As Social Media Week comes to a close, it's likely you may be wondering how to step up your social networking footprint. And if you're anything like Foursquare co-founder Dennis Crowley, you're already a few steps ahead of the game. But Crowley isn't just the technical brains behind a mobile application, he's also a man on the town -- taking to the streets of New York City, one checkin at a time.
What did you do last night? Left work at 6 to meet Rachelle from Guest of a Guest for a drink at Ace Hotel. Was super packed, so we took a cab downtown to the Scratcher (across from our office). Met up with my girlfriend and six other friends, dragged three of them to dinner across the street (Korean BBQ). Caught a cab to East Village and went to Cabin Down Below. Drank some B-list whiskey, Met up with another group of friends and called it quits around 1a.m.
Any fun plans for tonight &/or the weekend? Obliterati at R Bar tonight (Social Media Week!) and then who knows what. That's what Foursquare is for! The weekend equals co-founder Naveen having a birthday [prom] party on Saturday night and hosting a Super Bowl party on Sunday.
What has been your favorite nightlife encounter? The spontaneous nights out are the best ones. Something that starts with Just One Drink on a random Tuesday night and ends up with 20 people singing karaoke four hours later. Foursquare is pretty good at making things like this happen.
So what is Foursquare exactly? We're trying to make things that make cities easier to use and more interesting to explore. Foursquare is part friend-finder and part smarter city guide. We can tell you where to find your friends, tell you about the places to go to and suggest specific things you should experience around the city.
We've also created a game build around exploring places. You earn points and unlock badges for doing interesting things and exploring new places. You can be crowned "the mayor" of a place by checking in more than anyone else. And we're starting to see lots of venues getting involved as well -- offering free coffee, pizza, appetizers, etc., -- to the users with the most check-ins.
