Mandles tend to be competitive. Family game nights have been known to sometimes become contentious. A leisurely bike ride to/from work usually turns in to a race to see whether I can beat the light or pedal the route faster than the day before.
So when Foursquare announced at SXSW earlier this year that their latest updates included improvements to the application’s gaming components, I should have been happy.
But as competitive as I can be, I’m also a realist. My changed position at work has let me cut back on travel. At home in the Twin Cities, I don’t go out to venues as frequently as I used to. And when I do [hit up the library, museum, etc.] I usually have my kids in tow.
So remembering to pull out my phone to check-in on Foursquare, Facebook Places and other applications isn’t always top-of-mind. And even if it were, the opportunities to get to new places and earn megapoints with a geolocation based app are fewer and far between.
That all being said, I’ve been on the road for work the past two days. I knew I’d be visiting places I hadn’t been to before and made a conscious effort to have my check-in thumb ready. Here’s the result:
I readily acknowledge this is a fleeting win. Since the scores tally on a rolling seven-day average, I’m likely to fall as soon as I get back to MSP today. Still, the experience shows me a few things:
- I Win! I haven’t lost my competitive edge. Even though I compete much less frequently than before. And even though the form of competition has changed considerably.
- Foursquare Wins! The personal points tally and points-amongst-friends feature updates made by Foursquare incented me. I wanted to check-in more. Music to a marketer’s ears.
Ha! I swear I’m ONLY #1 when I’m out of town. In fact, I’m mad that I wasn’t smart (like you) and didn’t take a screenshot so I could re-live my glory later.
Congrats.
Looks like it’s time for me to designate every room in my house as a “Place.”
hmmm very interesting…i will try