FourSquare and other Social Media Peer Pressure

This post was inspired when reading an old friend from Twitter’s blog post today; Jeff Turner talking about how he felt he was using FourSquare just because “all of his friends were doing it”. Below was my response to him… which turned into a soap box that I thought I’d share with my friends on my blog. Thanks 4 listening to me rant. ?

FourSquare or not to FourSquare?

Or is it,

FourSquare and 365 days ago…

I didn’t delete FourSquare. FourSquare deleted me. Last year.

When they did some kind of update last year, I wasn’t able to log back in from my iPhone. (Who knew what email I originally used to sign up for FourSquare?!) So I just gave up and deleted the App from my phone. Why waste the space, right?

But then this past SXSW in Austin, I reinstalled the App and simply created a NEW FourSquare account. Despite my friend Dan Larsen’s horrified look when he gasped, “But then you’re gonna lose all your badges!” I didn’t care about the badges. I just wanted to be updated with alerts every time my friends checked in to a cool restaurant in town that week. FourSquare is one of the best apps (in my opinion) to help me do just that. Keep up with all my friends and the cool parties and booths they were attending – at that moment. FourSquare was a great way to catch up with many of my social media friends at SXSWi who I hadn’t seen in a long time. Probably not since the last SXSW event I went to or Blog World.

Will I keep using it?

I dunno.

Maybe?

The one reason that motivates me to keep using FourSquare (besides the discounts you get for checking in to restaurants and pubs in town) is that I just moved to a new city. And since FourSquare helped me make new friends when I moved to San Diego a few years ago, I figure it’ll help me do the same now that I’m living in downtown Austin, in the warehouse district.

FourSquare will help me get out and about and meetup with friends when they’re checking in downtown. Since all I need to do is step out of my building and take a quick walk to meet them for a cup of java, or taco, it’ll prevent me from being a hermit and help me get out of my apt every once in a while.

(At the moment, I’m locked up in my apt overlooking the city, still in the same Pinks I put on Monday nite when I started pulling all niters like the vampires that I am. Yeah, I stink. No, I haven’t showered either. Yes, this is probably TMI for some. But No, I don’t care anymore. It’s how I work and get major projects done. Showering is my reward for a project completed. This week, this new blog was one of my major projects. It’s almost done… and since I’m blogging on it… it’s time for my reward. It’s Shower Time!

OH! And as for Jeff’s original question re: whether or not I use apps and other social media channels, “Just because all my friends are doing it”… well… there are definetly channels I’ve resisted in the past for just that reason. I’ve certainly resisted jumping on a variety of other “trends” and social media bandwagons that didn’t pan out, just because “everybody was talking about it”… for the moment. Afterall, who has time to engage in all of the social media channels anyway?

Answer: Not I.

Thanks 4 inspiring me Jeff! As Always. Here’s to removing the filters that sometimes prevents us from blogging for fear of what others may say. And welcome to my NEW Blog, where I promise to be Raw, Real and 100% Natural. Hey! I’m in Austin, afterall. Everything’s Green and Organic here.

@CoachDeb

Social Media Strategist