I didn't expect to find it in a sleepy little town of 8000 sandwiched between a national forest and Lake Michigan. But, a couple of weeks ago I visited the small town of my youth and Foursquare was there. Not just a little. It was everywhere. I figured it would be easy pickings to go home to Manistee, Michigan, add some places and claim some mayorships. Many of my friends from high school who still live in the area aren't even on Facebook. Surely nobody there was participating in Foursquare. I was wrong.
Every place I went, someone had already put it in the system and had checked in enough to become mayor. And not just the local favorites in town. When we went out to meet friends at a bar a few miles out of town, on the side of M-55? Yep. Already claimed. Then, on our way home, we stopped at a gas station/store with nothing else around it. It was claimed too. I even, just for fun, went to check in at my mom's house – just to see what would come up around me – and somebody's house two doors down was listed, along with a lot of other nearby places. I was amazed.
Last week, I flew down to Roanoke, VA to shoot some commercials for a client. Now, Roanoke's a decent size city – not tiny like Manistee. But, they're no urban center like Detroit or Houston, either. They are nestled in the Appalachian Mountains, where people outside the city limits have trouble getting anything other than dial-up for their Internet service. But, again, everywhere I went was already listed and mayored. I was pleased to see my client's store was listed and after several days of shooting there, I still wasn't mayor.
All this is to say that location based services like Foursquare may not have hit the high penetration of Facebook or even Twitter, but they are prevalent wherever you go. In fact, in areas of the country where phone based Internet may be easier to come by than high-speed home access, there may be more people than you'd expect using services like this just because they're used to doing all their online activities via phone. Do you have a Foursquare strategy? Perhaps you should.
Mike McClure, Yaffe social media guy and admitted Foursquare addict
Foursquare is indeed everywhere it seems Mike. Amazingly, I was in Manistee on Sunday. We stopped for lunch on our way back from some R&R at Crystal Mountain. On the way I said to Laura that I had to check in thinking you might see it… And then completely forgot to do it! Regardless, we had a great lunch at a restaurant overlooking the river in the “historic downtown” (it really is a lovely place). We watched a gigantic freighter pass by and the Lions lose.
Thanks Russ. Yes it is a lovely place. There are many times I get somewhere else and think,”Doh! Forgot to check in!”