contains even more possibility: “I’ve had a number of conversations with people in the advertising space who think that sponsored badges which center around events (like SXSW, where the Foursquare iPhone app officially launched) has real potential.”

Another advantage Foursquare has is the location data they gather. Through check-ins, Foursquare has the quantifiable data to measure a venue’s foot traffic, valuable in understanding consumer behavior and measuring how effective the service actually is. 

“Being able to connect web advertising, recommendations, and social media buzz to an actual person walking into your store has long been the holy grail of the advertising world.  We spent lots of money and effort online to drum up our brand, but does it actually drive food traffic?  Foursquare knows.” (thisisgoingtobebig.com) 

In class we discussed a bit about Foursquare’s potential profitability. As of right now, Foursquare is based on investors, but they haven’t implemented a monetary based business model with venues yet.

“[We're] really just focusing on getting the product working properly (crashes / UX etc). [It's] worth noting that we don’t want to shoehorn biz stuff in at the last min, which is why we’re trying to get local merchants involved now. Even if all the deals are freebees,” Crowley TechCrunch in an email a month ago.

Sounds like a smart plan. The most obvious business model here would be for Foursquare to charge local businesses to have them promote these deals to drive customers to their venues, or incorporate sponsorships, as mentioned above.

One can ask: “Do we really need more advertising?” Well, advertising is never going to disappear – so would relevant, personalized advertising be less invasive and more effective? It’s something to think about. 

This all has very much to do with our readings this week. Foursquare, and/or the other mobile technology location-based services have the potential to alter the way we interact with our urban environment, and the way that our surroundings can alter our behavior – it will be interesting to see whether Foursquare eventually does impact the way we move about our city.Similar Posts:

• “Checking In” To Foursquare (6) |
• Foursquare: Another hyped start-up, or a valuable social media tool? (5) |
• Foursquare’d: Week 1 (2) |

I think this says a lot about the people I socialize with though – one of my friends on it is a graphic designer, and is really into digital culture – he has 35 friends. Another is a computer programmer/digital artist, and he has 15 friends. They both run in circles of “techy” people (who I’m sure mostly have iPhones), ie, people who are probably more aware of new social media/internet developments than others, and are more enthusiastic to try them out. Apparently Foursquare is also really popular with NYC media professionals, according to this New York Magazine article notably titled, “Times Piece Ignores the Fact That Foursquare Is for Boozehounds.”

So it’s important to note that even though Foursquare may be lacking in users, those that are on it are key influencers (and boozehounds?). 

I’ve had friends in town all week, so I’ve actually been more social than usual. And I’ve checked-in at every place I’ve gone to. I unlocked 3 badges in a week, and actually found them to be pretty motivating to remember to check-in: The Newbie Badge (which everyone gets for their first check-in), The Local Badge (for checking into one spot 3 times in a week), and The Bender Badge (for checking in 4 nights in a row… though I actually only checked-in 3 nights in a row, so that was confusing).

A small gripe: Unless I’m confused here, when I check into a café or restaurant, as opposed to a bar, it’s still counted in my “Total Nights Out” tally. I think the misleading language should be changed here, especially if they’re trying to expand beyond nightlife. Getting a cup of coffee isn’t a night out, and shouldn’t be counted for receiving a “Bender Badge.”

Other than this, I think I can say I’m a fan of Foursquare so far. It’s very easy to participate once you have the mobile technology, their website and iPhone app are both very user-friendly, their Twitter updates are engaging. This weekend, I even met up with one of my whopping 5 friends because I checked-in at a place on the same street where he was. A Foursquare success!

Will I stay on Foursquare once this travelogue is over? I’m not totally sure yet – the only reason being because I am not the type of person who feels 100% comfortable broadcasting my whereabouts. But I might… I’m a big proponent of new media when it makes real life more interesting, and that’s what Foursquare has the potential to do.

Similar Posts:

• “Checking In” To Foursquare (6) |
• Foursquare: Another hyped start-up, or a valuable social media tool? (5) |
• What’s It Worth? Foursquare and Business Opportunity (5) |

My main question is whether Foursquare is going to have a lasting effect in the Web 2.0 world, or if it’s just another short-lived social media fad…”the next big thing.” I do think the service has a lot of business potential (and with this travelogue, I’m believing that more and more), but I’m not convinced that users will flock to Foursquare, especially not like they did to Facebook or Myspace. And I think that a large user-base is the key to Foursquare’s success. What’s the fun of using a tool that socially connects users in real-time and real life, if there’s no one to connect to? As I mentioned in class, Foursquare can only really attract a very specific audience: people with iPhones or Androids (texting through a regular cellphone is possible, but not as fun/active), who like to socialize, and who want people to know of their whereabouts. For some, Foursquare’s service offers too much information.

However, Foursquare does seem to be growing.

The biggest news this week was the announcement of a partnership between foursquare and BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit), the public train service in San Francisco, to encourage public transit use. BART is the first transit agency to implement Foursquare – it will be offering its own badge to regular riders, and riders can become mayors of all of the train stations. Starting in November (and lasting 3 months), riders who have checked-in from BART stations will randomly be awarded $25 BART vouchers, and in the near future, BART will be coordinating promotions with venue partners through mybart.org. The partnership was announced at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco on Thursday. Dennis Crowley, Foursquare’s co-founder, explained, “We’re excited about the potential for Foursquare to influence people’s actions and decisions beyond things like entertainment, into broader areas, like taking public transit or getting involved in their communities.”

While this partnership seems like a great validation for Foursquare, and adds a certain “hipness” to BART’s brand, I wonder whether riders will be more inclined to take public transit because of it. Will someone decide to take BART over driving just because he/she may be able to become mayor of a station? I don’t think the partnership could hurt though, and San Francisco is an appropriate city to try this out in. Will BART’s partnership set an example for other public transit organizations? Will the MTA be incorporating Foursquare into its marketing any time soon? Somehow I doubt it, but you never know.

Things to come, according to Foursquare’s Twitter:

Blackberry app: Foursquare is also working on a Blackberry app. I’m not sure when this is going to be released.

“@babylis20 @SportaboutSarah Yeah, we’re feverishly working on this Blackberry app over here! Stay tuned!”

Anti-cheating code: Some people are concerned about the possibility of users cheating – checking into venues when they’re not actually there. I would imagine the only incentive to cheat would be to gain access to some of the Foursquare promos businesses are offering, or to give off the impression that you’re really social and go out all the time…though that would be very lame. Right now, Foursquare is based on an honor code. There’s no way to know if a user is actually at the venue or not, but looks like this is going to change:

“@nathantwright @sweetjames Our anti-cheating code is going into effect soon.”

Greater badge variety: Right now, most Foursquare’s badges are related to nightlife: Crunked badge, Bender badge, Douchebag badge, Karaoke badges, etc. If Foursquare wants to go beyond entertainment and nightlife (as the founders stated in relation to the BART partnership), it’s going to have to expand their badges into other areas:

“@nickdawsonhc @cindythroop @fabtweet We’re getting closer to lots of badge variety… think arts and music and sports and exercise, etc!”

More cities: One of the biggest demands users have is the expansion of Foursquare into other cities. It’s currently available in most major US cities (New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston, San Francisco, Seattle, etc.), as well as some smaller cities (Omaha, Raleigh-Durham, Richmond, Kansas City, etc.), and some cities outside of the US (Amsterdam, London, Montreal, Toronto, and Vancouver). More cities will be added, and users can go here to make recommendations directly through the site.

“@minvasive @sgordon70 @_court We’re working on new cities! Stay tuned… and request here: http://foursquare.com/cities”…

 “@cenkl Correction: Orlando is not *yet* a foursquare city Get on the list: http://foursquare.com/cities”

“@Zeenat_K No Mumbai *yet*, buy why don’t you get on this list and we’ll ping you when it launches http://foursquare.com/cities”

“@richardescobar @jonrussell Not just USA, we did London, Amsterdam and 3 cities in Canada. Big Euro push coming soon ”

Foursquare implements great communication with its users through Twitter. They’re very responsive to feedback and comments, and speak with a very specific tone appropriate for their audience. I think other businesses looking to incorporate Twitter can learn a lot from them, and I actually find myself really enjoying their updates – it’s undoubtedly increasing the enjoyment of my Foursquare experience.

For Tuesday’s post, I’m going to discuss my personal experience with Foursquare, now that I’ve been using it for over a week.Similar Posts:

• What’s It Worth? Foursquare and Business Opportunity (5) |
• Foursquare’d: Week 1 (2) |
• “Checking In” To Foursquare (6) |

I’ve been curious about foursquare for a while now, and yesterday’s New York Times article (as well as me needing an idea for a travelogue) was the tipping point for making me finally attempt to see what it’s all about. 

According to the NY Times article, foursquare is “a fast-growing social networking service…becoming the tool of choice. A combination of friend-finder, city guide and competitive bar game, Foursquare lets users “check in” with a cellphone at a bar, restaurant or art gallery. That alerts their friends to their current location so they can drop by and say hello.” 

I was actually under the impression that foursquare was only for iPhone/Android users, and since I don’t have either (ohh, Verizon…) I didn’t think I could participate. But apparently, users can check-in by texting to 50500. To receive check-ins from friends, you can link your foursquare account to your Twitter account, receive the check-ins as Direct Messages, and have them sent to your phone. Kind of a roundabout way of doing it, but still workable. 

Foursquare only has 60,000 users right now – I’ve already gone through my email/Twitter/Facebook contacts, and only 6 of my friends are on it (some of you guys should sign up, or let me know if you’re already on it!). So I’m interested to see if, within the next three weeks, the buzz surrounding the service increases participants. Like other social networking sites, it doesn’t seem worthwhile unless one’s friends and contacts participate as well. 

It’s available in 31 cities, and also incorporates a gaming competition. Users who frequent a particular place enough times are crowned “mayor” of that location, and points and badges are awarded to users depending on how often they go out and which places they visit. Some small business are actually advertising deals and promotions for foursquare players – for example, giving the “mayor” a free drink, or giving regular users their 10^th cupcake for free. 

I want to actively participate in foursquare (I’m going to attempt to convince more of my friends sign up today), and see what it takes to build a “reputation.” Will I be able to become mayor of my favorite haunts? I also want to look at how businesses around NYC are utilizing foursquare to increase participation, and see what, if there are any new features that are going to be incorporated into the site since it’s just now emerging. Foursquare seems to hold a lot of potential for young urbanites, so I’m pretty excited how this goes.Similar Posts:

• Foursquare’d: Week 1 (2) |
• What’s It Worth? Foursquare and Business Opportunity (5) |
• Wanted: An iPhone + More Friends (6) |

In my last post I discussed how ‘organic’ memes are created online by communities of meme culture, and only a select few of the wildly popular memes are noticed by the mainstream media (MSM).  These popular memes tend to be integrated into the programming of television and films.

Memes Make The Cut in MSM

Inevitably there is some leakage between the medium of the internet and the MSM because they record and report metrics on what is growing in popularity online–especially on youtube.

The technical aspects of shifting the content of memes to television, film, or print may be difficult.  For example, print journalism can only talk about the concept of ‘Rick Rolling,’ but not recreate the experience.  The MSM also has a higher level of censorship and standards than most online communities where memes are created. The infamous “2 girls 1 cup” (which was wildly popular not only in its own right but as well as the reaction videos it generated) would never be shown on television. And films that get an NC-17 or X rating tend to be commercial flops. While the meme did creep into network television, it was generally just referred to orally or visually and not described in detail.

There are some examples, though, where one could argue that memes were not only utlized for their cultural capital but extended upon. On “The Late Show with Conan O’Brian,”  Conan had the “Walker Texas Rander Lever” that was wildly popular not only in its own right, but arguably enhanced by Mr. Norris’ popularity online. Chuck Norris appeared and capitlized on his popularity:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Memes Making Money for the MSM

MSM utilizes memes popularity to create content in order to generate revenue.  The business model of the MSM is selling advertising for print, television, and radio, and for films, it is ticket sales.  Advertisers want eye balls on their ads, and content is the way the MSM gets those eyeballs. Content that has proven successful online is therefore harvested when appropriate to help garner more eyeballs. “Family Guy,” “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon,” and VH1’s “The Best Week Ever,” are just a sampling of shows that report on and pride themselves for showing viral videos.

Generally speaking organic memes are not designed to create revenue.  In a recent “South Park” episode entitled “Canada On Strike” (full)

DIM: Department of Internet Money

The main characters make a youtube video that is wildly successful with the motivations of “getting some of that internet money.” The boys travel to the ‘Department of Internet Money’ and wait with the stars of the most popular youtube videos to get their “theoretical dollars.”  This episode was a commentary on the Writers Guild of America Strike last year.  One of the main characters of the show Kyle sums up the episode by saying:

“We thought we could make money on the internet. But, while the internet is new and exciting for creative people it hasn’t matured as a distribution mechanism… It will be a few years before digital distribution of media on the internet can be monetized to an extent that necessitates content producers to forgo their fair value in more traditional media.”

So the producers of MSM, are in fact the parties responsible for commodifying existing memes that before were not generating revenue for their originators. By taking memes out of their natural, organic context, though, the MSM tends to deplete the cultural value and originality of the meme.

But the marketing industry has started to take notice of the cultural power of memes and is attempting to create their own.

Marketing and Memes: Trying to Create New Memes

What attracts advertisers to meme culture is its viral nature and the amount of engagement the members of a community have with the content of the memes.  Marketers’ goals while running an ad campaign are to have a large amount of people exposed to their message as well as create a high level of engagement with their brand. The industry actually measures and publish results about which ad campaigns are the most viral.

Unfortunately for the marketers and advertisers, they don’t decide what goes viral. Microsoft recently released a video to demonstrate to its users how to throw a launch party for the release of its most recent product. It wasn’t supposed to be a viral video, but it was so ridiculous that it has gone viral.

Click here to view the embedded video.

But in order to create a high level of engagement, marketers are now trying to go beyond viral and allow users to interact with their brands.  This is also problematic because if marketers release creative to the masses, they have a difficult time controlling their message.  So instead of utilizing the existing meme culture, marketers create new destinations online where, for example, people can visit a products site and create mash ups. Again this raises issues of context and commodification of the content taking away the organic nature of the memes.

SO?

In this and my last post,  I have defined memes. I have discussed how the MSM interacts with organic memes, and how advertisers and marketers attempt to create their own.  In my final post, I will attempt to answer my original question with the understanding I have fostered: Does the spread of memes squash creativity?

WORKS CITED:

Klaassen, A (2009 October 08) The Long, Viral Lives of Cadbury, T-Mobile and Microsoft: What People Watched the Week of Sept. 28, 2009. Ad Age.com.Similar Posts:

• The Culture Industry on the Internet: Memes and the BK Case Study (6) |
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Members of a community are informally bound by what they do together—from engaging in lunchtime discussions to solving difficult problems—and by what they have learned through their mutual engagement in these activities. A community of practice is thus different from a community of interest or a geographical community, neither of which implies a shared practice.

In so many ways, members of alternate reality games form communities of practice in that they are centered on beating and solving a particular game at hand.  While it makes sense as to why people would come together to work on these massive games together, I was interested in just how they would form differently from other communities of practice.

The largest game I’ve found or participated in has been “The Beast”, stemming from the release of the 2001 film, “A.I.”.  In this case, a Yahoo group named “The Cloudmakers” became the dominant community in tackling this game.  The Cloudmakers attracted the most members in a short amount of time as a result of the expertise of some of the members in solving the puzzles, and subsequently advancing the game.  This drove more and more individuals to become members of the community, and help contribute to the overall knowledge of the group.  What resulted was over 40,000 posts concerning the game, covering puzzles ranging from translating Greek, reading Lute tablature, and hundreds of other topics that called upon the groups collective intelligence.

A Flowchart from "The Beast" Covering One Story Arc

Furthermore, the Cloudmakers, due to its size, popularity, and expertise actually influenced the course of the game.  Through monitoring the group, the “Puppetmasters”- the architects of the game- actually modified the game based on the progress made by members of the community.  The members of the Cloudmakers, through collective action, had outsmarted the developers, and the developers in turn had to alter the game to stay ahead of this group.

In other games, mainly those that were used for marketing purposes, the communities of practice grew out of spaces provided explicitly for the discussion of the game.  The LOST experience, an ARG based around the ABC television series, had message boards and leader boards built into a hub created expressly for the game rather than coming together organically as in the case of the Cloudmakers.

Providing a centralized place for individuals to form groups around an ARG has a twofold effect in that while it makes it easier for individuals to get involved and participate in a particular game, it detracts from the “alternate reality” part of the game itself by reminding individuals that it is in fact a game.  Moreover, it is often not just a game, but a marketing tool used to interest individuals into consuming a particular media product.

These two examples show, in part, the potential for collaborative cooperation and creation between individuals on the Internet through the lens of play.  I wish to expand more upon how the use of games allows individuals to work together online, as well as the importance of collective intelligence in ARG’s.

Another question I was intrigued by in following ARG’s in the last week is the introduction of competition into these communities of practice.   The ARG poses new challenges in gaming- how do you create a social experience, while motivating individual participation and motivation?  Further, does rewarding individual competition reduce the cooperative spirit established by these communities?

I plan on following up on this idea, and the idea of ARG’s as a learning tool in the coming week.Similar Posts:

• Blurring the Lines: Alternate Reality Games (6) |
• ARGs-Community, Culture, Cash ? (3) |
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