After being one of the first schools in the country to establish a following on the social network Foursquare, Syracuse University became the third school to have its own badge users can unlock.

Foursquare is a social network that allows users to check in at locations using a mobile phone or a device with Internet access, according to the Foursquare website. Users of the service can track where their friends have been, browse or write tips at locations giving recommendations and earn badges based on the amount of activity they have, according to the website.

SU launched its Foursquare badge, which features the word ”Cuse’ and the number 44 in orange letters, on Jan. 25. Stanford University and Harvard University each have their own badge as well.

Users must follow SU on Foursquare and check into a variety of places on campus to get the badge, said Anthony Rotolo, assistant professor of practice and social media strategist at the School of Information Studies.

‘It’s like Xbox Live, where you can unlock achievements,’ Rotolo said. ‘They don’t really do anything, but you can look at them and say you earned them.’

SU’s involvement with Foursquare started in spring 2010 when David Rosen, senior information technology management major and member of SU’s social media team, took interest in the site.

‘I had seen that Harvard had a Foursquare page, and we didn’t. So I was like, ‘We should get involved with this,” Rosen said.

Rosen then reached out to Foursquare co-founder and SU alumnus Dennis Crowley on Twitter about starting a page for SU. Crowley replied with enthusiasm, and there has been a working relationship between SU and Foursquare since then, Rosen said.

Today, SU’s account on Foursquare has nearly 13,000 followers.

Some students who use Foursquare have been pleased with SU’s presence on the site and the increase in its popularity.

‘It’s an interesting experience, like a scavenger hunt or some kind of game,’ said Rob Fonda, a senior television, radio and film major who uses the service daily. ‘I just earned the Syracuse badge last week, which I had no idea even existed, so that was a fun surprise.’

Though the use of Foursquare is rising at SU, some students aren’t convinced it is worthwhile. Brent Perez, a senior information technology management major, is an avid user of the service but said he has seen limited interest from his friends.

‘There’s a lot of people who think it’s kind of pointless. They don’t want to put it on their phone,’ he said. ‘It’s just another time-waster like Facebook and Twitter and all that.’

But Foursquare is not the only social media SU has received notice for using. Klout.com recently ranked SU’s official Twitter account the second most influential among colleges. Klout.com ranks users based on the number of followers, interactions, live tweets and other factors.

Rotolo credits SU’s success in using social media to its approach. Unlike a public relations or advertising firm running social media, SU has students take shifts on the weekends tweeting or updating the university’s Facebook page.

At the beginning of the spring 2010 semester, SU set up a social media team that included Rotolo, two staff members and eight students.

‘Usually a firm is hired to do social media, but SU wanted something a little more homegrown,’ Rotolo said. ‘The students on the team come from all different schools, and we know the community, and we are here every day trying to find out what to have conversations about.’

jdgenco@syr.edu

 

 

 

Published on February 8, 2011 at 12:00 pm