Loving Foursquare, as I Rediscover Irvine, the City I Live in

I think Foursquare is one of the coolest social networks out there The reason being is that it's making me a better person in many regards. For example I am now exploring my city more than ever before. I want to get more points more badges and discover new places. I've lived in the city of Irvine for over 15 years now and I believe I know pretty well, I know the back roads all the ins and outs I know where all the neighborhoods are. And I really love the city.

But at the same time I'm also limited to just what I want to do and places I've been to. I tend to guide myself towards other similar places and maybe I'm missing out on something. When I joined foursquare I found that I would be able to see where other people are checking in. This has helped me find new restaurants, parks and places I didn't know existed. I thought that was pretty cool.

I have close to 1000 checkins now and I'm hoping to have 1000 checkins or more by February 15th. Besides the fun that I'm having in 4sq, I believe that foursquare is a very important tool that businesses can use. I'm having a lot of fun with it personally but there is a lot of benefit to having your face and your name be out there in the community that you serve or that you work for. It's all about how many people see your face and recognize you when they want to do business with you.

For example, if you are the owner of a store at a mall it is to your advantage to be the mayor there because when you're in the store, people will recognize you if they check into foursquare (don't forget to remind them with a sticker!). You can also offer a perk for checking in. A discount is a good incentive, but also, people like checking in when the Mayor is in the house, as they get extra points. So I don't see why a business wouldn't want to join foursquare.

I've set a small challenge for myself; to get up to 2000 chickens by the end of the summer. I think I can do that easily. I also want to become the mayor of 45 places. Currently I am the mayor of 11 places, and I try to check into every one of those at least a couple times a week, daily when I can.

I'm also discovering a lot of applications for foursquare besidse foursquare itself, I'll talk about those in another blogpost. So what are your thoughts on Foursquare?