I’ve written about foursquare here before from a business perspective and how it could be used as a tool to improve customer loyalty. But today’s post is purely from a personal point of view. My name is Wanda and I am a foursquare user.

It all happened innocently enough really. Keeping up with new technologies and trends is part of the gig. I figured I should start using foursquare to learn more about it and experience it from the point of view of a consumer. It wasn’t onerous - a simple tap on my iPhone would associate me with a particular location or business. I told myself I’d try it for a couple of weeks to see what the deal was.

foursquare basically runs on an honor system – you check into those places where you are physically located to earn points, badges and for the lucky few Mayor rewards. Sure there are some unscrupulous people, colleagues in fact, who assume that leaving their desk to go to the coffee machine earns them the right to check back in once they return to their desk. (You know who you are, and the Cactus Commerce Mayorship is still mine :-). But I digress… 

Then in my ‘experiment’, I started seeing a few names appear as Mayors of my local haunts. For instance, Constantine Z, you’re probably a swell guy, but that’s MY Starbucks! And then it happened… without me knowing it, I became a real user. Proof? We have complementary coffee at work, sure it can be a bit dodgy at times, but the lattes and espressos are usually safe bets. But hey Starbucks is right on my way into work, so why not pick up a coffee and check into foursquare while I’m there. Today (after numerous check-ins) I became Mayor of my local Starbucks! And yes, the coffee did taste particularly more flavorful this morning. My reward for becoming the Mayor of my local Starbucks?  $1 off a Frappuccino.

Even as I’m writing this, I know it may sound ridiculous, but using foursquare made me an even MORE loyal Starbucks customer. It will probably be a fleeting honor as I already feel Constantine Z breathing down my neck.

So there it is… a confession from a foursquare user. It’s okay to come out of the shadows.  Leave me a note about your foursquare story.