KANSAN.COM / THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN WEDNESDAY, JULY 7, 2010 / NEWS
3
LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION
foursquare locates discounts
BY COREY THIBODEAUX
cthibodeaux@kansan.com
A FEW DEALS AROUND LAWRENCE
Sandbar, 17 E. Eighth St. — Get five free jukebox credits every third time you check in between 5 and 9 p.m.
Ben and Jerry's, 818 Massachusetts St. — Check in and get three scoops for $3.The mayor gets an extra scoop for free.
Douglas County Dental Clinic, 316 Maine St. - Patients get free fluoride treatment every third regular cleaning and checkup appointment.
Rejuvene Salon and Day Spa, 13 E. Eighth St. — Get 15 percent off your first service and receive a free $10 gift card the first time you check in.
Imagine walking into your favorite Lawrence business and being presented with special prices and deals only you can have. With the newest tools of social media, it's possible.
DoctorDave Computer Repair, 4105 West 6th Street Get 10% off labor costs every third check-in.
Select Subways in Topeka — Get three free cookies the first time you check in until August 1,2010.
Applications such as Foursquare and Gowalla are geographically based social networking programs for mobile phones that use GPS to pinpoint your location. All you have to do is walk into any business, store or restaurant and "check in" on your phone by selecting your location from a list provided by the Foursquare program. If you don't have a smart phone, it still works with text messaging.
Only people you have added to your list of friends on Foursquare will be able to see where you are checked in. If you choose to link your account with another site, such as Twitter or Facebook, your friends on those sites will also be able to see your location.
After checking in, users can leave tips for others looking at that location. One user who checked into The Underground wrote, "Don't go at noon... seriously."
Foursquare logs each of your visits and at many businesses, more visits mean more perks.
DoctorDave Computer Repair,
4105 West Sixth St., is one place in
Lawrence with a Foursquare special,
giving 10 percent off labor costs after
every third visit. Dave Greenbaum,
owner of DoctorDave Computer
Repair, said he preferred Foursquare to Gowalla because of its mayor and point systems.
"There's a little bit of that competitive aspect," he said.
On Foursquare, if you check in to a location more than any other person, you become the "mayor." Depending on the business, it may reward you for your loyalty. Greenbaum said he hasn't seen Foursquare boost his business, but he said the idea has potential.
"It creates more interaction with your customers," he said, "and that's what a lot about keeping customers is."
Joe Davis, a senior from Coventry, Conn., and social media manager for Lawrence Freenet and 23rd Street Brewery, said many of the social networking groups around Lawrence
such as the Social Media Club of Lawrence use Foursquare to network and find friends.
Davis said Facebook is looking to release its own location-based network. Because Foursquare and Gowalla have only a fraction of the users, Facebook might have the upper hand if it was to establish a similar program.
"That might be the killer of both of them," Davis said.
But for now, the big social networking sites are helping the geographically based sites. By linking your account with sites such as Twitter and Facebook, you can see if your friends are nearby.
"Ive had some impromptu get-togethers downtown." Greenbaum said. "It's a lot of fun as a user."
These demo images show how Foursquare's typical checkins, tips and friends' lists look on a smart phone app.
WANT TO KNOW ABOUT SOME OF THE BADGES YOU CAN GET WITH FOUR SQUARE?
Newbie
You get this the first time you check in using Four Square.
Swarm
Adventurer
You earn this badge by checking in to a venue where 50 other people are also checked in.
You get this badge by checking into 10 different venues.
Barista
Explorer
You get this badge by checking into 25 different venues
You earn this badge by checking into five different Starbucks.
Superstar
Gym Rat
You earn this badge by checking in to a venue tagged "gym" 10 times in 30 days.
You earn this badge by checking in to 50 venues on Foursquare.
Don't Stop Believing
Local
You get this badge by checking into 25 different venues.
8 (7 8)
You get this badge by checking in at the same place three times in one week.
Overshare
You get this badge by checking in to the same place three times in one week.
Animal House
16 Candles
You earn this badge by checking in three times to venues tagged with both 'frat boys' and 'college'.
You earn this badge by sending five shoutouts with the phrase "Happy Birthday."