One of the best things about Foursquare – communities are growing worldwide and local groups are creating amazing initiatives. Today, I’ll try to describe Latvia in foursquare briefly.
If someone would ask me to describe Latvia as an material, I would say – amber; if as a taste – a slightly bitter taste of a homemade beer. If color – all the autumn colors; but if the description would involve places worth to visit I would undoubtly reach to my mobile and press the Explore button in foursquare app.
If you are looking to Latvia on the map – zoom in – it’s a small country near the Baltic Sea. And we have around 7125 foursquare users here, which in comparison with 10+ million of foursquare fans worldwide also could sound not quite impressive.
Despite the numbers – you can feel the energy inside those who dedicate time to foursquare not only a SU team here, but also creators of local (and for this moment – international) stats tool – 4sqstatistics.com. That’s an analytics resource developed from 4sq.lv, a project seen by @dens and spotted also by @aboutfoursquare last year.
We had our first swarm party and fun events. Local mobile carrier held a new shop opening as a swarm party last year. There was also a badge hunting party held by a bus line on a Foursquare day. Just recently, I was happy to see that we have successfully moved over simple swarms – few well attended musical events acquire swarm badges in no-time.
Brands – ‘what about them’– you would ask? Frankly speaking, there are some interesting projects from the brands. The most valued is LiveRiga (https://foursquare.com/liveriga) – a tourist information service. They are giving tips and insights about the places worth visiting here in Latvia. Some of the national brands are experimenting with foursquare but as always, the most effective and agile are small businesses. These small businesses have learned the most precious is the possibility to build up brand loyalty among consumers.
As an answer from community, were sounds of lists covering happy hour specials, great outdoor places and memorable party experiences.
I do not want sound like an annoying sales agent, but you should plan your journeys to Latvia – enjoy the wild nature, great food and lots of places to check in!.
– Mareks (@marruciic)
OK swarming people! We want to see you party! Send in your links and we’ll post them!
OFFICIAL TAMPA SWARM HQ Stream: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/4sqday
Cabaret West Glen in West Des Moines, Iowa: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/cabaret-west-glen-foursquare-day-swarm-party
PS: Want to embed our stream? Use this:
http://ahref=<a href=”http://www.ustream.tv/live” style=”padding: 2px 0px 4px; width: 400px; background: #ffffff; display: block; color: #000000; font-weight: normal; font-size: 10px; text-decoration: underline; text-align: center;” target=”_blank”>Live TV : Ustream</a>
OK, so you’ve read all about Foursquare Day and you are excited to take part in the first global social media holiday. Now what? The Community Guide includes some great suggestions on spending your Foursquare Day in your neighborhood. But perhaps something is missing. Maybe you want to go all the way. Maybe you should take the next step and host a Foursquare Day swarm!
Take this simple quiz to find out if organizing a swarm is right for you:
- Do you use social media?
- Are you a social media rock-star guru expert?
- Do you know what foursquare is?
- Do you have a swarm badge?
- Do you currently have money to burn?
- Is there a swarm scheduled in your city or town?
Scoring: If you answered “yes” to question #6, then it is recommended that you attend that scheduled swarm. No need for competing swarms. If you answered “no” to question #6, then you should definitely organize a swarm! If this is the case DON’T WORRY, there is plenty of time to get things done. But don’t procrastinate. (Note: Items 1 through 5 do not count in scoring.)
If you are organizing a swarm, here are some helpful suggestions:
Venue
Ideally you would want a place that is familiar with foursquare already, because they will already know the benefits and will be much easier to work with. Look at the venues in your town and see which place is offering mayor specials and which places have a lot of check-ins already. The swarm could be held almost anywhere: a park, a museum, a club, a restaurant. Here in Tampa, we have chosen the Hyatt Regency because it is big, downtown, nice, and they reached out to us wanting to host the swarm.
Time
Many swarms around the world are scheduled during the evening. It is a Friday and since Foursquare Day is not yet a federal holiday, many people will be working. Some communities have suggested a break swarm or lunch swarm. Reach out to your potential attendees and see what they are most interested in.
Money
Organizing a swarm can be free or very expensive, depending on what you want to do. If you have a swarm potluck picnic, then it should cost almost nothing. When you talk with the venue, try to get a good deal. If your venue is not familiar with foursquare, you may have to do a little educating for them to realize what an amazing opportunity this is for them. The whole point is to get together and check in to tell everyone where you are. Help them understand that it is in their best interest to make you a very good offer, such as a first drink free with check in.
Reach Out
Utilize every network you have, online or in real life, to get the word out. Take advantage of meetup and tweetup groups. Get the word out on all the social networks that your community uses. Many communities have created Facebook pages like Machester, NH has done. Some larger communities, like Atlanta, have created stand-alone websites. While we recommend keeping the #4sqday hashtag, you may want to additionally use your own to help find each other’s tweets.
Internet Access
Be sure that your swarm has public WiFi available so attendees can tweet and blog easily. It wouldn’t be a bad idea to have a few extra laptops around to share. It seems like common sense, but you never know.
Video Steaming
We highly recommend that you stream your swarm on ustream.tv or similar site. We will have monitors showing the live streams from all over, plus the tweet stream using the #4sqday hastag. You could easily do the same.
4sqDay Blog 