I’m 50-plus checkins deep into my Foursquare career and I’ve realized my future as a mayor in the geo-location app is limited. Even though I’m relatively brand new to the game, it’s clear already that there’s only so many mayoral crowns that are within my reach.
The reason? My home office.
Yep. My choice to run a lean internet marketing consulting operation and work at home stifles my ability to become a prolific Foursquare mayor. No Super Mayor badge for me. Bummer.
A quick look at what constitutes a normal week for me backs up my theory:
- A bunch of hours at work (more later why I’m not going to checkin for work)
- Tons of phone calls / virtual meetings (can’t checkin to those) instead of heavy travel
- Lunch meetings (but most days I eat at the office)
- Face-to-face client meetings
- Admin-related trips: places I need to go to for the business. For example, my mailbox, bank, etc.
- Stuff for fun: running, eating out, going to the beach, playing golf
So if you look at my schedule, the only places I realistically have a chance to be mayor are the destinations for my admin trips because I visit each one a few times per week. In fact, right now those are the only places I’m mayor or have been mayor.
Why not my the mayor of my home office? I’m not ready to be that guy who adds his home office as a venue. That seems kind of weird to me. First, I wouldn’t want anyone else checking in – like a random neighbor. Second, isn’t that a cheap mayorship?
Moving down the list, fortunately or unfortunately, I don’t eat lunch outside the office at the same place enough to get a crown. And my face-to-face meetings are usually at coffee shops. There’s no way I’ll be mayor at any of those. Foursquare users flock to those places every day (if not more than once per day). The fact that I go for runs and not to the gym is another limitation. I wish I golfed enough to be mayor at a local course!
So I am announcing now to all of my current and future Foursquare friends: I have no intentions of becoming the Super Mayor I thought I could be. Don’t blame me. Blame my comfy desk in my office.
What are your thoughts? Why do you use Foursquare? Is it for the mayorships or the badges?
I hear that. Although I can become mayor of many places where I live because like 5 people know what foursquare is but I am still somewhat limited by working at home or not living
In that case there should be a way that you become more than a super mayor….like a governor or something. One of my next posts is going to be about things I would change about Foursquare to make it better.