Foursquare: The Next Twitter?

The new Twitter?

Remember skyscrapers?

If you played foursquare growing up, then you’re familiar with the many rules made on the fly in order to keep yourself in the top square.

My favorite rule: NO SKYSCRAPERS!

Just as kids will always change the rules to a game that is rather simplistic in concept, a relatively new form of microblogging is gaining in popularity. Foursquare is proving itself on the social media landscape, and it looks like it might not take any prisoners. It could change the rules of microblogging as we know it!

How?

Foursquare takes social networking a bit further than Twitter. While Twitter now has geo-tagging, it hasn’t proved much of a purpose. I mean, I guess it’s great and all to know that a tweet was sent a few blocks from me, but what’s the value in that? For those of you who are avid “falkers” (Facebook stalkers), then Foursquare will satisfy your insatiable appetite to know exactly who, what, when, where, and why. At first, I was taken aback by the oversharing of information, but get this… you have the option of letting your friends see your location (if you want company) or keeping it a secret (if you’d rather not be bothered).

Instead of a “tweet,” you “check-in” at locations once you arrive. As expected Foursquare can be integrated with your Facebook and Twitter accounts to keep all your various friend groups updated, and the cool thing about checking in… you can become the mayor of establishments across the city! Mayors are people who have the most check-ins at a location and in larger markets (NYC), they are entitled to great incentives (i.e. free meals, free drinks, etc.)! We’ve seen the marketing possibilities of Twitter, and it’ll be even more interesting to tie-in competition (for mayorship) with incentives offered by businesses for its most loyal of customers.

Foursquare is increasing its list of cities at a rapid rate, so if yours isn’t there, don’t fret… it’ll probably be added soon.

Here’s to the next social networking giant!

Homework: Create a Foursquare account and give it a test run.