March 9, 2010

This week's Charlottesville Plugged In segment focuses on a new trend in Charlottesville that involves Twitter. It's called Foursquare.

Foursquare is a social media application that allows people to find friends and new places to go. It’s really a way of going somewhere and saying “I’m here” to your friends. There’s also a competitive aspect to it, as you get points and badges for increased interaction with Foursquare.

There have been many location-aware social applications in the past few years, but Foursquare really seems to be catching on over the others. The main difference between the other location-aware applications and Foursquare is that with other applications, you don’t necessarily want to be advertising to strangers who and where you are, but Foursquare only announces it to networks of friends, through the website itself, Facebook, and Twitter.

Charlottesville resident Renee Revetta, a Social Media Specialist with Search Mojo, likes to play Foursquare and explains why.

"Basically, it's a free game. You don't win any real prizes or anything. It's kind of for the competition and trying to become mayor, which I just became mayor of Marco & Luca Noodle Shop here," said Revetta.

Also, a growing trend is for businesses to offer discounts to people who check in through Foursquare and who achieve high ranks. There currently are not any local companies offering discounts on Foursquare (there are some in Richmond), but Revetta thinks that will change soon.

Here's an interview with the Foursquare development team: