I went to the town fair with my wife and kids last night, and there were a total of three Foursquare check-ins: myself, my wife, and one other person. I’m certain most of those kids at the fair had cell phones with browsing, so why aren’t they using Foursquare? Even if their parents didn’t want them to, that would be just more motivation to do it.
So I have to wonder, is generation Z into it at all? According to ignite Social Media only 8% of FourSquare users are under 25. Does that mean doom for FourSquare?
Well, here are some of my thoughts based on using FourSquare for quite some time now:
- I’ve now proven I don’t get out enough. The only place I can really hold up as mayor is my office.
- My iPhone 3G is awful since I’ve upgraded to iOS 4, and I lose my patience trying to check-in.
- That’s if I even remember to check-in. After months of this, it’s still not a habit.
- I like knowing when my friends are on my train…great for meeting up.
- There are times you simply should not check-in. Be careful not to do it anyway out of habit. This is not such a problem for me.
- WeePlaces is by far the coolest app tied to FourSquare. Follow my travels on a map and timeline!
- Foursquare spreads virally. I easily have 10-20 friends that have added foursquare after I showed it to them…and they actually use it. And I’m sure they’ve passed it on as well.
- I still don’t know why I use Foursquare. But I keep using it anyway.
- I went to the town fair last night and there were a total of three check-ins.
A couple of thoughts:
1. For Gen Z, I think the price-point for smart phones is still too high. It will be interesting to see what happens after the holidays this year with $99 and up smartphones filling the marketing.
2. I think your Town Fair test case (especially on a Thursday night) may not be the best use case to judge by.
3. You should also side-by-side with other location based/check in services (Loopt, Gowalla etc). FourSquare is not yet the kind of the whole domain.
@esd714 Good points re: Gen Z.
Re: Thursday night, though, there were a lot of people there, and a ton of kids. It is the summer.
Re: other services, also a good point, although I’m not seeing many check-ins on these other services out on Long Island. Are you seeing something different?