Exploring Local Coffee On Foursquare Leads To BJava In Indy

I love foursquare. I also love coffee. Combine the two by searching for coffee in the “explore tab” for some serendipitous delight. Foursquare also recognizes my caffeinated curiosity as a “Level 7 – Fresh Brew Badge”.

The other Saturday, I did just that. This exploration led me to BJava Coffee. To be fair, I had heard of BJava from Dig-IN: A Taste of Indiana and some other events, but I had never stepped foot into their location. I also had the incentive to unlock their special for $.50 off a latte. Turns out, I unlocked more than that.

I had a nice chat with the owner, BJ, who admits to using any sort of free promotion she can to market her business. Foursquare and Yelp are just a couple of sites where she offers online specials. After finishing my latte, I met Chris – BJava’s foursquare Mayor and the Duchess on Yelp. There’s something charming abut local businesses. A more personal connection than you might find at the Starbucks at the other end of this strip mall on 56th and Lafayette Rd.

Clever Coffee Dripper - Click to learn more

Before leaving I also made the investment of a bag of Honduran coffee beans and a Clever Coffee Dripper (which brews a better cup of coffee than my trusty french press… yup, I said it).

It is a pretty awesome contraption!

More incentive to try them out? A coupon to get $10 worth of BJava Coffee for $5! Hurry, supplies are limited and this offer lasts for 6 days via GreenClipping.

Where are your favorite, local coffee spots in Indianapolis? Leave a comment below and we’ll add those venues to a list on our 4sqINDY foursquare account!

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Trick or Treat?! New foursquare badges for Halloween

Foursquare is dishing out a treat for Halloween (and hopefully no tricks!).

First, you can start unlocking the Halloween 2011 badge by checking in and shouting “Happy Halloween!”.

There’s also a 2011 edition of the Spooky Swarm badge that is set to unlock with checkins at venues that are swarming through Halloween. I’m thinking we should all hit up the Irvington Halloween parade at 4p.m. on Saturday to support a great local event.

Thanks to the DoItIndy guys for featuring that as the top urban event of week.

PS – Just checked into the Sugarland concert at Conseco Fieldhouse and the Spooky Swarm badge didn’t unlock yet. Will keep you posted!

UPDATE: 10-29 @ 1pm: Foursquare announced that the Spooky Swarm badge will be available starting tonight at 9p.


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How do the foursquare employees stack up on foursquare?

I found myself sitting at the foursquare homepage looking at the list of people I follow and noticed three of the 4Sq Staff I follow checked into their NYC HeadQuarters venue.
foursquare HQ
I clicked through to the venue with the intent to marvel at the billions of check-ins at the home of foursquare (14,487 check-ins). What struck me was the 85 people listed as staff on their venue, it makes sense as they all are staff at foursquare.
foursquare Staff
I then started thinking “with such an easy access list of all the people that work at foursquare, I wonder how they stack up against each other?” Here are my findings (data dated July 20, 2011*):

Average of all employees:
Days Out: 413 Check-Ins: 1332 Things Done: 109 Badges: 43 Mayorships: 4 Friends: 148 Followers (0s not included): 891 Following: 29

Other interesting tidbits:
Twenty-One staff have followers, Sixty-Four do not (aka Celebrity account). Only three people don’t have any tips (This includes Squarebot, who is clearly a bot and probably doesn’t have much of an opinion to share). Eleven 4Sq’ers have not linked their account to Twitter or Facebook, Two have their account linked with only Facebook, Thirteen linked with only Twitter, and the remaining Fifty-Nine link both Twitter and Facebook. Sixteen staff have Zero Mayorships.

Top Performers:
Dens leads in total Days Out (1801) and Followers (6510)
Naveen leads in Things Done (999) and Friends (570)
Nate F. leads in Check-Ins (5194) and Mayorships (36)
Holger L. leads in Following pages (145)
Mike S. is the Badge Champion with 99

 

I also plucked a tip from each staffer’s most popular tips… here’s a sprinkling of some of my favorites.
Dens Dens shares Iron Works BBQ “Yeah, I know it’s packed but you gotta get the steak with the butter sauce (shit, what kind of sauce was it?) and the side of mac and cheese. Bananatown delicious.”
Naveen Naveen highlights Happy Ending with this quip “go downstairs. there’s no cell service = the best thing in the world. hide from everyone. get lost. get your friend to DJ. dance. take lots of great pictures. lose track of time. stumble out. 3:52 AM.”
harryh harryh likes 151 “The best dimly lit, rock-and-roll, everyone is getting wasted, basement bar in nyc. Bring a posse, snag the back corner with the bead”
Alex R. Alex R. fills us in on Palo Santo “I highly recommend going double porky: start with the pork belly tacos (homemade tortillas + guacamole are slamming) and end with the Heritage pork. Oink!”
J Crowley J Crowley loves Fragole “Bolognese is a must. Some of the best I’ve ever had. Get a quartino of multipulciano too. Parpadelle with short rib ragu is a close second.”
Tristan Tristan has this to say about Peels “my favorite place in the city. Here’s what you need to do. 1) order the shrimp + grits (wow!), 2) order the La Chouffe beer (seasonal and awesome), 3) build a biscuit (bacon + pepperjack). Game over!”
Anna F. Anna F. bring some international knowledge to the states with her tip at The Summit Bar “As a native Russian, I give you my word that Russian Standard vodka is the best. If you like cucumbers and lime juice, get the Charmaine Star. You’re welcome.”
Sam B. Sam B. helps us find our way, on the cheap, at Livingston South Railway Station (LVG) “Looking for the Livingston Shopping Centre? Grab the 404 bus from the station every half an hour, normally costs £1 but free if you just got off the train!”
Jeff H. Jeff H. verifies the authenticity of Joe’s Ginger “Try shanghai thick noodle stirfry, YES! (Recommended a guy grew up from shanghai). Be aware of the only lady staff at the cash counter tho, very impatient!”
Akshay P. Akshay P. tips off the brewhounds at Amsterdam Ale House “Surprisingly good selection of local seasonal brews. Order up a $6 glass of something 10%+ abv and feel just a bit smug about finding this place.”
David B. David B. reflects on his childhood at House Of Air Trampoline Park “This place is so rad! I wish I had something like this growing up. I’d be throwing corked 540′s left and right on the hill. An hour on the trampoline will get you in shape for the snow for realz.”

 

 

*Except for the 4 new staff that appeared after July 20, 2011: Coby B, Steve T, Eric Z, and Simon F; their data is dated Aug 3, 2011.

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How To Use Foursquare to Bolster Your Blog Presentation At #BIN2011

Headed to BlogIndiana? Check out this session presented by 4sqIndy’s Andy Huston.
AndySAMADAMSHow To Use Foursquare To Bolster Your Blog 

Andy Huston
@hust0058

Friday, August 12th at 3:30 PM

Session Type: IntermediateTags:

 

Beyond the check-in, learn the strategies you can use to build awareness of your blog with foursquare and engage with your readers when they are checking in.

Learn 5 strategies, illustrated by real examples, that will help your blog connect with new users and build a more loyal fan base. We’ll also share several examples of how you can connect and embed pieces of foursquare into your blog.

Will you be at BlogIndiana? There’s still time to register at blogindiana.com.

Have a preemptive question? Leave it in the comments below. Andy will be sure to address these and others from #BIN2011. Check back after the BlogIndiana Conference for some of his top foursquare tips for bloggers.

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I Want That Badge: Harry Potter

Harry Potter fans are in for a treat. In addition to getting dressed up in their maroon and gold for Gryffindor, Potter fans going to the movie will magically unlock a new foursquare badge!

Check in tonight at any movie theater and shout “Harry Potter” to unlock the badge!

What do you think of this badge? You know “He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named” is not impressed.

 

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From Check-in to Check-out: Video with Foursquare Founder

We just came across this YouTube video Q&A with Dennis Crowley, foursquare’s founder. Dennis adds some good, recent insights into the foursquare platform, foursquare’s growth, foursquare content and how brands are using foursquare.

What questions would you ask if you had 3 minutes and 24 seconds with foursquare’s team?

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10 Ways Organizations Can Maximize Foursquare Tips

This post originally appeared on Andy’s blog: Social Media for Social Organizations.

Foursquare is my favorite social network because it intersects with location. Nonprofits, associations, and social organizations can extend the reach of their organization by using foursquare’s tips that are left at venues. When a user checks in to a venue, a tip from that venue will appear in the app. Tips are a growing component of foursquare - accentuated by the new “Explore” tab.

Tips can be created online at foursquare.com or in the mobile app.

Organizations can maximize their presence on foursquare with these tips about tips:

  1. Blend information about the venue and your organization (Stay relevant!)
  2. Share something insightful or interesting or amusing… [NWF Example]
  3. Be “evergreen” – a tip that won’t have an expiration date
  4. Think “do-able” to inspire users to mark “I’ve done this”
  5. Leave tips at venues that relate to your target audience
  6. Add a link back to a related blog post on your site [DigIN Example]
  7. Include a picture with your tip
  8. Embed foursquare tips on your website [VisitPA example]
  9. Promote your tips on Facebook / Twitter
  10. Thank users for completing your tip (new notifications in the app or by email)
  11. Bonus: Run a campaign to drive users to complete your tips during a certain time period.
What else would you like to see from organizations on foursquare?

 

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I Want That Badge: Vinyl

How to get: Check into venues categorized as a record store 10 times

Unlock text: ♫ “You spin me right round, baby, right round. Like a record, baby, round round round round.” ♫ Congrats on finding one of the last record stores in the world!

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Linking foursquare with Facebook Profile

As many know, foursquare allows its users to link their Twitter and Facebook profiles. For many, this feature is great; these users like the option to share check-ins on these two major networks. Personally, I have both (Twitter and Facebook) linked to my foursquare profile, but I have heard a number of people experience an issue with their Facebook link. Some users have had their Facebook profile connected for some time, and the share functionality was working very well since the day they linked the two profiles together, but many have found that the link somehow became broken. In these cases, a foursquare user would check-in somewhere with the Facebook share option engaged and think he or she was successfully pushing that check-in to his/her Facebook profile. Later, he or she would look back at the Facebook profile to find nothing posted. Many savvy foursquare users would then check their settings to make sure that everything looked right, and many of them would notice that the connection seemed to be working. So, why wasn’t it posting correctly? Well, I am not sure if it was an issue with the Facebook profile, with the foursquare profile, or a combination of the two, but I have a simple way to fix this issue. To resolve this issue, I have found the following steps to be successful:

1. Using your desktop browser of choice, log into your Facebook profile

2. Using a new browser tab, log into your foursquare profile

3. Click on the Settings link (located in the upper right side of foursquare profile page)

foursquare settings link

4. Once on the setting page, scroll down to the Linked Accounts section

foursquare linked accounts

5. Click on the “change” link that appears under the Linked To [your Facebook Profile name] area

6. Click the “UNLINK YOUR FACEBOOK ACCOUNT” link

unlink Facebook from foursquare

7. Finally, reconnect your Facebook profile in the same way you did long ago (accepting all Facebook sharing permission requests)

Essentially, this refreshes your connection, and your next check-in share should work just fine. Of course, I highly recommend that you give it a try as soon as you can so you know that it is working. For example, if you check-in at your home, go ahead and share it on Facebook. If the check-in works, you can always go back and delete that Facebook update in your newsfeed. Well, I hope that helps. As always, keep those foursquare questions coming; let us at Foursquare Help know if this solution worked for you!

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A New Era For 4SqCHAT

4SqCHAT has gone unchanged since July 26 of last year, but with all great things come change. With WTHashtag stopping transcript support, we knew we had to look for another option to be able to provide you with the level of service you have grown to expect from the 4SqINDY / 4SqCHAT team.  In July, we never thought that the 4SqCHAT would be so well received . We’ve had you chatting from all over the world and have only tapped just Twitter users. We all know that some of the most loyal foursquare users don’t have a Twitter account, but they’re on FaceBook and LinkedIn.

This Monday we will be opening the chat to everyone regardless of what social platform they choose to use. Your tweets will still fill your timeline, and the hashtag will be searchable via Twitter as well, but if you don’t have a Twitter account you can still have a voice. With Stanzr we’ll also have the opportunity to achieve transcripts in a way that has never been seen before. Not only will you be able to sign in with any of the major social media platforms, and your tweets will still still show up on your timeline, but you’ll be able to read the transcript like a book with the questions being the chapters.

What we need from you is to head over to http://stanzr.com/4sqchat and sign up so you’re ready to chat with us on Monday night at 9pm EST. While you’re there, you’ll see the topic for our Monday night chat as well! See you soon!

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