Checking in. 4 Months on 4Square
Thu, June 03, 2010 Filed in: Social Media | Mobile
Today, a sort of dynamic convergence has brought me to this post. My realization that 4Square has no real value to me as a user, a Twitter buddy tweeted how the 4Square/Starbucks deal is a ripoff since it seems Starbucks didn’t inform the stores, how my New MediaTechnology students have never heard of 4Square (key demo!) and how a Mashable article calls “checking in” the new big thing for 2010. Hello?
I’ve know about 4Square from it’s start but didn’t find much use for it. I was a very early Twitter-adopter and I recall the experience...nobody to talk to except Kevin Rose and I could care less that he was eating a burrito. I decided to give 4Square some growth-time. The concept is a good one. I come to your store, you give me stuff cheaper in exchange for me telling all my friends I come to your store. Simple. And get’s people past the “oh, not another thing I have to do” issue.
20% Off, But Just For One Of You
So, about 4 months ago, I become an active 4Square user, becoming the mayor of 10 locations. My joke was it seems I only go to the unpopular places. I had to reenter many of the places in my town because whoever did it the first time did it all from their house. Things were as much as a half-mile off. Of course, in 4Square, you can’t correct locations. They tell you to find the original person who entered it. First lame thing about 4Square. I got a bit excited when a local business had a “special offer”. 20% off for the mayor. That was great until I realized that only one person was getting the discount and the rest of us had little chance of ever getting involved unless we checked in every day atleast. My guess is the existing mayor is there daily, eating cheap.
Then came the Starbucks deal. Once I became mayor of my local Starbucks, I joked about it with the young staff here. None of them had ever heard of 4Square. Oops. Facebook, yes. Humm. They joke that I should be “King”, it’s cooler. In my New Media Technologies class, I got the same result from my students. “Four what? You check in....why?” “Well, you get points....” “What do you do with the points”. Good question, student. Off to the 4Square FAQ for the answer. “We're still experimenting with what points could translate into.” Oh lord. Even 4Square doesn’t know. I began to imagine the 4Square logo on the sidebar of the wiki page for “Half-Baked-Idea.”
Being Listed Next To Betamax Can’t Be Good
4Square is listed on Time Magazine’s Top 50 Worse Inventions, along with Agent Orange and Subprime Mortgages. That’s a bit harsh. 4Square is not screwing up recreational drugs or costing me my 401k. It’s a great invention actually, it just has not caught on and I don’t see 4Square being very aggressive in fixing that, and I’m wondering if it waited too long. Facebook is getting into the geo-aware game. Mashable has an article today about how the “check in” model will take off in 2010. Ok, well, I love you Mashable, but it’s June. There is hope, however. 4Square is only just past a year old...and Yahoo seems to like the idea. They are dangling millions of dollars in the face of creators Dennis Crowley and Naveen Selvadurai.
And now there is Loopt Star.
UPDATED 6:42 PST:
Peggy Butler received a response from Starbucks via Twitter. Her store will get an email. And 4Square announced “TLC Summer.” More badges to collect. But what do you get for them?
Share
20% Off, But Just For One Of You
So, about 4 months ago, I become an active 4Square user, becoming the mayor of 10 locations. My joke was it seems I only go to the unpopular places. I had to reenter many of the places in my town because whoever did it the first time did it all from their house. Things were as much as a half-mile off. Of course, in 4Square, you can’t correct locations. They tell you to find the original person who entered it. First lame thing about 4Square. I got a bit excited when a local business had a “special offer”. 20% off for the mayor. That was great until I realized that only one person was getting the discount and the rest of us had little chance of ever getting involved unless we checked in every day atleast. My guess is the existing mayor is there daily, eating cheap.
Then came the Starbucks deal. Once I became mayor of my local Starbucks, I joked about it with the young staff here. None of them had ever heard of 4Square. Oops. Facebook, yes. Humm. They joke that I should be “King”, it’s cooler. In my New Media Technologies class, I got the same result from my students. “Four what? You check in....why?” “Well, you get points....” “What do you do with the points”. Good question, student. Off to the 4Square FAQ for the answer. “We're still experimenting with what points could translate into.” Oh lord. Even 4Square doesn’t know. I began to imagine the 4Square logo on the sidebar of the wiki page for “Half-Baked-Idea.”
Being Listed Next To Betamax Can’t Be Good
4Square is listed on Time Magazine’s Top 50 Worse Inventions, along with Agent Orange and Subprime Mortgages. That’s a bit harsh. 4Square is not screwing up recreational drugs or costing me my 401k. It’s a great invention actually, it just has not caught on and I don’t see 4Square being very aggressive in fixing that, and I’m wondering if it waited too long. Facebook is getting into the geo-aware game. Mashable has an article today about how the “check in” model will take off in 2010. Ok, well, I love you Mashable, but it’s June. There is hope, however. 4Square is only just past a year old...and Yahoo seems to like the idea. They are dangling millions of dollars in the face of creators Dennis Crowley and Naveen Selvadurai.
And now there is Loopt Star.
UPDATED 6:42 PST:
Peggy Butler received a response from Starbucks via Twitter. Her store will get an email. And 4Square announced “TLC Summer.” More badges to collect. But what do you get for them?
Share