Move over Twitter, Foursquare is now the hot social media tool for maximizing engagement at conventions, meetings, and events.
I've attended more conventions, meetings, and events than I could ever recount. How about you? Why do we continue to attend these events? For the engagement with like-minded professionals, influencers, associates, and friends.
I have also sat on boards and committees that planned them. And while I would like to believe that speakers and presenters like me are what make these events successful, the truth is the engagement between industry peers is consistently the number one reason members attend their association conventions.
Meeting planners know this. They know association members show for networking, and that is why they need to start getting familiar with Foursquare.
Foursquare is a location-based (LB) social media tool that brings people together to connect, communicate, and collaborate about what is going on in their businesses, and to better share the experience of the event they are attending. It doesn't replace other engagement tools such as Twitter, rather it works in conjunction with them to enhance their effectiveness.
How Foursquare Works
Foursquare works by encouraging you to check-in at specific locations or venues. It is used every day by users who check into restaurants, coffee shops, airports, and just about any location you can imagine. Your LB or location-based status is announced to your friends who then have the opportunity to engage with you if they happen to be nearby.
Imagine participating in a huge convention where you have colleagues and friends who also may be attending. Instead of randomly calling or texting to determine everyone's whereabouts, everyone knows what is happening instantly with Foursquare.
What if your friends are not presently connected to Foursquare? No problem, because each time you check in you have the option to not only announce your location to your Foursquare friends, but to also push that message out to your Twitter and Facebook connections. Odds are if you do that you will soon get a group together for productive networking.
Foursquare is now available on virtually all mobile devices, including Blackberry, Android, Palm, and my preferred device, the iPhone.
How Foursquare Can Work for Conventions
In the real world, Foursquare is used by restaurants, as one example, to crown their most frequent visitors as Mayors by providing them with their Mayor Badge. I've seen promotions from some establishments that declare Foursquare Mayors Drink for Free. There can only be one mayor, but the whole idea is to build a buzz that gets everyone involved and interacting.
I can envision using Foursquare at conventions to have an Expo or Trade Show Mayor, an Education Session Mayor, and a Host Hotel Mayor. To take this further, how about having Mayors for each exhibitor in the Trade Show? I don't believe the technology for this is here now, but we are told it is coming. And in social media time, that may well mean sometime next week!
Tips You Should Know
When I first started experimenting with Foursquare a few months ago, I succumbed to the suggestion that it was going to be the next Twitter. However, recently I discovered that my phone number and email address is shared with all of my 'friends.' Knowing this, I now reserve my Foursquare friendships on a more selective basis along the lines of Facebook, as opposed to Twitter.
Successful association conventions involve an ecosystem of the association itself, along with the members, vendors, and other friends that support the association – and in turn support each other. This interdependency is what will make Foursquare a viable tool for more effectively accomplishing everyone's convention objectives.
Networking is about people engaging to accomplish mutual objectives. The critical success factor is bringing them together into a common location.
This is what Foursquare can do to enhance the effectiveness of your convention, trade show, meeting, or event.
If you are interested in learning more about Aligning Social Media Strategy for Association Events, I will be doing two FREE webinars in April with my friend, green industry colleague, and association executive with the Snow and Ice Management Association, Brian Birch. These webinars will be hosted by Engage365, an online knowledge community for association and corporate meeting professionals.
You can connect with me on Foursquare by searching for Jeff Korhan.
I’m sold Jeff, or at least enough to try it out. But I think they stole the name…”foursquare”…I loved that game as a kid.
Look forward to your webinar on Engage365.
Dave – Thanks. Me too – I was pretty good at dodgeball and very good at foursquare.
They made a movie out of one, so maybe there is an opportunity there for the other?!
We’re already ramping up for the webinars, so look for some practical ideas.
Jeff
Jeff, I think it’s awesome that you are starting to think in these terms. One thing that I noticed that was incorrect was the sharing of the phone number and email. Foursquare has settings that you can use to protect your privacy, which includes hiding your phone and email. Also, I don’t think you’ve even scratched the surface of what can be accomplished with Foursquare at a conference. I’m trying to be a better pimper of myself, so here is my take: http://decillis.wordpress.com/2010/03/23/4squareconfs/. Once again, I am so glad this is starting to come up and thanks for sharing your take.
Betsy – I understand you can hide your phone and email, but I want it to be available to those people I do want to network with. That’s why I choose to instead be more selective with friending.
Thanks for sharing. This is a good point of clarification that allows for different Foursquare strategies. It’s a matter of how one decides to manage their risk and opportunities.
Jeff
Jeff – great ideas. I recently wrote about a similar approach – applying location based services to virtual events and virtual conferences.
You can read further here:
http://allvirtual.wordpress.com/2010/01/28/how-virtual-events-can-adopt-location-based-services/
-Dennis.
Dennis – Great ideas on your article.
Your comment on “not gaming the system” is especially valid.
For example, last night I was at my favorite sushi restaurant. I checked in and Foursquare said the mayor was there too. Well, it’s not a big place and unless he shaved off his beard – he was only there digitally!
Hmm..
Jeff
I really enjoyed the conversation and points made by everyone. Mobile apps that use other social media platforms such as Twitter or Facebook in conjunction with one another in a multi-tasking or aggregating capacity are what is really catching on. There are some great articles on networking and mobile applications at the NY Tech Summit site. Check them out under the Course tab and “Unified Communications”.