Foursquare

Abstract

More and more, health education specialists are integrating technology into their work. Whereas most are familiar with social media sites like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, one relatively new form of social media, location based services (LBS), may be less familiar. Developed in 2000, LBS are software applications that are accessible from a mobile device. LBS use global positioning system (GPS) technology to identify a user's exact location. (1) Once located, users can query useful information such as closest fitness facility or their favorite coffee shop. Although LBS have been available for over 10 years, release of Apple's iPhone and Google's Android operating systems opened door to LBS for millions of consumers. (2) Major players in LBS include Gowalla, Facebook Places, and Loopt; however, foursquare dominates. In fact, in 2010, foursquare experienced a 3400% user increase by signing up their six millionth user and logged more than 381 million including one from International Space Station. (3) Foursquare, like other Web 2.0 technologies, is a social interaction platform and a powerful marketing tool for businesses. In addition to being flee, businesses that claim their venues on foursquare have access to real time statistics of their patrons' gender, number of check-ins, time of check-ins and portion of check-ins shared on Twitter and Facebook. (4) Businesses can also offer specials and badges when patrons check-in, enticing new customers to visit and offering virtual incentives to those who return. Although originally designed for businesses such as libraries, museums, restaurants and shoe stores, (5) health education professionals have taken notice of these features and are also tapping into foursquare's potential. Foursquare's health-related debut occurred in 2009 when Music Television (MTV), in partnership with Kaiser Family Foundation, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and others, sponsored MTV's Get Yourself Tested (GYT) campaign. Foursquare users who got tested for STIs, checked in at a facility and commented GYT, received MTV GYT badge and virtually reduced stigma around STI testing. (6,7) Foursquare also partnered with CNN's Eatocracy program encouraging visits to one of 10,000 USDA recognized farmers' markets around U.S. and earning users CNN Eater badge. (8) More recently, Runkeeper, an online management system for fitness activities, connected with foursquare, enabling users to link their Runkeeper accounts with foursquare to earn 5K and Marathon badges. (9) Additionally, foursquare supports a World AIDS Day (10) American Red Cross Giving Blood badge, Gym Rat (12) and Downward Facing Dog yoga (13) all of which raise awareness and encourage positive health behaviors. Despite plethora of health-related foursquare references, none are from peer-reviewed articles. The paucity of peer-reviewed articles is unfortunate given 25 million people were using smartphones in December 2009, with an anticipated increase to 100 million by 2013. (14) In addition, more than three-fourths of Internet experts believe that the mobile phone [will] be 'the primary connection tool' for most people in world by 2020?' (14) (pp 187-188) Correspondingly, 2008 fourth-quarter report from Nielsen Mobile cites that location-based services account for 58% of total downloaded application revenue for mobile phones in North America. (2) Further, proposed Healthy People 2020 Health Information and Technology Objectives 5.1 and 6.3, aim to increase proportion of persons who use Internet to keep track of personal health information and increase proportion of persons who use mobile devices, respectively. (15) These trends urge health education specialists to capitalize on potential of mobile and web-based technologies. One way to do this is to learn more about foursquare, how it works and how it is best used in health education practice. …