Tag: Foursquare

The Official Foursquare Day Badge

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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.

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Parker Liautaud Skis to the North Pole to Snag Mayor on Foursquare

Chris 1,137 Comments

On Friday, 15-year-old Parker Liautaud began an extraordinary expedition to become one of the youngest people to ski the Last Degree of the North Pole. The ultimate goal of this expedition is to help young people become more environmentally aware. With the help of GE Ecomagination, the quest is interactive with a social media twist. Fans can track Parker’s progress by visiting his social media sites which include Twitter, Facebook, flickr, YouTube, Google Earth, and Foursquare. While you can visit each site individually, Facebook is the hub for the interactive experience. Those who follow Parker have the opportunity to share their ideas and videos on how they are reducing their carbon footprint to improve the environment. According to Outside Online, the best ideas and videos submitted will be turned over to the delegates at the 2010 United Nations Environmental Conference in Bonn, Germany.

You might be asking yourself how Foursquare plays into this expedition. Foursquare is one of the many social media tools Parker is using as he makes his way to the North Pole. Although he will be checking in to various places along the way, he will most likely be creating new venues since it’s doubtful there will be a lot of venues to choose from at this point. Unlike Jim Bumgardne, aka “KrazyDad,” who never really became Mayor of the North Pole, Parker Liautaud will not only become the first Mayor of the North Pole on Foursquare, he has an excellent chance to hold down the North Pole mayorship for a very long time.

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Foursquare App for BlackBerry Updated to Version 1.7

Chris

Recently Foursquare pushed out app updates to both iPhone and Android users just in time for SXSW so it was only a matter of time before BlackBerry users got their hands on an update. Well, as expected, Foursquare pushed out a new update to BlackBerry users this morning. If you are running the Foursquare app and don’t already have the v1.7 update, simply launch your Foursquare app and it should automatically update to the newest version. You can also download the app from the BlackBerry App World store or visit the Foursquare Web site to download.

There is not a whole lot going on under the hood in this update other than changes to the UI. After firing up the app you will notice four icons in the top navigation menu: Friends (F), Places (P), Tips, and More. While some of these icons might look familiar to you from the previous version, the “Tips” icon is a new addition to the navigation menu. Let’s take a quick look at the new navigation menu and what changes took place.

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HubSpot Launches Foursquare Grader

Chris 11,183 Comments

HubSpot, the company that created Twitter Grader, has launched their latest tool, Square Grader. The tool simply analyzes your usage on the location-based social media site, Foursquare, and gives you a grade and rank based on comparison to other Foursquare users who have already been graded. Since Square Grader is still in its early development stage, it might take several weeks or perhaps months before the database grows and has a large enough sample to make the grade and rank accurate. Although this tool is for amusement purposes only, let’s take a quick look how the grades are generated.

It is rare for a company to publicly discuss their algorithm details simply because there are people out there who are always trying to game the system. However, according to HubSpot Co-Founder, Dharmesh Shah, Square Grader uses several algorithm factors when measuring your Foursquare grade. Although Dharmesh did not go into detail about the priority or weight of each factor, he did mention some of the factors that are taken into account when measuring your grade.

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How Do I Remove A Foursquare Badge From My Profile?

Chris 12,829 Comments

When Foursquare launched their location-based service back in 2009 there was one particular badge that received a lot of attention, the “Douchebag” badge. While some users thought the badge was funny, others felt the badge was offensive and did their best to avoid unlocking it. Although it is outside the scope of this article, you can read more about the “Douchebag Problem” at TechCrunch.

Regardless how you feel about the badge, if you unlocked the Douchebag badge or any other badge and want it removed from your profile you’re in luck.

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How Can I Suggest a Foursquare Badge?

Chris 644 Comments

One of the Foursquare gaming elements that seems to attract a lot of attention is the plethora of badges users can unlock. Badges are awarded to users for doing all sorts of things. For example, users can unlock badges for visiting certain venues, attending certain events, accomplishing certain tasks, being consistent with their travel habits, and so much more.

Since the location-based service launched last year, the Foursquare team has been rolling out badges based on their own ideas. However, the company has always encouraged its users to submit their badge suggestions so they can get an idea of what badges are of interest to Foursquare users.

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