Today’s post for day 4 of Foursquare for Real was written by Nigel. It’s about how many jobs there are for freelancers who can code or build apps or design badges for sites like Foursquare. He wrote:

“According to Freelancer.com, the fastest growing segment of freelance jobs in the world are in the geolocation space. Leading that space of course is Foursquare.”

Geolocation jobs are number one and have increased 909%. That’s more growth in the 2nd quarter this year than skills like coding HTML 5, technical writing, or iPad related work. Companies are trying to leverage the growth of these services by outsourcing talent they don’t have internally.

So if you’re a graphic designer you can moonlight creating custom Twitter backgrounds — or Foursquare badges. Adding these specific skills that are hot right now can help you land jobs applying your skills for new services that are in demand.

So, what’s the best way to get a job about foursquare? Play the game, use the service and know more than your competition.

Source: PRNewswire press release

The amusement park Six Flags based in California but with locations around the  worldw are Foursquare fans. The park has a special badge called Funatic. Get it and you get a chance to win a season pass.

To earn a Six Flags Funatic foursquare badge you need to check in 10x at the same park (there are locations throughout the world).  When you do you’ll be entered to win a 2011 “Exit Pass.”  The badge will be available to fans until Sept. 7, 2010. Those who earn the badge will also be entered into a drawing to win a season pass for the winner and a guest. That means it’s free but also no waiting in lines for an entire year.

Here’s the fun part – each park’s present Six Flags foursquare “Mayor” on Sept. 7 will also win a 2011 Season Pass.

Think that will drive more visits to the parks? Yes, so do I!

Source: Mike Scollins, Six Flags Social Media Agent (lucky guy) on the Six Flags blog (which doesn’t appear to have permalinks!) and this press release:

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/six-flags-partners-with-foursquare-and-launches-new-fan-badge-96046414.html

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• Six Flags Facebook Game Is Fun Until Someone Loses An Arm [Facebook] (kotaku.com)

It’s day 2 of our series of 14 Days of Foursquare and today’s post about how pro sports teams use Foursquare was written by Nigel. I quote from his post below.

The LA Lakers and the Boston Celtics used Foursquare to engage with fans during the NBA finals this year with limited edition Foursquare badges. The badges fueled the rivalry between the teams – for fans across the country – even if they didn’t attend the actual game.

How did fans get the badge? With a mention of the team they hoped would win and a hash tag. To be exact, by “Identifying with either of the NBA finalists was as simple as a check in on foursquare with the phrase #go(finalist team) and #NBA.”

Not only were they engaging fans on Foursquare, the NBA set a new record on Twitter during the game. See A New Record: 3085 Tweets Created Per Second During NBA Finals

It’s a smart way for the NBA to engage fans – and I like how open they made it. Apparently it wasn’t so easy for World Cup fans who had to do a lot more to participate.  That’s despite “a full half a billion more people worldwide watch the World Cup final than the Superbowl.” Lesson: make it easy to for fans to engage.

Nigel sums up by saying that creating badges may not be the best route: “Foursquare can spend a lot of time and energy developing badges for professional teams and that will certainly develop a lot of cachet for their brand, but everyday experiences, if properly monetized, can provide a whole lot more for the customer, retailer and foursquare.”

Press Release Source:

http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20100623005912/en/Boston-Celtics-Boston-Bruins-Digital-Agency-Isobar

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• 40 Ways Sports Teams Can Utilize Foursquare (partnershipactivation.com)
• Microsoft, Google and Yahoo Prepare to Check-in With Foursquare [Android Apps] (gizmodo.com)

Foursquare is a mobile social network where you check-in and share your location and activities with friends. It’s a great way for local businesses to reward frequent customers and create loyalty and buzz with social media power users. That’s the hip crowd with iPhones and Androids who are very active and vocal online. Foursquare is growing at a phenomenal rate.

14 Days of Foursquare Series

I’ve partnered with Nigel Swaby and our podcast the Web Marketing Weekly Show for this series. Each business day for the next 2 weeks I will post a new update on how a brand or organization is using Foursquare for their business. I’ll feature everyone from nonprofits to sports teams.

These stories are told almost exclusively through press releases on PRNewswire (link goes to their small business toolkit + special pricing) sent by the companies or organizations themselves.

Where possible I looked for updates on how the campaigns performed. At the end of the series I’ll link to each story. The last post will be a summary post with the best Foursquare tips. There’s something for everyone so don’t miss a day!

6 Quick Facts about Foursquare

• Just passed 2 million users mark on July 10 just over a year after its  launch in March 2009.
• Growing faster than Twitter took 2 years to hit 1 million users (but Twitter helps boost Foursquare’s adoption rate)
• Foursquare is adding 100,000 users per week.

• 64% of Foursquare users are male, 33% are female, and 3% did not specify a gender
• 55% of users have uploaded a photo
• 28% of users have linked their Foursquare account to their Facebook account (and probably annoyed them for doing so)

DAY 1: Pennsylvania Taps Foursquare for Tourism

Exclusive Badges for Check Ins
The Pennsylvania Tourism Office is luring tourists to play the Foursquare game with by creating their own badges. They have 3 badges for points of interest throughout the state. They include restaurants, shops and historical landmarks and have discounts and special offers.

Point of Interest Tips
Pennsylvania lists over 100 tips and responses about places of interest in the state. They can be found by people on Foursquare and on their web site on Foursquare – www.foursquare.com/VisitPA. Their web site also has a Foursquare section.

They sent out a press release and developed custom web pages to promote their campaign. If you need an example of how to use Foursquare to encourage multiple check-ins or how government agencies could use it to encourage tourism, Pennsylvania is the model to follow.

Source:

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/pa-joins-foursquare-mobile-social-networking-community-94853509.html

One way that government or businesses that rely on tourism can use Foursquare is to create badges and points of interests with tips for visitors. I’d love to see this done with historical sites.

When I went to the Newseum in Washington DC I noticed they promoted checking in. I tried to snap a photo but we were in a big hurry and I didn’t get a chance.

Here’s how the state of Pennsylvania office of tourism uses Foursquare.

Exclusive Badges for Check Ins
The Pennsylvania Tourism Office is luring tourists to play the Foursquare game with by creating their own badges. They have 3 badges for points of interest throughout the state. They include restaurants, shops and historical landmarks and have discounts and special offers.

Point of Interest Tips
Pennsylvania lists over 100 tips and responses about places of interest in the state. They can be found by people on Foursquare and on their web site on Foursquare – www.VisitPA.com/Foursquare. Their web site also has a Foursquare section.

They sent out a press release and developed custom web pages to promote their campaign. They encouraged other places in PA to join in the game. If you need an example of how to use Foursquare to encourage multiple check-ins or how government agencies could use it to encourage tourism, Pennsylvania is the model to follow.

Source:

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/pa-joins-foursquare-mobile-social-networking-community-94853509.html