More than the mayor
At one time, four square meant four squares with a ball and a line of elementary school players stretching to the basketball court at recess. For many of us, those days are long gone — even eclipsed by this new social media fad “Foursquare.” Today, however, you can grab the best of both worlds.
All day today the Psychedelic Ponies, a team from Drake University’s social media class, are bringing Foursquare Day to campus.
“Right now, we see our friends checking in to every building on campus with no sense of purpose,” said Laura Wittren, a member of the team. “There is so much more the application can offer than just wildly checking in.”
Wittren says the purpose of the event is to change how people use the application. In order to be eligible for prizes, students have to add tips or photos to their check-ins to make their check-ins more useful to other people.
“Being a mayor of a building is only one aspect of it,” Wittren said. “Leaving tips and photos for places you check-in not only brings a personal touch to your check-in, but it also can help someone else who may want to try it. Over spring break, I was in California and almost exclusively used Foursquare when it came to choosing restaurants.”
Foursquare enables lots of interaction between individuals and businesses. Many businesses offer discounts for checking in. Mars Café is one such business. On Foursquare Friday, customers can check in to get discounts on their coffee and espresso.
For their piece of this nationwide day, the Ponies are encouraging everyone to check-in with pictures of their favorite professors or study spots and to tweet those check-ins as well. Each tweet tagged with #DU4sqDay puts the user in a drawing for Foursquare swag. Winners will be announced at the Agora starting at 2 p.m. where there will be music and a game of four square.
