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I swore I wasn't going to get sucked into Foursquare. I was really happy using Loopt, and I just didn't see any reason to switch -- or use both. I was in a meeting and someone started talking about Foursquare and I thought -- what the heck, I'll try it for a week, and I'll think it's stupid and go back to Loopt. It's been a month, and you can just go ahead and call me Mayor.
I had no idea how amused I'd be when I became Mayor of Starbucks or Mayor of the Glenview Public Library. I had no idea how annoyed I would be when someone took the Mayor title away from me at the library and how grouchy I'd be when I tried to get the title back -- and couldn't. (Don't worry, I'm not giving up. It was a slow library week last week ... next week, the title will be MINE. And yes, this is how politicians who start off with good intentions become corrupt. If the Foursquare power has gone to my head ... good thing I've never had real political aspirations, isn't it?)
When I saw Elisa became the Mayor of BlogHer (Belmont) I was annoyed, because if I lived in California, I'd take that Mayor title away from her in a flash -- I'm apparently competitive that way. So competitive that I told her, in another meeting, that I was going to claim Mayor of BlogHer -- Chicago! She laughed and told me to go for it -- so I did.
Yes indeedy -- you can just call me Mayor.
And next week, not only will I be Mayor half dozen local establishments, I'll also have a nifty Starbucks Barista Badge, too. It takes five visits to get the Barista Badge -- piece of cake (as long as I can have a Quad Grande Non-fat Caramel Macchiato with it.)
Now here's a little Starbucks insider info -- according to the manager of my Starbucks, not only will we be able to have a Foursquare Barista Badge, they'll also be giving Starbucks Mayors $1 off of a Frappucino. That doesn't help me much because I don't DO the Frappucino thing -- but if that's your drink of choice, you might just want to investigate the possibility at your own Starbucks this week.
I've seen a good number of tweets and posts announcing freebies and discounts for Mayors.
And a couple of weeks ago when TW checked in at Kohl's, a message popped up inviting her over to Steak 'n Shake for a free Coke since she was "in the area" -- I can't decide if that's cool or creepy.
As much as I'm enjoying Foursquare, there are some things about Loopt that I really miss. Most important, the photo/video upload capability -- that was one of the best things about using Loopt. I've just installed Squarepik, and it works but doesn't work seamlessly -- you have to log into Pikchur and tell it to send your updates to Twitter or Facebook. I had to spend $1.99 to get poor functionality that Loopt already provides without any extra hoop jumping. Not cool. I also wish Foursquare provided a local calendar and events tab so that you could find interesting things happening in the community.
Are you using Foursquare? How many Mayor badges do you have? Have you received any bennies for your Foursquare check-ins?
~Denise BlogHer Community Manager
Flamingo House Happenings
