Foursquare Day
Encyclopedia
Foursquare Day is a global social media
holiday that was first observed on April 16, 2010 in hundreds of cities around the world. On March 26, 2010 the New York City
location-based service
startup, Foursquare
, officially declared April 16 "Foursquare Day" after a grass-roots movement that began in Tampa, Florida
gained traction and eventually spread to hundreds of cities throughout the world.
Bonilla-Warford was “thinking about new ways to promote his business” when he came up with the idea. However, Bonilla-Warford decided to post his idea on the official Foursquare support page at GetSatisfaction.com
to see if the idea would gain any traction. Approximately one week passed without any response to the idea, but on March 20, 2010 another Foursquare user by the name of Kenneth Glanton noticed Bonilla-Warford’s post. Glanton responded to the idea with a post of his own that read, “Brilliant- and they should make a foursquare badge to commemorate the day.”
It did not take long for Nate Bonilla-Warford and Kenneth Glanton to begin recruiting friends and colleagues to join the grassroots
project as well as use the power of social media to spread the word about this new idea “Foursquare Day.” After a few weeks of broadcasting this idea on social media sites such as Twitter
and Facebook
, Bonilla-Warford and his team started to attract attention from local newspapers and TV stations in the Tampa area. In order to bring this idea to a global scale, Bonilla-Warford asked those who were participating in the Foursquare Day project to use the Twitter hashtag “#4sqday” when sending out tweets that mentioned the day.
On March 23, 2010 Laura Petrolino joined the project and started the Foursquare Day Facebook Fan Page in hopes of attracting Foursquare users all over the world. Petrolino also wrote an article on her blog that was geared toward local businesses in Tampa explaining how they would benefit if they participated in Foursquare Day. Shortly following Petrolino’s blog post, Creative Loafing
wrote their own article about why Tampa businesses should celebrate Foursquare Day.
On March 25, 2010, Bonilla-Warford met a person by the name of Jessica Barnett at a social media luncheon. There they discussed contacting Foursquare about designing a special Foursquare Day badge. At this point there was no official announcement made by the New York City startup that Foursquare Day was officially backed by the company. Jessica contacted Foursquare via a tweet on Twitter asking the company if they would consider designing a Foursquare Day badge. The following day, Foursquare responded to the request with an official announcement on Twitter that declared April 16 Foursquare Day. Foursquare's announcement brought even more attention to Foursquare Day, but this time on a much bigger scale.
reported that there was a "33% increase in foot traffic" to McDonald's venues, as apparent in the increase in Foursquare check-ins.
Social media
The term Social Media refers to the use of web-based and mobile technologies to turn communication into an interactive dialogue. Andreas Kaplan and Michael Haenlein define social media as "a group of Internet-based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0,...
holiday that was first observed on April 16, 2010 in hundreds of cities around the world. On March 26, 2010 the New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
location-based service
Location-based service
A Location-Based Service is an information or entertainment service, accessible with mobile devices through the mobile network and utilizing the ability to make use of the geographical position of the mobile device....
startup, Foursquare
Foursquare (service)
Foursquare, stylized as foursquare, is a location-based social networking website for mobile devices, such as smartphones. Users "check-in" at venues using a mobile website, text messaging or a device-specific application by selecting from a list of venues the application locates nearby...
, officially declared April 16 "Foursquare Day" after a grass-roots movement that began in Tampa, Florida
Tampa, Florida
Tampa is a city in the U.S. state of Florida. It serves as the county seat for Hillsborough County. Tampa is located on the west coast of Florida. The population of Tampa in 2010 was 335,709....
gained traction and eventually spread to hundreds of cities throughout the world.
History
Foursquare Day was coined by Nate Bonilla-Warford, an optometrist from Tampa, Florida on March 12, 2010. The idea of Foursquare Day came to Bonilla-Warford after thinking about a simple calculation, 4^2 = 16. Since 4 squared equals 16, Bonilla-Warford came up with the idea to check-in to Foursquare on the 4th month and 16th day of the year, hence April 16.Bonilla-Warford was “thinking about new ways to promote his business” when he came up with the idea. However, Bonilla-Warford decided to post his idea on the official Foursquare support page at GetSatisfaction.com
Get Satisfaction
Get Satisfaction is a customer community software platform for technical support based in San Francisco, California, United States. It was founded on January 31, 2007 by several people, including Lane Becker, Amy Muller, Thor Muller, and Jonathan Grubb. It publicly launched in September 2007. The...
to see if the idea would gain any traction. Approximately one week passed without any response to the idea, but on March 20, 2010 another Foursquare user by the name of Kenneth Glanton noticed Bonilla-Warford’s post. Glanton responded to the idea with a post of his own that read, “Brilliant- and they should make a foursquare badge to commemorate the day.”
It did not take long for Nate Bonilla-Warford and Kenneth Glanton to begin recruiting friends and colleagues to join the grassroots
Grassroots
A grassroots movement is one driven by the politics of a community. The term implies that the creation of the movement and the group supporting it are natural and spontaneous, highlighting the differences between this and a movement that is orchestrated by traditional power structures...
project as well as use the power of social media to spread the word about this new idea “Foursquare Day.” After a few weeks of broadcasting this idea on social media sites such as Twitter
Twitter
Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...
and Facebook
Facebook
Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...
, Bonilla-Warford and his team started to attract attention from local newspapers and TV stations in the Tampa area. In order to bring this idea to a global scale, Bonilla-Warford asked those who were participating in the Foursquare Day project to use the Twitter hashtag “#4sqday” when sending out tweets that mentioned the day.
On March 23, 2010 Laura Petrolino joined the project and started the Foursquare Day Facebook Fan Page in hopes of attracting Foursquare users all over the world. Petrolino also wrote an article on her blog that was geared toward local businesses in Tampa explaining how they would benefit if they participated in Foursquare Day. Shortly following Petrolino’s blog post, Creative Loafing
Creative Loafing
CL Inc. is the Tampa, Florida-based publisher of three city newsweeklies and their associated websites. Each of the papers focuses on local news, politics, arts and entertainment, and restaurants...
wrote their own article about why Tampa businesses should celebrate Foursquare Day.
On March 25, 2010, Bonilla-Warford met a person by the name of Jessica Barnett at a social media luncheon. There they discussed contacting Foursquare about designing a special Foursquare Day badge. At this point there was no official announcement made by the New York City startup that Foursquare Day was officially backed by the company. Jessica contacted Foursquare via a tweet on Twitter asking the company if they would consider designing a Foursquare Day badge. The following day, Foursquare responded to the request with an official announcement on Twitter that declared April 16 Foursquare Day. Foursquare's announcement brought even more attention to Foursquare Day, but this time on a much bigger scale.
Foursquare Day and Social Media Marketing
In 2010 fast food giant McDonald's launched a spring pilot program that took advantage of Foursquare Day. Foursquare users who "checked-in" to McDonald's restaurants on Foursquare Day were given the chance to win gift cards in 5 and 10 dollar increments. MashableMashable
Mashable is an American news website and Internet news blog founded by Pete Cashmore. The website's primary focus is social media news, but also covers news and developments in mobile, entertainment, online video, business, web development, technology, memes and gadgets...
reported that there was a "33% increase in foot traffic" to McDonald's venues, as apparent in the increase in Foursquare check-ins.