Fyp finished 10103031

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Final Year Project:
An Exploration of Locative Practices
on Foursquare
Student Name: Denis Cronin
Student ID: 10103031
Supervisor: Gabriela Avram
Course: Digital Media and Design

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Acknowledgement
I would like to thank my supervisor, Dr. Gabriella Avram, for all of this help, advice
and knowledge she has shared with me throughout the course of this project. I am
very grateful to have her as my final year project supervisor and I really appreciate
her guidance throughout.
I would like to thank my second reader, Michael English for taking the time to read
this project.
I would also like to thank all the staff members of the University of Limerick who
taught and assisted me throughout me four years here.
I would like to thank all the participants of this study who kindly gave up there time
to take part in this research and for providing me with valuable insights that
contributed greatly to this project.

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Declaration
I, Denis Cronin declare that this project is entirely my own work, in my own words,
and that all sources and quotations used are fully acknowledged and properly
identified.
This final year project is presented in part fulfilment of the requirements for the
Bachelor of Science in Digital Media Design. This project has not been submitted to
any other University
or higher education institution, or for any other academic award in this University.
Denis Cronin 17th
April 2013

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Contents
1. Summary ………………………………………………….………………4
2. Introduction……………………………………………………………..5
2.1 General Introduction…………………………………………………………..5
2.2 Motivation …………………………………………………………………....6
2.3 Methodology………………………………………………………………….6
2.4 Proposed objectives ………………………………………………………….7
3. Introduction to Foursquare …………………………………9
3.1 Foursquare history……………………………………………………………9
3.2 Foursquare Interface and features……………………………………………12
4. Literature Review: …………………………………………………15
4.1 Businesses and Foursquare…………………………………………………..15
4.2 Gaming aspect of Foursquare ……………………………………………….17
4.3 Foursquare and Privacy …………………………………………………….19
4.4 Why do people check-in to certain places? …………………………………21
5. Methodology……………………………………………………………22
6. Research ………………………………………………………………….25
6.1 How is Foursquare changing social media marketing? …………………….25
6.2 How Foursquare has created new methods marketing: …………………...27
7. Findings …………………………………………………………………..31
7.1 Interviews …………………………………………………………………..31
7.2 Survey findings …………………………………………………………….34
7.3 Observations……………………………………………………….……….35
8. Conclusion………………………………………………………………37
9. References……………………………………………………………38
10. Bibliography…………….……………………………………………40
11.Appendices………………………………………………...…………..44

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1. Summary
For my Final Year project I will be doing a research project on the locative
practices on Foursquare focusing on the business aspect of it. This paper takes a
look at how location based software is changing the social media marketing
world.
Foursquare is a location based Application which can be used all over the world
by anyone. Users can search for a location or allow the application to find their
exact location. Users can see the best shops, restaurant, nightclubs, coffee shops
and everything a user might want to visit. They are given a map which shows
them where they are and what places are around them. Primarily Foursquare acts
as a game pairing virtual rewards with real activities. Users can find out who
else is in their area and compete against friends with the point system they offer
at the moment which encourages users to check into new places to earn more
points. Foursquare benefits both users and businesses, Users get the chance to
find new places and meet up with people they know around the area and
businesses also offer rewards to users who check in a number of times to their
venue. These reward are created by the businesses and can vary from a free cup
of coffee to a 20% discounts on their next purchase. Foursquare gives businesses
the opportunity to give back to their loyal customers and to attract new
customers while building their online profile by increasing the amount of people
that check in giving their business exposure every time someone checks in.
For this project I want to take a look at some businesses around Ireland taking
full advantage of this opportunity. As it is nearly a necessity for businesses to
have an online presence today I feel this is a growing application and businesses
would jump at opportunity to grow their online presence. Following this research
I hope to gain a better understanding on how Foursquare and other location
based software’s work and how they are used by the public.

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2. Introduction
2.1 General Introduction
For my Final year project I am doing a research project on the locative practices on
Foursquare. Foursquare is an application and website which can be used all over the
world. Users can check into different venues and in return receive freebies, badges
and different achievements. Foursquare is a game in which people can see where there
friends are and have been whilst also competing against them by means of
Foursquares points system where users receive points based on where they check in.
Foursquare has a great amount of data not only from the check ins they receive on
Foursquare but the location based software is used by thousands of developers to
create apps which gives foursquare invaluable information on where people are
checking in. Foursquare are now focusing on using this data for the foursquare user’s
searches. From this information Foursquare gives recommendations and you build’s
you your own personal map giving each person unique results based on the data of
you and your friends.
While the gamification aspect of Foursquare was the main focus of Foursquare in its
earlier years I have found the novelty has died down and foursquare sign ups have
slowed down especially in Ireland I have found foursquare isn’t very well known and
I feel there are a number of great bonuses which may have been over looked one of
these which I will focus on throughout my research is the business end of Foursquare.
Foursquare is a great way for businesses to gain publicity and also give them a chance
to reward their loyal customers. As travel sites such as Trip advisor have taken over
the tourist industry and has changed the way businesses work I felt it a good idea to
look into this ever evolving application.
For my project I have taken a look at how well known Foursquare is to the public.
Using a number of different research methods both qualitative and quantitative I have
gained a greater understanding of who knows about foursquare, how people view it,
why do they use it? Why don’t they use it? Would they use it if they knew the
benefits? As well as seeing how much the public knows about Foursquare I want to

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see do businesses know about this great service and the benefits it could have for their
business. I will also be taking a look into how foursquare may develop in the future.
Throughout this paper I reveal the results and discuss my findings on foursquare. The
main question surroundings this paper is why isn’t Foursquare reaching its full
potential around Ireland and the Irish public how is it changing.
2.2 Motivation
Social media has become part of everyday life for the majority of people around the
world and because of this there are more and more jobs becoming available in this
sector so businesses can keep up with the fast moving pace of new technologies and
opportunities this technologies present.
Trip advisor is one of the biggest travel sites in the world with more than 100 million
travel reviews and 2,700,000+ businesses online. Some people have now become
dependent on these websites and they are used as their travel guide. Businesses now
have stickers on the front of their venue showing their Trip advisor ratings and this
can be seen in a number of different countries.
As I am part of a family run local business I know just how important exposure and
reviews are. The way people travel, shop and eat has changed in the last few years and
a lot of businesses are depending on their social media presence and would do
anything to increase this. I feel a lot of businesses do not know of this resource which
is a shame as Foursquare gives businesses an opportunity to boast their profile, get
their business out to the public and show what they have to offer while also giving
back to their customers. Most businesses are failing into today’s economy and think
that unless businesses build up a social network profile they will find it very hard to
thrive in this economy. Foursquare is one of the only platforms where businesses can
instantly reward their loyal customers and insure that they keep their customer base.
2.3 Methodology
Initially this study began with secondary research into how foursquare works seeing
how other people use it and then I started using it myself a lot more than I initially
used it learning the ins and outs of how the app works and what it has to offer.

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Following this I thought it best to see how businesses use this application. I took a
look at businesses online to see what they were offering the users and I also took the
opportunity to join up a local business to Foursquare learning what business owners
have to do to claim their business on foursquare and all the tools it has to offer for
business.
Once I became familiar with how foursquare operates I taught it best to use a
quantitative method to get some numbers on who knew about foursquare and how
they used it. I also found it important to conduct qualitative methods to find out how
different users use Foursquare, people that use it for promoting their business, people
using it for the gaming aspect and users which used it for the free offers alone. It was
important for me see what they feel is the main feature in Foursquare and what they
use it for most. I also did this with business owners to see how they use Foursquare
and if they use Foursquare much. My results varied a lot with different people and it
was interesting to see what they thought of this social media site compared to others.
For my quantitative method I used a survey which I sent out to a number of students
Of the University of Limerick (U.L.) but simple yes or no answers didn’t give the
students a chance to offer much of their opinion so I conducted a number of
interviews with both users and business owners. When interviewing people I had a set
number of open ended questions regarding foursquare and other social media sites. As
I knew after some research there were a vast number of people who had never heard
of foursquare so set up two different sections once a student answered yes or no they
were directed to a certain section but for the ‘No’ section students were given a brief
description of what foursquare is and what it is used for
2.4 Proposed objectives
The aim of this study is to investigate how Foursquare is used among users and the
benefits in which it has for local businesses, as Foursquare is described as the ‘Best
local search tool on the planet’ which is how the CEO and founder of foursquare
described it in an interview (Dillet, 2012). It was important to understand how people
and business use foursquare.

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As social media sites have become so popular in this day and age there are a number
of sites and apps competing and offering similar things so In this project I will find
out do members of other social media platforms know about foursquare and so they
know the benefits of being part of foursquare compared to other sites and also what
other sites do they use and why.
I have surveyed different groups in society e.g. college students, business owners and
local people from the younger generation to the older. See appendices for survey.
I also find out can businesses get more involved in foursquare, are businesses already
involved with foursquare and how can businesses improve with here interactions on
social media
Defining question for this project: My defining question has slightly changed sense
the beginning of my research originally I wanted to see how businesses are using
foursquare and how foursquare is being used at this present time however through
some research I have found that foursquare has become less and less popular with
people around Ireland so I have taken a look into what is foursquare missing and how
it is developing to fix this and expand its application to create peoples own personal
social GPS system. While also looking taking a look to see what this means for local
businesses.
Online observations: For this I have been taking note of 3 power users’ check-ins to
take a look at the majority of places people check in whether it is cafes, restaurants,
bars etc. In order to get more information on how venues are using foursquare it was
important to take a looked into each of these merchants pages to see if people are
checking in more to the places which offer deal or if they are checking into popular
places. Through this I have learned a greater understanding of why people use this
software.

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3. Introduction to Foursquare
3.1 Foursquare history:
Dodgeball was a website similar to foursquare and essentially the concept behind
foursquare. Dodgeball had the same vision of connecting people through means of
means of technology. Dodgeball was founded by Dennis Crowley who is now the
CEO and co-founder of Foursquare. Dennis Crowley created Dodgeball in 2003 with
a fellow student Alex Rainert from a private research university in New York called
the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications but unfortunately Dodgeball
was before its time. The idea behind Dogeball was very simple at first you text your
current location to the Dodgeball server via text to email. The server would then send
that information to other Dodgeball members in the area. The idea behind this was
that people could use the service to meet up with friends while out on the town.
Dodgeball was meant to be a fun and easier way to communicate with your friends
who were in the same area. This idea all started out when Dennis Crowley and some
co-workers were let go from a company causing them to rarely see each other even
though they may have lived around the same area and been in the same city. This was
supposed to be something fun Dennis Crowley and Alex Rainert set up to originally
just meet with their own friends. In the beginning this would send out a notification to
these friends and if any of them were nearby it was easy for them find out where
everyone was. They could see their friend’s current location and meet up for a lunch
or a drink. Dodgeball would also ping you if any friends-of-friends were within 10
blocks of you application was a way to encouraging them to meet up.
The name Dodgeball was used as Dennis Crowley wanted this website to be seen as
something fun and playful. Originally Dodgeball was supposed to be named
Foursquare but the domain name wasn’t available at the time. If you take a look at
Foursquare today it has kept on the simply, playful and fun aspect. Dennis Crowley
kept on to a bit of Dodgeball by incorporating this in Foursquares logo today. After a
year in college they revisited foursquare as they felt this website could really become
there business. They had then brought Dodgeball to google in 2005 and they 1.

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purchased Dodgeball but from lack of knowledge of how big businesses work and not
looking at the finer details of the contract google drafted up Dodgeball got lost in
Google as it was and still is such a big company it eventually got shutdown even
though Denis Crowley still wanted to keep it going.
Even though Dodgeball was shut down after a short period of 2 years Dennis Crowley
was determined to build it up again something similar to Dodgeball but it wasn’t just
about people meeting up with friends.
Dennis Crowley would sit at his desk in google where he now had an amazing amount
of information from peoples check ins from this information he find out a number of
things from this data. It was possible to show all the places which people checked in
on the lower eastside on a Saturday between 11 o’clock in the morning or 2 o’clock
in the afternoon. This information would come out in a list which he could then rank
them in order of their popularity, then remove all the places he had checked in so he
was left with a list of places with the most check ins at a particular time of day and
find out which new places he hasn’t visited and which are most popular with people at
that time of day in the area he was going to. There were a number of variations which
could be made from this data, such as places which are popular amongst your friends
but you haven’t visited yet. Dennis Croley taught that this was amazing that he was
the only person with access to this library of data. However when Dodgeball was
dropped in 2005 all this information they had been collected was gone too.
When Dogeball ball dropped Denis Crowley’s immediately wanted to build
something like this again, something which could collect all that type of data again
but maybe on a bigger scale something which everyone could run queries on such as
showing what places your friends have been too in whatever city you’re in at that
moment so your not just wondering around your hotel. Dennis Crowley’s said users
should be able to to go ‘Show me the places I can go to dinner where all my friends
have been that are trending across the whole city’.
This idea has only been integrated into Foursquare in the last year or two as
technology as evolved. Foursquare have been collecting this data sense they began,
they knew they could make this as a reality but they just had to resurrect the data set
which went away when Dodgeball did.

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Foursquare is still obtaining information on all the cities but it is growing every day.
People are checking into certain areas which are not on the map yet but once the
places are created other people can check into this same place even though the
business has not registered there venue yet. Some if not most businesses are unaware
of foursquare and still do not know that there are customers checking into their
venues.
To ensure that the information on certain places is correct there is the Super user
status. Super user status is selected from users who have been selected by Foursquare
staff for their helpful contributions to the community. These users can edit the
information of some areas and update the information in their area. This gives power
users the chance to get involved with Foursquare and help foursquare grow quicker
with more accurate information.

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3.2 Foursquare Interface and features;
Search screen of limerick city on Foursquare web interface
Starting screen on mobile
device. User must select the
blue circular button at the end
to check in
User is presented with a number
of buildings close by. User must
select the current building they
are in to check-in
Users can see where there
friends have last checked-in on
the map (Users profile pictures
have been block out)

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Example of successful
Foursquare business page
Foursquare Offers
suggestions on place people
like to go after they have
been to that certain place
and also suggests more
places like the one you have
just been too
Here is an example of how
people can promote their
business on foursquare
Below are two search results at
the same location but different
time search result is different
depending on what time it is.
Morning result Night result

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Foursquare rely on the users to rate certain places on what they’re best suited for
Another feature on Foursquare is
how users can save places under
certain froup name i.e. free wi-fi
Here is an example of the
notifications Foursquare sends out

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4. Literature Review:
4.1Businesses and Foursquare
Business and foursquare is the main subject is one of the main focuses’ throughout
this project and there is a number of different articles regarding this subject however
as foursquare is relatively new compared to other social media platforms there are not
many research papers on this subject. However there are a number of articles which
gravitate around how foursquare benefit businesses and how businesses can use
foursquare in order to boast their online profile.
(Baraniuk, 2013) Gives an idea of how important foursquare can be for businesses in
this article it mentions how foursquare isn’t just a place for friends to meet up and and
check into venues but it can be used as a tool for businesses to search for popular
areas around them to set up shop. From the data that foursquare is collecting business
owners can find an area in which they could set up a business to get the maximum
potential for their target customer to do this businesses have to look at what street
most of their potential customers are checking-in on but it is also an insight to their
competitors already out there.
From this article we can see it is of great importance to have looked at the public
transport system available to that certain area to see is it easy for customers to travel
to. There was a study undertaken in the University of Cambridge and the college
analysed 35 million publicly available check-ins from 925,000 foursquare users in
New York over six months. Focusing on the main chains such as Mc Donald’s and
Starbucks looking at this the team rated how successful the stores were based on how
many check ins each one received and then in relations to the most check ins they had
a look at the foot traffic through this are and the measure people had to that to get to
these places. They have talk to a number of stores which do not use four square but
they said they do recognise the potential geo- data could have in building up a
business or franchise (Karamshuk et al, 2013). It is clear that a lot of businesses are
struggling at this time and I think this data is being utilised more and more by
businesses.

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(Venkatraman, 2010) refers to the expansion of all social media sites and how there
are now more people and businesses than ever using these sites. Even though these
sites have been around for a number of years the technological age makes it easier
than ever for people to make use of these sites. Social media sites are ‘now used by
more than 500 million users globally’; as this was released in 2010 the number has
grown every year sense. From the year 2009 to 2010 there was a 46 percent increase
of users which is a massive jump in just one year(Venkatraman, 2010). From this
article we can see that internet based tools have been adopted by many organisation
all around the world. “Social Networking technologies such as Twitter and Facebook
have recently become very popular among consumers, and it now behoves
organizations to find cost-effective and efficient ways to use them to stay
competitive” below is a table from the article which shows a massive increase in
Social Web Media Business Spending and how it is sky rocketing and the projected
figures are enormous
This article is only looking into the U.S. spending alone and looking at recent
articles the spending has surpassed its predictions with 4.7 billion dollars spend
on social media marketing in the U.S. alone and it is set to reach 11 billion in the
next 4 years (Northover, 2013).

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With this increase in money going into social media marketing it is clear that
social media is becoming the way of the future for businesses and is growing
every day. Although most media marketing is concentrating on sites such as
Facebook, twitter and YouTube it is only a matter of time before Foursquare is
the main focus (Colombo et al, 2012)
Foursquare has already jumped on this opportunity and are growing each day one
project which is in development is Foursquare ads. Foursquare Ads is a product
much like Google Ads. Google Ads have been extremely successful in the past
and are something everyone comes across every day when they have searched for
anything there is a number of different ads. Foursquare Ads is a platform where
more than 1.5 million small businesses can log on and target users who are
nearby their shops. Foursquare give a potential customer a notification just at the
right moment. Advertisers will be buying geo-location data and won’t be paying
by how many people open the message the advertiser only pays if someone either
clicks to learn more about the store or interacts with the store later on by
checking in to that business. There are a number of articles on this new craze that
will only build on the foursquare users and increase a lot of revenue for
Foursquare (Shontell, 2013). Again this is Foursquare’s way of connecting the
virtual world to the real world combining both.
4.2 Gaming aspect of Foursquare
When Foursquare started up in 2009 there was a major emphasis on the gaming
aspect of Foursquare it is used as a way for friends to interact with each other
virtually while completing real tasks. There are a number of papers regarding the
Gaming aspect of how it is used by different people. The gaming aspect of
foursquare is something which gives the users incentives to check into certain
places even if this place doesn’t offer freebies, people gain something regardless
which has kept bringing in data to foursquare and has people interested in

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checking-in to different venues and exploring new places in order to receive
certain badges.
The concept of receiving badges dates back many years and in recent years it has
become a major thing on online gaming (Antin and Churchill, 2011).This reward
system has been implemented into social media sense 2002 on Xbox live where
players were rewarded with badges for completing certain tasks, it was a way for
users to compete with their friends collecting all the different badges(Antin and
Churchill, 2011). Badges are seen as an effective motivator for people as they are
‘just out of comfortable reach for people’. Badges give instruction to people it
tells them what kind of activities to do. In Foursquares case these badges
encourages users to mix the virtual world with the real world so in a sense users
are told they must go to certain places in order to gain their badges. There are a
number of badges which require users to check into multiple venues even though
they might all have the same service such as libraries; users are told to go to
different libraries in order to receive a badge.
Similarly in (Lindqvist et al, 2011) we can see the gaming aspect has influenced
where people go due to the mayorship. We can see this from experiences where a
friend tried to steal certain mayorships from their friends again this means people
are visiting certain venues just for the the gaming aspect however this benefits
both users and businesses giving certain users a goal to aim for creating interest
for a number of users competing. This also brings in business to a venue and
advertising of their venue which is why it is so important for businesses to get
involved in foursquare (Barker, 2013).
This reward system was introduced to a number of website such as Wikipedia
.There were badges known as ‘Barnstars’ this allowed users to reward each other
for doing valued work on the site this again gave people some incentive towards
doing more work for Wikipedia and contributing to certain pages and expanding
their site. As social media has become such a big part of the Internet it was only a
matter of time before the reward system was introduced. It has changed to suit
social media networks and is used for different purposes for each website.

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Again this gaming aspect is another way of bringing different groups together
and creating group identification. “This type of group identification is valuable in
social media because increased group identification promotes increased
cooperation in collaborative situations” (Antin and Churchill, 2011).
4.3 Foursquare and Privacy
One of Foursquares main challenges from the word go has been privacy. Users
privacy has always been very important part in creating location based social
media and in recent years people have become more careful about what
information they share on-line which may be one of the reasons why Foursquare
has taken so long to take off. In a study with Americans adults it was found only
12% of Americans use geo-location apps such as Foursquare while 74% use their
location to get directions, recommendations and other information (Zickuhr,
2013). The way Foursquare is working it is the more that you check-in the more
more get get back. Once you check-in a number of times Foursquare can then
send on recommendations which will be more accurate if a user checks-in
regularly. I feel once users find this out the bigger it will get. Foursquare are
currently working on automatically updating a check in once you stay in a certain
point for a small period of time rather than the user having to check-in. This may
deter users at first but we can see how people have started using their built in
GPS a lot more in the last few years as giving their current location is benefiting
them they don’t mind doing this. This may also be the case for Location based
apps like Foursquare as users may be more incline to share their location if they
receive great amount of invaluable information.
As with all social media networks Foursquare included there are privacy setting
which make sure users have full control over what is shared with the public and
what isn’t “services now place the control with the user providing social media-
oriented ‘micro updates” (Cramer, Rost and Holmquist, 2011) with these privacy
setting users are in full control of what they share. As privacy is becoming more
important Foursquare also offers an option for the user to submit a private check-
in where either only selected friends can see it or only you can see it.

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However there are many studies which show that people are still very reluctant
when it comes to sharing their location. (Ludford, Priedhorsky, Reily and
Terveen, 2007) is the study on the willingness of people to share their location in
Sharescape a place sharing system. They found people were mainly just reluctant
in sharing their private places such as their home and work addresses and what
time they were at these places as this could affect the security of their home
letting people know where you are at every moment.
(Ludford, Priedhorsky, Reily and Terveen, 2007) Its clear how there are many
location based applications out there and they have studies many of which would
automatically follow the user’s location and publish it unless the user disabled
the sharing option. But again this feature may interest some people as it is seen as
a way of social story telling they can see what they have done and when they
have done it. There have been many studies surrounding the privacy in human-
computer interaction (Iachello and Hong, 2007) especially on Facebook where it
has been covered from a number of different angles. Privacy has become a
central part in any design regarding human computer interaction “Browser
manufacturers have developed artefacts such as the lock icon, specially coloured
address bars, and security warnings to provide security awareness in browsing
sessions.” It has become prevalent in many sites and application whether people
have taken much note of it or not. If a user knows the signs of a safe and secure
site they will know in seconds and this is a major issue for applications like
Foursquare so the design must present and support an application and website
which ensures users of their privacy allowing them the option to display their
current location and to be reassured their current location isn’t being published.
A successful design must “Make both potential and actual information ﬂows
visible, Provide coarse-grain control, Enable social nuance, and Emphasize
action over conﬁguration“ (Iachello and Hong, 2007).

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4.4 Why do people check-in to certain places ?
(Lindqvist et al, 2011) we see the other side to how people have viewed the
importance of the manual check in option of foursquare. In this Scenario
researchers gave a 75 dollar gift certificate to go shopping with but they also had
to use location based app while doing this shopping i.e. check into any shops they
purchased something in or somewhere they ate but it was left up to the user
where to check-in. Users felt it import that the manual check in function was
there as it let them create their own location history where the users only checked
into places they felt important to them, some place they would visit again.. In this
study there were two types of users which were distinguished by different
patterns between routine and non-routine places. By this they meant some users
would check into routine places in which they visit every day like their home or
work place and other type of users would check into places they wouldn’t usually
be. By checking-in users are saying “this place is interesting” users said that
being at a new unique place was a reason to check in. In one case the users said
they checked into the airport and that this was the perfect place as is let people
know they were going out of town and it was a significant event for them, while
also notifying people in the place they were travelling letting them know they
were available to meet up.
Another great function of location based applications and websites is meeting up
with new people and friends. In (Cho, Myers and Leskovec, 2011) it can be
seen that it may not necessarily be a good way of meeting up with friends but it is
a good way of passing on information to friends if you want to recommend a
certain place to them it is passed on 75% so the probability is very high of you
visiting this place but it is also a great way of keeping up with sports events and
conferences as people can see where and when it is on and who is going, this
gives a higher probability of people visiting these places our events. Similarly in
(Lindqvist et al, 2011) users where interviewed about their use of Foursquare
when they went out shopping is was seen as a great plus the fact they could see
where their friends were and meet new people with the same interests in the same
location. In this study most of the users shared experiences of running into

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friends who they didn’t know were in the area prior to them going out (Cho,
Myers and Leskovec, 2011). Some users shared experiences where they meet up
with friends as they saw they were in the same area so they went for a coffee and
another user told them of a different experience where he was heading out for
lunch alone but when he went on foursquare he found another friend had checked
into somewhere close by so they got in contact and ended up having lunch
together. This is a great incentive for people to use this application it shows how
the privacy of where you are may only be used for the right reasons. It is the
users responsibility to carefully select who can view their location updates and
who can’t. Another point of view which emerged from this study was protecting
the location of others. In this case one of the users decided not to publish the fact
that she was visiting a friend’s house, she did not mind people knowing that she
was at this location but she did not want to disclose the address of her friend’s
apartment to people who may not have had access to this information already.
5. Methodology:
One of the first things I wanted to carry out in my study was a simply survey
amongst the students in the University of Limerick. As I felt this would take most
time to get people to respond and take part in this survey. Before I could send out
this survey it was important to receive consent from the ethics committee so I
drafted up a survey and sent it off to get approval. Once approval was received
for the survey I consider what would be the best way to send it out to the students
in the University of Limerick so I talked to the student union to see what was my
best option and was it possible to send it out to all students in U.L. Unfortunately
they said they couldn’t send out the survey to every student but they could give
me details of some class representatives. As each class representative had all
classmates email addresses on file I contact each class representative in the
computer department in U.L. This consisted of 5 different courses, 13 class
representatives from first years to forth year students. Each class representative
was sent an email to explain what I was researching and asking for their help. A
number of class reps were happy to send it out but there were a small number

23
which didn’t. This was to be expected as I have sent number of surveys out in
the past and I found people aren’t very inclined to complete something unless
they get something in return. However I received a number of responses which
was great help in determining how much people know about or use Foursquare
around Limerick and also why people use Foursquare.
Once the survey was complete it was important to take a deeper look into the
different things people used foursquare for and contacting these people as soon as
possible. I made up a list of open ended interview questions which varied
depending on what type of user I was interviewing one of which was a power
user of foursquare and the other a business owner which had the most popular
Foursquare page in Limerick however I learned a number of different things
throughout the interview which made me alter my questions slightly during the
interview process as I had a number of unexpected answers.
I found my first participant on Foursquare as he was the major of foursquare in a
building in U.L. I taught he was the perfect candidate as he had a number of
badges, check-ins and he was based around U.L. So I got to see all the places
which were available for him to check in and what he got out of checking in.
Once my friend request was approved by him I got his email through Foursquare
and contacted him. In the email I sent I explained what research I was conducting
and what I was looking for from him. He was only happy to help so we organised
a time and and place in which the participant felt comfortable. I felt it was
important to record the interview as it was just me and him I had no one to make
notes so it was important to transcribe it and make sure nothing was missed.
Once I met him in a café on campus I asked was it okay to meet in a meeting
room to record it and he had no problems and he felt comfortable.
For the next participant it was the owner of a local business which seemed quite
popular on Foursquare. As I had liked their Facebook page previously I found it
was easiest to message the business and ask for the social media social media co-
ordinator of the business which was the owner of the restaurant. As they were
quite busy she asked if it were okay to meet in the restaurant the only challenge
was that I was unable to get a clear recording so I decided to take a lot of notes

24
during the interview. Once the interview was over I replayed the recording but a
lot of it was inaudible due to the noise so I just transcribed as much as I could
with the help of my notes to clear up a few things.
In order to gain a greater understanding of how users are using Foursquare on a
day to day basis I followed 3 different people over a period of 2 months. For this
I took note of where they were checking-in, what time they were checking-in and
then I took a look at the venues they were checking into. For this part of the
project I wasn’t interested in the person themselves it was more important to
concentrate on the venue to see which place got the most check-ins and why. I
have taken note of which places have signed up to foursquare and which places
offer the customers a special offer for check in into their venue. I have also
concentrated on the type of venue whether more people check into a café,
restaurant, bar, hotel or whether there checking-in when traveling. In selecting
these people I focused on power user. Power users are user which constantly use
Foursquare on a day to day basis checking into any place they get a chance. You
can define a power user on Foursquare by looking at how many badges they have
or are they major of a certain places.
On picking these users I added them as a friend and stated how I was doing a
study on Foursquare. There were a number of different power users which I sent
friend requests too most of which declined which was expected as many people
have now become a lot more private with who they share personal information
with.*** It was important that the users didn’t know of these observations as it
may have deterred them form check-in into certain places. I feel that even though
people know they are broadcasting their location to the public they might not be
aware of how much information they are actually giving out. The majority of the
users in Ireland using foursquare regularly were aged 20 and above.

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6. Research
6.1 How is Foursquare changing social media marketing?
There has been a number of innovative ways in which businesses have started to use
Foursquare to promote their business it has become something new and fresh for
people to work with which is developing each day(Barouch, 2014). Foursquare
connects the user from a virtual world to reality and there has been a number of
different marketing schemes to influence a change in advertising and promotion of
businesses. Open APIs have opened a new world for developers and open source
developers have increased a lot more.
Application Programming Interfaces (API):
A major part of foursquare is its open API which gives people the opportunity to build
on top of Foursquare and extend the limits of Foursquare. Foursquare’s open ended
AIP has ‘enriched the fabric of local web’(Barouch, 2014) and most of today’s major
sites are now using Foursquares open API data for their websites and applications.
Social media sites such as Uber, food spotting and Instagram all have been
intertwined in Foursquares API and ‘any destabilization in foursquare or its developer
tools would fundamentally affect the stability of the mobile web’(Barouch, 2014)
Dennis mentioned at world congress the 40,000 developers use foursquare location
data via their API.
What is an API regarding social media sites in today society?
An API is the way in which a programme can be communicated with or worked with
(Interfaced with) by another programme. The meaning has changed slightly in the last
few years and this is now how an API is seen in this context. At the beginning when
the windows OS (operating system) was released most programmers were working on
the windows operating system which is known as system programming or they are
working on developing various applications which may have been a calculator or a
simple game like minesweeper or something like Microsoft word. All these
applications were on a higher level and the way these applications were developed

26
was by tapping into what windows offered known as the windows API. The window’s
API is a set of little programmes that can be used by the application. Examples of this
would be the option ‘save’ and what the ‘save’ programme would do is save a file so
when you need to save a file in Microsoft word, Microsoft calls this programmes to
do so which connect he Microsoft word programme to the windows OS. What an API
is essentially is a manual for programmers to work on top of the windows operating
system.
Moving onto this present time most of what we have are developers who are
developing on the web or building websites like Facebook and Twitter but we have
kept the name API even though we aren’t working in the specific context of
application and system programming. It has now become something which is working
in the context of everything out there being built on the web, like building websites,
application and working with databases but we still refers to the documentation
around the little programmes that another programme can access as an API.
An example of how this is being used daily by developers is Facebook. Facebook is
essentially a load of little programmes which make up the bigger programme which is
Facebook these little programmes are thing like the ‘Like’ programme, the ‘Post’
programme and the ‘Upload’ programme. Facebook then decides to open up their API
to the world so other people can integrate there websites and there software to
Facebook’s software which in turn is constantly expanding Facebook’s business. Each
website such as Facebook and Foursuare have complete control over their software
and can control how people access there little programme’s (API’s) in specific ways.
As mentioned above many apps on the market now rely on Foursquare’s location data
and as some apps using Foursquare’s location based data have become some of the
most popular apps out there it affects hundreds of millions of users. Even if apps
have been bought by bigger companies it would be would very difficult if not
impossible for for developers to migrate their services off the Foursquare location
database. Apple is one of the main large companies which have a great reliance on
Foursquare’s API(Barouch, 2014) as a lot of IOS apps are now connected with
Foursquare’s location database. While the google store have a great places database

27
the developers for apple are still making popular apps which are also released on the
google paly store which rely on Foursquares database.
Two of the biggest social media website which also still relies on Foursquare’s
location based data in some form is both Twitter and Facebook. After Facebook took
over Instagram with has over 100 million active users Facebook still continues to use
Foursquare’s location data rather than Facebooks places data. There has been recent
reports that Facebook is releasing new updates for Instagram where they are using
their own location based data(Facebook places) but this is only speculation at this
time as switching from Foursqares data to Facebook places could affect how
Instagram is currently running which could run the risk of losing users (Carr,
2014).Although Facebook may make the change over in the near future Foursquare is
still continuing to grow and have recently receive a 15 million investment from
Microsoft which enables Microsoft to incorporate Foursquares data in all their
products and programmes which only expands Foursquares data further (Panzarino,
2014).
6.2 How Foursquare has created new methods marketing:
Foursquare’s data is growing constantly and with this data there is an amazing amount
of prospects for people advertising there business brining the virtual advertisements
into reality. With Foursquares open API there are a number of company’s taking
advantages of this as a way to promote their business.
The History channel campaign:
The history channel was one innovative company which saw an opportunity to
promote there channel whilst also connecting reality to the virtual world. Users had to
follow the history channel on Foursquare and once users checked-in somewhere
around London they would receive and interesting fact about the street they were on
or the building they were in. There was also more encouragement for users to check-
in as not only did they receive and interesting fact but there was also a badge which
the user could receive if they had enough check-ins around London and this entered
you into a draw for a weekend away. The history channel had already tried this in the
U.S. and in Foursquares first year they brought it to the U.K. this was one of the first
campaigns on Foursquare from the U.K. This campaign had over 600 check-in areas

28
which users could receive facts these check-in areas varied from Galleries to iconic
landmarks in London and one of which check-ins offered users a discount on certain
tours (Grill, 2014).
Results:
After just one month the history channel had received over 40,000 check-ins and had
given away 10,000 badges. They had also received 20,000 new followers in just one
month. As this was all relatively new to people there was also a great amount of press
coverage which only increased the history channels audience. Today the history
channel has nearly 800,000 followers. The history channel is still keeping this alive
and are offering new badge for people to collect
Restaurant’s success with Foursquare:
Another campaign set up by a chain of restaurants is just another example of how
Foursquare can be used as a new way to help business owners promote their business

29
while rewarding their loyal customers. The restaurant started a 45 day campaign for
their customers giving a free desert with an entrée once someone checked in. This
campaign was not only set up for Foursquare but also Facebook places however the
merchants claimed that over 90% of contributions were from Foursquare. During the
campaign there were over 400 check-ins which meant over 400 entrees ordered of
those 60% of check-ins receive were checking-in for the first time. The campaign
boosted revenue by 18% during the 45 days and due to the success decided to carry it
on for a further 30 days. (Drell, 2011)
Foursquare billboard:
This has been the most impressive and innovative use of Foursquares API in regards
to Bring virtual advertising to reality. A German company which sells dog food
decided to utilize Foursquares API by creating a billboard where dog owners could
check- in and receive free dog food. Its message was ‘check-in snack out’. Once the
user had checked in through Foursquare the servers from the dog food company
would pick up the check in and in turn dispense a small amount of food for the dog.
The idea behind this was to create something the dogs would want to return thus
bringing their owner back to the billboard. There were a total of 10 billboards put
throughout Munich and Berlin (Drell, 2011).

30
Results:
The 10 billboards averaged at 118 check-ins each on the first day and there were
reports of a 28% increase in sale for the company after 10 days of the campaign. Due
to the success of the first 10 billboard the company decided to install a further 100
billboards, 5 billboards in each of the 20 cities in Germany. The company’s sales
grew 14% in the first year and pet store requests for the product have risen 38%.
Although it may have been the fact that this unique campaign made this brand go viral
but it shows how much can be done with foursquare open ended API while also
showing the connection foursquare has made between interlinking the virtual world
with reality.

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7. Findings
7.1 Interviews
Power user interview
I took the opportunity to interview a power user around the University of Limerick to
see how and where the user was checking-in. From my interview with this power user
it was clear that he had only used it for gamming purposes. I started the interview by
asking where he found out about foursquare which were through friends of his. This
user had also mentioned he hasn’t seen a business advertise Foursquare once around
limerick or U.L. This user had started using foursquare sense it began it became
something all his friends were using as a game at the time. However the user revelled
that his friends had stopped using this service as it became another out of date social
network.
The main feature within Foursquare which interested this participant was the gaming
aspect of Foursquare it was more of a way ‘to make things and traveling with your
friend’s a little bit more fun’ but the freebies were definitely an incentive for him to
keep checking-in. Privacy wasn’t much of a concern for this user. He felt he could
check in almost any place and share his location. The motivation behind most of the
user’s check-ins was just boredom; it was something to do to pass the time. Other
users check-ins didn’t effect this users check- ins but this was because of the simple
fact that there are not enough people on foursquare at the moment. Freebies hasn’t
swayed this user into changing which place he would go to but he mentioned that it
has happened to friends of his a couple of times where an offer has persuaded them to
go to a specific place.

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Business owner interview:
There were a number of things I wanted to find out about how businesses are using
foursquare in today’s society and how they were using social media as a way to build
up and promote their business as social media is become a necessity for most
businesses to thrive in today’s economy. It was very important to get in contact with a
local business which was very into promoting their business through social media. It
was very interesting to see how social media has boasted their business and how it has
changed the way their business is run.
As this local business found that social media was shaping there business they had
been joined up to most popular social media networks out there and Foursquare was
one of these this business own had been connected to foursquare sense it was released
in 2009. This particular business owner found out about foursquare form another
social media site Twitter which a lot of people had connect their Foursquare accounts
too when Twitter was first launch this may have been due to the fact that micro blogs
had not caught up with people yet and this created some content for Twitter users.
The business owner had told me in the first few minutes that she had stopped using
Foursquare herself as she felt it had died out mainly because of competing apps out
there such as Facebook places. She felt that Foursquare had died out a lot over the last
few years and that customer weren’t checking in anymore. The interviewee has been
very involved with other social media sites but didn’t feel that Foursquare was being
utilised by people anymore. There are a number of social media site she now uses
which she can see has made a major improvement in her business and she is able to
see this online promotion pay off. Another major social media boast for her business
was Pinterest which created a great amount of click through back to her website. It’s
clear to see how quickly a social media site can change and how it can evolve a
business. Again once asked which social media site she used most it went back to
Twitter and Facebook. Twitter was seen as more of a way to contact people directly
and talk personally while Facebook was more of a business front. Once asked about
her Facebook page popularity she was unsure of how many check-ins were on the
Facebook and Twitter page but felt there were more check-ins in Facebook places
which I check after the interview and it was at 1,354 however she didn’t feel like
Foursquare was bringing in as much as that however her Foursquare page has had

33
over 1,777 check ins to date. We can see from this how Facebook places may seem
like a more popular thing at this time but it isn’t generating as much check in as
foursquare and again all the information collected from these check-ins are collect in
foursquare library of data to generate a local search engine. The business owner felt
that her Facebook page was a great way to connect with the local people around
limerick calling into her restaurant from connecting with student to mothers who call
in daily. The venues Facebook page now has over 10,000 likes so it is clear just how
many people are using it and it seems to be the most used social media platform in
Limerick at the moment and it has become ‘more of a way to connect with the local
people’
This business owner’s perspective on Foursquare was a common issue which has
come up a number of times throughout my research. The interviewee felt Foursquare
has become very unpopular with Irish people at the moment for some reason ‘maybe
an Irish thing of people not wanting to share their location’
Although the interviewee felt it had become unpopular it didn’t change the fact that
she felt Foursquare was great tool and it was one of the only platforms where she was
able to reward her loyal customers. She revealed that Foursquare was never a big
thing with the majority of her customers however there was some battles for
mayorship of the place at one point and people were battling and checking in but
people had got sick of the gaming aspect of it.
Whilst interviewing her there was regular customer sitting by who used to check in
daily however he felt there weren’t enough people on foursquare to make it popular
and again he shared the same view how it may just ‘be an Irish thing’
One thing which was of great interests to me was the amount of check ins per week
however I was unable to get an accurate amount as she revealed there had only been a
handful of giveaway’s sense they joined foursquare. The interviewee mention that it
would be the perfect place for people to use Foursquare as some people maybe in the
place 10 times a week and could receive a free coffee but it just hasn’t caught on. The
business owner still advertises here Foursquare page with their sticker on their
window but no one has taken advantage of this.

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Conclusion:
From both these interviews the main thing I have found is the lack of interest people
has around Foursquare in Ireland it has become a forgotten social network by a lot of
people. The one thing both participants did mention was how they had used
Foursquare as a travel guide when they had travelled abroad. Again we can see there
are still parts of the application people like to use.
7.2 Survey Findings
For this survey I put together a series of short questions for both people who have
heard and used for square and also for people who had never heard of it. The opening
questions asked participants had they heard of foursquare once the student selected
yes or no they were directed to a different set of questions depending on their answer.
Each set of question were focused on the same thing but it was necessary to give the
participants who had never heard of Foursquare an overview.
This survey was only sent out to students so most of participants were between 18-24
years of age only 6% of the 67 people who participated in this survey were aged 25-
34 years old. 74% of the participant had never heard of foursquare before but the
majority of the participant who had never heard of foursquare said they would be
interested in using an application where users check in and receive special offers and
discounts from businesses. Only 40% of these users were using another location based
application the majority of which was Facebook places and Twitter. The reason for
not using this application was “Too much work” and little to no reward for checking.
Out of the 16 participants who heard of Foursquare unfortunately only 5 had a
Foursquare account meaning out of 67 people only 7% of participants had an account.
These users had also only used foursquare 2-3 time amount or less there was no
regular users out of the 67 participants. Again the majority of user said that they
would use foursquare if there were more special offers. Most users selected all option
for why they don’t use foursquare ‘it was too much work’, ‘little to no reward for
checking-in’ and they ‘didn’t want to waste their data usage’.

35
7.3 Observations
For this part of my research I picked 3 power users and documented there check-ins
over a period of 2 months. Each of the users were based in different areas around the
country. During my observations I took note of the venue, time of day they checked
in, whether the venue offered a special offer, have the venue claimed their business
and the amount of check-ins the venue has had. I have also categorised each venue i.e.
café, leisure, entertainment, accommodation etc.
Whistle looking for power users on Foursquare it was interesting to see which places
were easier to find power users and it was clear that there was a great number of
power users in Dublin. This may be because Dublin is the capital of Ireland and
receives a lot of foot traffic but also the fact there are a greater number of merchants
around Dublin a lot of which are up to date on their social media presence as it is so
competitive. There was a noticeable difference between the amount of check-ins in
Dublin compared to Limerick in a search for coffee shops in Dublin the first 12 coffee
shops which showed up all had over a 1,000 check-ins I then did an identical search in
Limerick city for coffee shops and there wasn’t any place with over 1,000 check-ins,
in fact a lot of the top results were below 500 check-ins.
There is a very mixed result from these observations as the users lived in different
counties and cities the check-ins vary from user to user as some are situated in more
rural parts of the country. There were a few things which stood out amongst everyone.
We can see from the results below that the majority of check-ins were done in cafes
and restaurants and then everything after that evens out with travel and entertainment
slightly higher than shopping and accommodation. There are less than half of the
Cafes, bars and restaurants signed up with Foursquare. It is very clear in the data
presented below in the appendices that the majority of businesses signed up with
foursquare have a greater number of check-ins. Although some of the venues had
smaller numbers it’s important to take in the actual size of the venue which is where
the readings may be somewhat inconclusive but some were very obvious such as the
airport which had thousands of check-ins. What was surprising was that only 2 places

36
offered customers a special offer for checking-in one of which was valid up until
2010.
52% Food and drink
30% Cafes
11%Restaurants
11% Bars
Travel (airport, bus station, train station) 15%
Entertainment 15%
Accommodation 9%
Shopping 9%
Offices and Building 9%
Most check-ins were done during the morning or afternoon there was a small
percentage of check-ins after 6.pm and there were no check-ins past 9pm this is an
indicate that users dislike sharing any location based information during the night.
This goes back to the privacy of Foursquare. Users have control of what is publish
and what they keep to themselves, users may feel uneasy sharing this information as
anyone could see when there house if empty (Hickman, 2010).

37
8. Conclusion
In examining how Foursquare is used amongst people and businesses there were a
number of mixed views surrounding Foursquare. From this study it is clear that
Foursquare has not caught on with the Irish public just yet and there are a number of
reasons which are the cause of this.
Privacy has been one of the constant challenges that continue to slow down
Foursquares progression. Research has shown that people are getting more protective
of what they are sharing with the public which is a major problem facing Foursquare
at the moment. However Foursquare has been expanding its business year after year
and is getting new investors supporting Foursquare which will only strengthen its
presence in the social media world.
From the data collected we can see that most businesses have not yet realised the
potential of Foursquare as there are just not enough users on foursquare to make
businesses put up content and interact with people. We can see from a number of big
cities around the world mainly in America that Foursquare is become more popular.
Dublin city being the capital of Ireland has already started to show signs that
Foursquare is growing there are a far greater number of check-ins in most of the shops
restaurant, cafes and bars. I feel the rest of the country will follow eventually but it
might take some time as most people throughout my research gave a positive reaction
to the application once they knew what is did.
People still only see Foursquare as just a game. Research has shown very little people
know about the data surrounding Foursquare and they are unaware of search engine
which show users a number of new things.
It is clear from the success of different campaigns run through Foursquare in the past
that it is a good platform for businesses but Foursquare has died down as the gaming
aspect of Foursquare has ultimately become stale with users and Foursquare have
noticed this and are now focusing on perfecting users own personal GPS maps.

38
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40
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44
11. Appendices – 11.1 Check-in observations

46
11.2 Interview Transcript- Power user
Interviewer: how did you find out about foursquare ?
aa through my friends they just started using it an I followedPower user:
Interviewer: and have you met much people through foursquare--
aa I haven’t really used it as a way to connect with other people just as a way toPower user:
connect with my friends
Interviewer: when did you find out about it and what kind of interest had you in it ---
well I first found out about it in and around 3rd year of second year so it wasPower user:
around 2010ish around there amm I guess the idea was interesting in itself because a load of
my friends were using it at the time
Interviewer: ya ya ---
so I was like O okayPower user:
Interviewer: has changed much sense you have started using it or have you started using it
more recently ---
I started using it more recently i think like last year so I dint notice much.Power user:
Interviewer: what interested you most about it is it the game aspect of freebies for checking
in or just ----

47
no its more .... well it is that too it was just a way to have have a bit morePower user:
conversation to make things and traveling with your friends a little bit more fun but the
aspect of the special offers and the check in into places that does help a lot
Interviewer: yes do you use it to connect with certain events happening around the place--
I haven’t used it personally for events noPower user:
Interviewer: is there anywhere you don’t like to check in maybe at home or is there any
other place you don’t feel comfortable checking in -----
it hasn’t really bothered me much no there’s no place I don’t want to check inPower user:
no
Interviewer: Is there any place you can’t check in for any reason maybe there’s no wi fi or
something ---
aaaammm there have been on occasions but then I just done it outside thePower user:
building instead of in there just when I’m finished inside there I will check in
Interviewer: If you don’t mind me asking what kind of phone plan do you have for you
mobile do you have unlimited usage or is it limited -----
aaa I’ve got unlimited usage for internet so i use that a lot of the time unlessPower user:
there’s Wi-Fi.
Interviewer: does it make a difference for checking in if there is no Wi-Fi ----
no it doesn’t really make a difference if there’s Wi-Fi or not it’s just a plus ifPower user:
there is it might be a bit fast but if there is no Wi-Fi I don’t mind using my 3g

48
Interviewer: Do find foursquare benefits your personal life or college life---
aaaaa it hasn’t really had any effect to be honestPower user:
Interviewer: and how often do you use it does it vary when you’re in college or at home---
ammm it varies just really on the week day, on the weekends I don’t really do toPower user:
much there’s not really much to check in or not too much things to use it for
Interviewer: is there much difficulty with using foursquare now or has it just becomes an
everyday thing to take out your phone and us it--
aa I think it’s just experience just like with other apps as well it just kind of reallyPower user:
easy without think to go O this button does this so I’ve gotten fairly used to it.
Interviewer: what’s the biggest thing in foursquare you aim for? Is it getting badges,
mayorships, freebies ----
ya well it’s just more the gaming side of it I think is what I mostly use it forPower user:
Interviewer: and what motivates you to check into these places ?----
it’s just boredom really something to do i just take out the phone while I’mPower user:
waiting for a lecture or a friend or something
Interviewer: does it make a difference if certain palaces have their business page set up it
there have special offers, pictures and the opening hours----

49
aaa I don’t find that it does help like if you do go out place like o okay this placePower user:
closes in like 2 hours so we can stay here for a bit and then wonder off or if they have their
website link to it you can see other things they offer. It does... you wouldn’t have to go off
searching for it its there for you already it makes it easier for you already
Interviewer: is there any other social networking sites that you have connect with your
foursquare ---
aaaa I find it’s a bit annoying to link your Foursquare and your twitter and stuffPower user:
like that cause you’re just kind of it clogs up everything so I prefer to keep them mostly
separate
Interviewer: would you prefer Foursquare over any other social network or which social
network would be your favourite at the moment ------
aaaa did well out of social networking sites id use tumbler and twitter the mostPower user:
Interviewer: do other peoples check ins influence where you go or if a place had more check-
----ins would you go there
ammm not so far but I think it would when it becomes a bit more popularPower user:
Interviewer: do you think foursquare is used a lot around limerick? Would your friends
around limerick use it---
know my friends did use it a lot it kind of died out between them just as theyPower user: I
kind of changed phones and just didn’t bother getting it back on their phone
Interviewer: do you feel much people know about foursquare or is there a lot of your friends
that wouldn’t know about foursquare---

50
aaaa majority of my friends actually have no idea what it is. like it wasPower user:
mentioned in a lecture we have in semester one and everyone was asked and think think it
was a grand total of 5 that knew what it was
Interviewer: do you think foursquare would be a lot better if there were more people using
it---
ammm it would make the experience a bit more aa interesting aaa i think itsPower user:
just like anything though if you get too many people it would just clog up
Interviewer: do you find many businesses are involved in foursquare---
I know there’s a local business the restaurant ‘xxxxx’there quite involved theyPower user:
use foursquare quite a lot for the offer and different kind of things
Interviewer: do you think more businesses should start getting more involved---
Power user: It is a field where there is a lot of opportunity for them to basically find new
potential customers so it would be a good business plan
Interviewer: Do there special offer in certain places the freebies and stuff would they ... say
you were going to eat in a certain restaurant and you found o there’s an offer here I’m gona
go here instead do you think it has changed has it happened a few times or -----
it has happened not to myself but a few of my friends once or twicePower user:
Interviewer: would you use foursquare more often if there were more special offers in
businesses or do you use it enough already?------
I think people would use it more often if they got .. if what they were gettingPower user:
out of it if it was more physical and less digitally based if they were getting more special
offers they probably would aaa usage would probably go up

51
Interviewer: would you use it a lot more or do you use it enough already --
think I would use it a lot more checking into different places right now myPower user: I
week days are usually just college and home
Interviewer: do you use Foursquare a lot if you were travelling or if you were in a different
country or anything---
I’ve used it once or twice when i was in Spain but not too often because of thePower user:
limited internet access their rates are a lot more abroad if you can’t find Wi-Fi
Interviewer: would you use it as a travel guide if you were in a hotel with Wi-Fi abroad ]-----
yes I would, I have done that a few times aa just gone on foursquare like localPower user:
businesses say get directions to this place. Like instead of pulling out that big paper map just
bring it up on your phone it’s a lot easier
Interviewer: okay ya that’s pretty much it do you have any questions for me or anything ---
no not reallyPower user:
Interviewer: okay thanks a million if you want to get in contact me don’t hesitate to email
me.

52
Business interview transcript
When did you first start foursquare –Interviewer:
Business Owner: How long has it actually been up and running do you know
It’s been going sense 2010 roughly-Interviewer:
Business Owner: O ya I’d say I had sense it was first out for the business I felt it was a great
idea really but maybe Facebook places have kind of taken over ever sense that has start iv
notice foursquare kind of died out a bit. Actually I don’t think I have it on my phone anymore
How did you hear about foursquare –Interviewer:
Business Owner: Well I’m really involved with a lot of social media and I found it through
twitter originally a lot of peoples twitter accounts were connected to foursquare so you
would see a lot of places being tagged and people check in on twitter and linking back to
foursquare.
What other social media platforms do you use-Interviewer:
Business Owner: Well I have been fairly involved in the social media with the business I think
it’s a great help I have twitter, Facebook foursquare and actually Pinterest is a big one I find I
have got 1000s of hits linking back to the website from Pinterest all though it is mainly an
Americans who like and share the post its gives a great boast to the website click troughs.
Which of them would you use most?Interviewer:
Business Owner: Well personally I would use twitter a lot that’s my main platform but it’s a
bit more casual and I use Facebook quite a lot, actually I think we have a lot of check ins on
Facebook places I think. But I kind of go from one to another I find twitter connects me with
a lot more people around the country I get interviews and make connections with people it’s
very good for networking and I find Facebook is more local like I have a lot of student and
mothers and people around the area liking the business on Facebook and it’s more of a way
to connect with the local people
Would you use foursquare much –Interviewer:
Business Owner: No not really anymore I think it has just died out even more it wasn’t too
popular I think it was maybe an Irish thing of people not wanting to share their location like
they don’t want people to know where there I don’t know. I thinks is a great thing to share
were you are I even used foursquare a lot when I was in London know it was a great way to
find different places. I think if it was used by more people it would be much better like it’s a

53
great idea it’s much easier to take out the map of foursquare and find a place close than
going on trip advisor or something and then trying to find the place.
long did it take you to receive the first check in after you start Foursquare-Interviewer:
Business Owner :I’m not too sure to be honest it was never that big. However at the start I
know the major of the place was a big thing and think there was even a small little battle
between a few people but I don’t think many are using it now actual xxxx(customer) right
here used to check in all the time. Do you check in on foursquare anymore?
Customer: nah don’t use it any more to be honest I don’t think there’s enough on it really
people are kind of using yelp and things now instead but no would use it anymore
Business Owner: Ya I think there’s a lot of people don’t know about it but I think it’s just a
kind of Irish thing it just never took off here I know it’s very big in America but I just hasn’t
took off
Did you notice an increase in business sense you started foursquare-Interviewer:
Business Owner :No not really to be honest now Facebook and twitter have been great in
building a customer base it has made a major impact
Is there many giveaways on an average week –Interviewer:
Business Owner :No there has only been a hand full of give always that I can recall. Like I
think it’s a great idea like it is the only social network that gives you something back so I
don’t know why it hasn’t worked and like this place now would be perfect place for people I
even have my foursquare places sticker up like people are always in and out of here like you
might have someone in here maybe 10 times a week so it would be perfect for them even
get a free cup of coffee but no one seems to be doing it
Do you feel foursquare is a good platform for business –Interviewer:
Business Owner :Ya well I think it had a lot of potential but I don’t think it has taken off
around Ireland for some reason
you think foursquare will grow-Interviewer:
Business Owner :Not really to be honest I think it’s dead like I said I don’t even have to app
any more I kind of stopped using it as well
Are there any issues when using foursquare or setting up Foursquare ?Interviewer:

54
Business Owner :No I just had it on my laptop I think it was very easy to be honest
How often do you change your special offers-?Interviewer:
Business Owner :It’s been the same now for quite a while I’m even too sure of what they are
at the moment is it 3 check-ins for a coffee of something
Do you offer Wi-Fi in store ?Interviewer:
Business Owner :Yes we have Wi-Fi
Okay that’s it thanks very much just send me a message if you have anyInterviewer:
questions

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