As part of a content syndication partnership, the following article also appears in this week’s (May 26 – June 1) issue of Shout!, an alternative weekly newspaper in Omaha. Each Wednesday, look to Shout!’s Silicon Prairie News page for a feature story and “Quick Scoop.” This week’s article can be found on page 19.
Foursquare enthusiast Juan Carrillo poses with the foursquare iPhone app in hand. Photo by Andrea Ciurej.
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Making a run to the liquor store or frequenting the local bar scene might sound like the regular weekend plans of 21-plus college student. That’s what college is all about, right?
Soon-to-be University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO) graduate Juan Carrillo aims to change that misconception.
As the social media director for Maverick Solutions, UNO’s student-run public relations firm, Carrillo has teamed up with U kNOw Choices , a program that tries to prevent binge drinking. Utilizing foursquare, a location-based social network, he hopes to show his friends and classmates that there’s more to do on the weekends than gather around glasses of beer to socialize.
“By using foursquare, if [students] are checking into a coffeehouse or a gym or a restaurant more times than their friend thought they were at a bar, that erases the perception their friend thought,” Carrillo said.
Unlike the game it’s named after, the foursquare Carrillo is playing is a smartphone-based application that lets individuals share their real-time location with friends. Users “check-in” at venues, gain points for a variety of actions and earn badges as a reward for completing an array of tasks.
“One of the goals of foursquare is that [its creators] want to make the city your playground,” Carrillo said. “They want their users to explore their city, to make the city almost like a game, to have a deep connection between their city, their neighborhood and their place.”
Carrillo said his goals of this initiative are to change students’ misconceptions about alcohol usage and, like the network’s creators, to encourage the exploration of Omaha.
“It’s not just a little check-in because the value of that check-in means a lot,” Carrillo said. “[A] check-in can give you a new way to engage in the city, a new way to partake in the community and also a new way to strengthen the relationship between a place and yourself.”
In addition to the check-ins and supplied badges, Carrillo is taking U kNOw Choices’ use of foursquare one step further.
For the past several months, he’s been pitching Omaha-area coffeehouses, restaurants and entertainment venues to offer student discounts and other incentives for those who show their student ID and check-in on foursquare.
Scooter’s Coffeehouse at 63rd and Center Streets, Crane Coffee at 76th and Cass Streets, and Aromas Coffeehouse at 1033 Jones Street, have already latched onto the idea.
“At first, I didn’t think it was going to be of interest to clients, but when I heard them say they were interested in this, I was ecstatic,” Carrillo said. “I was so happy because I could actually experiment with something I was very passionate about and also do something really fun.”
Foursquare check-ins could also help businesses find their regular customers.
“[The] more you check-in and the more you go [to one location] on different days, you become the mayor,” Carrillo added. “And that’s like a badge of honor, to be the mayor – it means something.”
Although Carrillo is an avid Facebook and Twitter user, he doesn’t feel he would have been able to engage with college students as effectively on those social networks.
While he feels Facebook fan pages are too common and simplistic, Twitter has a powerful platform to engage in conversation. The latter, however, isn’t favored by the college-aged demographic.
Check-ins are also more powerful than sending tweets and posting on a Facebook wall.
“A check-in tells your friends where you are, where you’re going, what you’re going to be doing and also the kind of person you are,” Carrillo said.
He thinks Omaha is a fun and vibrant city worth exploring.
“There are businesses here for [students], that cater to them, that care about them, that give them rewards,” Carrillo said. “UNO students can feel proud of being UNO students and that they frequent these businesses.”
In challenging the college drinking misconception, Carrillo knows he’s up for a challenge, but then again, that’s what foursquare is all about.
The Pizzaiolo badge (left), for example, is one of the most difficult badges to acquire. It’s rewarded to users who visit 20 different pizza locations.
“It’s part of the college experience, eating pizza before a game, after a game, during a game,” Carrillo said.
Now, he hopes to make foursquare part of the college experience, too.
Quick Scoop
Foursquare Facts
- Launched: March 11, 2009
- Located: New York City
- Co-Founders: Dennis Crowley & Naveen Selvadurai
- Available on: iPhone, BlackBerry, Android and Palm
- User-base: As of April 2010, more than 1 million users
- Before foursquare: Crowley founded the location-based application Dodgeball, which was purchased by Google in 2005. Crowley was a graduate student at New York University at the time of Dodgeball’s inception.
- How to sign up: Visit foursquare.com using a computer or mobile device and select “join now.” Begin by filling out your first and last name. Then, choose a password, fill in your e-mail address, your current location, phone number, gender and birthday. If you have hopes of becoming a “mayor” on foursquare someday, upload a profile picture, a mayorship requires that element. Once you have completed all of the information, select “join.”
- How to use: Download the foursquare application to your smartphone. When visiting a place of business, open the application, select the venue and “check-in.” Browse the application and foursquare website to familiarize yourself with other features, including adding friends, earning badges and reading venue tips.
More on Juan Carrillo
- Hometown: Lexington, Neb.
- College: University of Nebraska at Omaha
- Expected Graduation: August 2010
- Major: Public Relations / Advertising
- Career Goal: Work in a progressive, forward-thinking company specializing in social media platforms in the Latino market.
- Foursquare Badges Earned: Adventurer, Explorer, Superstar, Bender, Local, Superuser, School Night, Photogenic, Gym Rat, Babysitter, Swarm, Super Mayor, I’m on a Boat, Bravo Newbie, Barista and #4sq Day 2010
- Total Check-ins: 618
- Total Mayorships: 13
- What badge defines him? Carrillo earned the Gym Rat badge for frequenting the gym, which he received about two weeks after joining foursquare.
- How did his interest in for foursquare begin? “I’ve always loved location. I’ve always loved looking at maps,” Carrillo said. “Once I learned my phone had GPS, I started using all of these different applications.”
- Interesting fact: Carrillo was at No. 1 on Omaha’s leaderboard of foursquare users within his first week of using the service.
