I had an interesting conversation on Twitter about Foursquare notifications. Even though we primarily spoke about Foursquare I think the “etiquette” we discussed can apply on any social network.

Foursquare can push all updates and checkins toTwitter or Facebook. This is an opt in setting, users can choose to push out their Foursquare notifications or not. My approach to Foursquare is that if I am someplace and I wouldn’t mind company then I push out an update to my Twitter and Facebook accounts. However, there are people that share just a little too much in the eyes of some people.

I started off this conversation by posting this tweet, “I see people complaining about 4square updates on Twitter. Isn’t Twitter the place for them? Twitter = real time web = 4square Right?“.

I quickly received responses from David Reid and Kerim Friedman, @davidonformosa and @kerim respectively. I found their responses interesting because they appeared to be on the other side of the fence than I was. I’m not for a barrage of Twitter posts from Foursquare but I think that Twitter is the right forum for it. To me, Twitter is where you send out real-time information. The buzz word of the minute these days is the real-time web. Doesn’t Foursquare exemplify this?

David added that they would be useful if they were connected to an event “Exactly who are 4sq posts relevant to? Unless location is linked to some interesting activity I don’t see the point of it.”

I can get behind this mode of thinking. If a Foursquare post goes out and it lets your followers and friends know that you are at a great concert or festival then it becomes extremely relevant. But how about a restaurant or café?

Wouldn’t this also include a post about sitting in a coffee shop? I mean, if I Foursquare (now a verb) that I am killing time while drinking coffee and someone I know happens to also be in the vicinity and they are also looking for something to do, then this type of post is also extremely relevant, to them.

David also brought up that maybe we should think about what our followers want to read. “It really depends on what you want. Do you want to just tweet to a few friends or to have a broader following?“

This is a very valuable point as well but I don’t believe that we should have to only post items that have mass appeal. Some of the most widely followed people on Twitter post at the 10 foot level and the 10,000 foot level. Updates can be broad but they can also be very localized, this is the beauty of Twitter.

Karim stated that he gets tired of the gaming aspect of Foursquare cluttering up his tweet stream. “I really think it is the “So and so is now the Mayor of X” posts that really get on my nerve. Who the fuck cares?“

This I can also agree about. Perhaps the gaming aspect of Foursquare belongs in Foursquare, the badges and mayorship updates can stay within the app. It makes sense to broadcast out where you are as an invitation to people following you. If they are not playing the game then they probably don’t care about the rest. This is true for other Twitter games that I got tired of seeing, like #Spymaster and #Mafiawars.

My stance in the discussion is that I don’t want to annoy people that follow me, since it is hard to engage people in conversation if you have annoyed them all and they no longer follow you. I took on the role as devil’s advocate in some cases and posed questions or comments in order to get feedback. Nevertheless, I still found this to be a very interested conversation.

Our conversation went on for nearly and hour and I came away with a few things. First, I modified my Foursquare settings to only post locations, no badge or mayorship updates. I will try to focus more on only posting relevant updates, something that I was already doing and will continue to do so. Buying groceries at the supermarket isn’t a place where I would want to necessarily interact with people but relaxing at a park would be a place for social interactions, these are the updates that I will selectively push out to Twitter. The remaining Foursquare checkins will still stay within Foursquare as part of the gaming aspect of Foursquare.

Foursquare on Twitter

This is the whole conversation in reverse chronological order, the way the Twitter timeline would look. The newest post is at the top and the oldest post is at the bottom, read top to bottom to follow the conversation. I don’t know a way to post a link to just the posts from the conversation so I took a series of screen shots and strung them together. I also edited out Tweets from other Twitter-ers that showed up in the timeline at the same time but have no relevance to the conversation.

What are your thoughts? How do you use Foursquare?

(Image Credit: peasap)

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About the author

Matt
I'm Matt and I share how to build an internet presence through internet business, social marketing, lifestyle design and productivity tools. While here, read about me to learn my story or find out how you can hire me.

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4 Comments for Foursquare and Twitter: When Is Too Much, Too Much? [Poll]

davidonformosa

It's great that you've put this together in a blog post. Another one of Twitter's problems is that discussions like this are quickly lost unless you take action to save them.

Reply

Matt Hooper

It would be nice if Twitter's search would let you input a list of a users and a time frame. That is all I would have need to complete this. Hopefully one day.

Reply

davidonformosa

It's great that you've put this together in a blog post. Another one of Twitter's problems is that discussions like this are quickly lost unless you take action to save them.

Reply

Matt Hooper

It would be nice if Twitter's search would let you input a list of a users and a time frame. That is all I would have need to complete this. Hopefully one day.

Reply