The Heckenbergerization of Foursquare

Well, you knew it was coming. I've done my fair share of bitching about how I think some people I know on Foursquare are doing it wrong (*wink*). And before anyone freaks out, this blog post isn't about suggesting "rules" for Foursquare because no one but the platform (or the law) can mandate how you use social media. This post is about the Heckenbergerization of Foursquare: how I use Foursquare and how I'd love to see Foursquare used by more people.

Background
Foursquare is the 1-year old child born from mobile social networking platform Dodgeball, which my friends and I used religiously starting in 2004. Among my friends in NYC, Dodgeball was our way of life.

When you're young and in NYC, you're generally out every night (your apt is too small to spend much time in it), covering multiple neighborhoods and meeting up with multiple groups of people. At first, Dodgeball was just a great way to mass text friends as you traveled from bar to bar. Dodgeball sent an sms (if they choose to receive sms) to your friends when you checked in, telling them the name of venue & the address and phone number. Super convenient. Genius at the time. (Remember, no twitter & no iphones in 2004)

Soon, Dodgeball started featuring users with the most check-in's on its' website, and that became a status symbol among core users. Later, Dodgeball added a "crush" feature. You could check out the other users on the site, mark someone you thought was cute, and if you ended up in the same bar, you'd be notified of your crush. Until then, all you knew was that someone had a crush and let me tell you - it was compelling. You were dying to know who.

Whoa. Holy tangents. Stop.

Long story short, Google bought Dodgeball, Google dicked Dodgeball, creator Dennis Crowley walked from Google and partnered with Naveen, they built Foursquare, a geo-location based mobile social network inspired by Dodgeball.

Today
And here we are. The basic premise of Foursquare remains the same as Dodgeball - it's a simple mobile way to check-in and let your social circle know where they can meet up with you when you're out socially. On the functional side, it prevents cumbersome mass calls/texts to friends as you dine and/or bar hop. It's also a way to see where your friends are without calling around or texting, if you're looking for something to do.

Bells and Whistles
However, there are Mayor, badges and points systems for the obvious reasons: incentives for people to come back/increase frequency of use and create a B2B revenue model. Obviously, venues want more check-ins from users - that provides viral value (user's check-in and their friends see the venue/tips) and it identifies loyal customers (repeat customers can win Mayorships at the venue, which smart venues reward with a freebie or special).

Heckenbergerization
I check-in to Foursquare when I'm out socially. If I check in at a venue, it's cool for my friends to meet up with me. If I see a friend checked-in'd in on Foursquare, I may stop in and hang with them.

I don't check-in at work. Work is work. I'm busy there. I just don't have time to invite friends to stop by - unless we're hosting a social event. If you're checking in at work, consider this: Foursquare is google searchable. If your boss has google alerts set for the business, your Foursquare check-in's are like punching a clock. Just remembering to check-in at lunchtime? Mmmm. Might not look so good.

I don't check in at home. I'm rarely inviting people over to my place. Mi casa es no su casa. My apt is not a public venue. Sorry.

That's it. Not so complicated. Hope you find Foursquare as fun and functional as I do.