Foursquare: How to Become the Mayor of a Venue

Foursquare is a new, location-based social networking service that is becoming very popular in the United States. Basically, Foursquare allows you to "check-in" from businesses and other venues as you're out and about, and your Foursquare friends (and Facebook & Twitter friends, if you choose) will be able to see where you are and comment on your location. Foursquare also incorporates a gaming element, allowing you to earn special awards and badges based on where you check-in, when you check-in, and the frequency of your check-ins.

One of the coolest awards on Foursquare, in my opinion, is becoming "the mayor" of a particular venue. A mayor on Foursquare means that particular person has checked in at a given location more than any other Foursquare user. For example, if you visit your local Starbucks frequently, you could check-in on your visits and become "the mayor" of your Starbucks store. Increasingly, businesses are offering "mayor specials" and offer all sorts of goodies like free coffee, free meals, discount concert tickets, etc. But, there are a few things you'll need to know in order to become the Foursquare mayor of a particular venue.

How do you become a mayor on Foursquare? First, you must have a picture uploaded to your Foursquare profile. You will not be able to become a mayor without a profile picture uploaded, so take care of that if you haven't already. Now, you'll just need to start checking-in at your favorite business whenever you visit. You can check-in at a venue as many times per day as you want, but only the first check-in each day is counted towards your status as Foursquare mayor. Once you have checked-in at a venue more than anyone else (but at least twice), you will be granted "mayor" status and this will appear on your Foursquare profile. You can become mayor of as many different venues as you want. If someone else is already a mayor of a venue on Foursquare, you can find the details page for the venue on the Foursquare site and hover over the mayor's picture with your mouse to see how many times you'll need to check-in in order to get rid of the current mayor and become the new one.

By following these simple steps, you'll be on your way to becoming the Foursquare mayor of your favorite venue in no time. Location-based social networks like Foursquare and Gowalla were all the buzz at this years South by Southwest (SXSW) technology conference. Anyone with a location-aware (GPS enabled) cell phone can use these services, and downloading the apps are free (although you must have a data plan on your phone to use them). For more information about Foursquare, check out their website listed in the resources section of this article.