Foursquare, one of the hottest social media at the moment is now available in Cyprus. Foursquare listened to its fans’ requests and changed its location model to allow check-ins from anywhere worldwide. The fast growing, location-based social networking site, which combines real life activities with the online world, has made its way to Cypriot early adapters’ smartphones.
What is foursquare? In a nutshell, foursquare is a location-based social networking site/game where users “check-in” to the online representation of the real life venue they are visiting (a shop, bar etc). That pings their friends, letting them know the user’s whereabouts, lets the user know where his/her friends are and shows other users in the vicinity and recommendations for the venue currently visited, from past visitors (e.g. “Try the strawberry cheesecake here, simply heaven!”).
What makes users keep visiting foursquare is the fact that they collect points for checking-in, keeping tracks of who’s got the lead, awards special badges and proclaims the most frequent visitor of a certain venue the Mayor, for which the business that runs that place (provided that it is participating in foursquare too) might award the user for their loyalty with special discounts, gifts, coupons etc. For more details you can read this previous blog post, which goes over the foursquare basics.
Why will foursquare see a fast growing popularity in Cyprus?
We will be seeing foursquare skyrocketing in popularity in another 2-3 months in Cyprus and dethroning facebook in offline real life conversations, as the ‘new shiny object’. The good news for facebook though is that foursquare won’t be posing as a threat for the No. 1 spot online, since foursquare does not directly compete with facebook but rather complements it (you can even link your facebook account to it). Here’s why I see foursquare doing well in Cyprus, taking into consideration Cypriot culture:
- Cypriots are very social and keen on including their friends in their activities – this is exactly what makes facebook extremely popular in Cyprus, the sense of sharing and interacting with your friends at all times.
- There has always been an underlying popularity contest going on in Cyprus where people go out to see and to be seen, something which a tool such as foursquare helps feed that.
- Cypriots love to go out and about… a lot! Coffee in the afternoon, then the gym, then another coffee with friends, then drinks and then maybe even a club or two – that would be a typical Wednesday… weekends? Multiply x5
- 3G and wi-fi enabled smartphones such as the iPhone and BlackBerry are seeing an ever-increasing rise in sales, which automatically lays the groundwork for using foursquare where a smartphone is essential to check in on the move.
- It’s the new, cool, shiny thing – eh who are we kidding, that always reels people in from all backgrounds and cultures.
- Foursquare lets users discover the newest, hottest places or at least additional going-out options, along with friends recommendations of the listed venues. Something I hear Cypriots frequently complain about is the lack of options in places to go out, a need which foursquare can help cover.
On the downside, other foursquare users will know where you are at any given time, increasing the risk of burglars knowing when you’re not home; not to mention saying goodbye to excuses of why you can’t attend a specific function or night out with buddies you don’t really feel like seeing, or getting annoying pings all the time of over-zealous enthusiasts who miss the point and check-in anywhere including their houses, their neighbors’ houses, their cars, their dog’s houses etc.
But what does foursquare mean for businesses?
Businesses can benefit greatly from listing themselves on foursquare, which would be recommended to do soon before users list them with inaccurate information. Some business uses of foursquare we’ve seen up to now is city tourism boards doing online scavenger hunts with special badges awarded to participants, unusual novelty badges created for a cause or discounts and special offers for foursquare users checking in a venue, with even more incentives for ‘Mayors’. A follow-up blog post dedicated entirely on foursquare for business use will be coming soon.
Closing comments…
As with all social media (and most things in life), foursquare is even better when shared with friends, even more so as it promotes a good-ol’ friendly competition among foursquare buddies with features such as a leaderboard list for the most points scored every week and mayorship of your most visited venues. The good thing is that you don’t need a lot of friends using it to get obsessed. Just one close friend with a healthy competitive spirit is enough to have you going crazy on checking in wherever you go and on adding new venues for extra points (yes Mario hon, that is you I am referring to).
Ah, it seems like (geek) wishes do come true after all.
If you wish to befriend me on foursquare, you can find me here.
Additional Resources:
The Official Foursquare Blog
What is foursquare? A quick guide to the next big thing in social networking
10 foursquare secrets worth making public
Is It Lame To Be The Mayor Of Your Apartment?
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Not surprisingly, facebook is still by far the most popular social media in Cyprus, hugely gaining in popularity all the time. Due to this fact, we are finally seeing a good number of Cyprus brands taking facebook seriously as a way to reach their audiences. The problem at the moment though is that although brands are creating a facebook fan page, launching contests to get people to ‘like’ their page, they do almost nothing afterwards with the community they’ve built around their brand. Unfortunately a majority of Cyprus brands practicing this (or the agencies advising them) are not thinking of their facebook fan page as a means to build a two-way communication with their audience, just like God (or in this case, Mark Zuckerberg) intended it. Here is facebook’s demographics by numbers in Cyprus for August 2011:
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