September 21st, 2009
Six hazards of playing Foursquare
Anyone who has spent time with me at events in the last month is likely looking at the headline of this post and wondering who body-snatched me. I am a huge fan of Foursquare, so much in fact, that I’ve darn near brow-beaten everyone in my immediate physical social network into signing up. I even wrote a post a couple weeks ago talking about all of the wonderful uses for it — especially how it gives small businesses a ripe opportunity to participate in, and benefit from, social media.
Once I pull my head out of the Foursquare clouds, however, I really do have to face the hard truth: the service has some issues. Some of which — like the fact that it is only available in the U.S. and only certain metro areas within it — co-founder Dennis Crowley has said they are working to improve. “We want to make Foursquare work on more devices, in more cities, and eventually everywhere,” he said.
If you’re not familiar with Foursquare, it’s a location-based social network that allows users to “check in” and add tips at places they visit. Users can become “mayor” of a certain location after visiting it more than anyone else within a certain time period, can earn badges and compete against friends for points.
Foursquare is certainly growing in popularity. Robert Scoble wrote this past weekend that Foursquare could be bigger than Twitter and even predicted that the service would be mentioned on Oprah within 400 days. I don’t necessarily disagree with Scoble, but I do think there is a lot more need for innovation (beyond expanding the service’s reach). I also think that Foursquare might be underestimating the overly competitive nature of its user base. Some major issues I’ve seen:
1. Groundhog Day
Remember that movie with Bill Murray? Of course you do. The poor schmuck has to restart the same day over and over again until something happens and Andie MacDowell does something and the movie ends. Well, going from one Foursquare city to another is a little bit like “Groundhog Day.” A few weeks ago I was so excited about going to Seattle and checking in at more places on Foursquare (told you I am addicted). Then I realized I had to switch cities. My points start over. I start getting the same badges (”Newbie” again?!), I get pulled off of the San Francisco area leader board, and if I never return to that city, my efforts are all for naught. That somehow makes the game a lot less fun. There’s a messiness to the split city model, especially since now many of us have friends all over the world. Plus it gets kind of boring competing with the same friends over and over.
Next: Stalkers and cheaters, oh my –>
Jennifer Leggio, aka "Mediaphyter," writes about the "social business" side of social media - including enterprise, security and reputation issues. See her full profile and disclosure of her industry affiliations.
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| 09/22/09
