Foursquare, the popular location-based social media service, made it official last month when the start-up declared April 16th Foursquare Day. Why April 16th? We’ll, it’s the 4th month of the year and since 4^2 = 16 there is really no other day on the calendar that is fitting. Foursquare has been growing at a rapid pace in the social media arena and three days from now it will gain even more popularity. April 16, 2010 will be the first social media holiday in history and will be celebrated across the globe in cities such as Beijing, Sydney, London, New York City, and San Francisco to name a few.
Foursquare Day is not one of those holidays when we all share gifts so let’s get that out of the way first. Instead, it’s a day of social media fun, discounts at participating venues, special events, sharing information, and unlocking badges like the official “4Sq Day 2010” badge. That’s right, there is an official badge for this holiday, but I’ll come back to this in a minute. So, if you are not sure what events are taking place in your city, feel free to visit 4SqDay.com to view the list of participating cities.
So let me get back to the official “4Sq Day 2010” badge since I’m sure many of you would like to unlock it and add it to your plethora of badges. About an hour ago I found out that the official Foursquare Day badge was released and uploaded to the Foursquare server. I just sent out a tweet on Twitter letting everyone know that their is an authentic Foursquare Day badge. At this point the sequence to unlock the badge is unknown, however, I don’t anticipate it being too difficult since it’s only available one day each year. If I had to take a quick guess, I would say the badge can be unlocked in the same way as the “16 Candles” badge. If you have not unlocked the “16 Candles” badge, unfortunately I’m not going into detail about the unlocking sequence. That will just take some of the fun out of the gaming aspect of Foursquare. Everyone enjoys surprises, therefore, it would be much better if you unlocked a badge without expecting it. Sorry!
Nonetheless, I hope everyone can make it out to a Foursquare Day event this Friday and enjoy the first ever social media holiday!
Update: While there are several Foursquare Day events taking place all across the globe, Foursquare is hosting an official party on their home turf tonight – NYC. The party kicks off at 10PM and is located at The Hotel on Rivington in the Lower East Side of Manhattan. It’s open to all Foursquare users, but in order to get in you must show the people working the doors your Foursquare app on your mobile phone. CEO Dennis Crowley posted more information on the official Foursquare blog. It should be a good time so everyone should come out. I even hear Digg’s CEO Kevin Rose will be joining the festivities.
Update: While the name of the Foursquare Day badge was “4sq Day 2010” throughout most of the day, it appears that the badge name recently changed to “#4sqDay 2010.” According to Tony Felice, this change occurred at 18:00 GMT. Btw, feel free to swing by Tony’s blog to see the entire list of Foursquare badges. This list is updated as soon as badges become available so check back often.
Update: The official Foursquare party held at The Hotel on Rivington was absolutely bananas. The rainy weather definitely didn’t stop people from coming out and making their way up to the rooftop to “check-in.” If I failed to mention it, there was a hot tub on the rooftop. So about an hour and a half after the party kicked off, lines to get into the party started to stall. Mr. Foursquare himself, Dennis Crowley, decided to make his way downstairs and hang out with the people in line for a bit – that was a nice move on his part. Not only was Foursquare co-founder Dennis Crowley in attendance having an awesome time, Digg founder and Foursquare investor Kevin Rose showed up as expected. What’s more? About 1AM or so, Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore showed up at the party as well.
Here are some of the photos that were taken at the party by Nick McGlynn. Set 1 | Set 2
Here are a few more photos taken by Foursquare designer, Mari Sheibley.
Update: The first annual social media holiday, Foursquare Day, was a huge success. Other than a huge thanks to the Foursquare team, a special thanks needs to go out to Nate Bonilla-Warford and a handful of Foursquare users who helped make it all happen.
Comment Section