Kim: Practicum Post #5

While I found that checking in on Foursquare was a very individual experience, I felt that other people viewed it as a social networking and others formed bigger communities.   To clarify, I personally just responded to my friends' comments and wrote on their check-ins, and rarely linked it to Facebook (I found that people checking in continuously on both platforms was annoying).  Some of my friends actually used it like a simpler version of Facebook, increasing their friends size.   I wanted to talk about a different group that I was really unaware of: the 4sq community.

The day of my presentation was actually "Foursquare Day" created by the fans: "4" from "Four"square to get April and then four"square"-ing the four to get sixteen - thus April 16th.  After doing some research, I found that some cities even celebrated Foursquare Day by making official proclamations.

It turns out that McDonalds actually used Foursquare Day as a marketing strategy: users who checked in on Foursquare Day were given a chance to win gift cards (5-10$ worth).  They said that it actually increased traffic that day.  No wonder cities were celebrating it - its a great markeing strategy.

Personally, I think that Foursquare wanats communities to be built and fans are readily poking fun and using foursquare to create communities.  I didn't really think to look for Foursquare "fan created art" like memes, before I learned about this day communities (or fans) created as a day to just acknowledge members.

I'm interested to see the many different ways people use foursquare, even apart from fan communities of foursquare (as it is different than TV or movies).