Checking in

I just recently created an account on Foursquare. How recently? Just this past weekend!

My lack of presence on Foursquare is largely due to the fact that when it launched way back in 2009, my home city of Perth was not available as a location. As a result I didn’t bother with it, and then continued to not bother.

I’m only checking it out now for the 23 Mobile Things. (What does this say about social media adoption? If you try and it doesn’t work at the time, for whatever reason, you’re unlikely to try again, unless you can be persuaded to?)

I can see that like any social media service, Foursquare has two major possibilities:

1. you get completely sucked in to the thrill of checking in and earning badges and what not; or
2. you struggle to integrate it into your routine and find it hard to develop the habit of checking in (this is especially true if you already use other soc med; it can be hard to add yet another thing to the day)

The benefits of getting into it so late? Many of my friends are already there, so actually establishing a network there is relatively simple. The hype has died down. The etiquette around using the service is clear and easy to learn. (I don’t think I will post my locations to Twitter.)

Disadvantages? The hype has died down. Don’t underestimate the enjoyment of learning about a new tool with many others. When you join something late, the early adopters may have forgotten any difficulties they experienced when they first joined.

Not sure how I’ll go with Foursquare but it should be interesting, nonetheless.