First Facebook, then Twitter and now Foursquare; Obama sure gets around (social platforms). As announced today on the White House blog, Obama will be checking in to the location-based service as he hits stops on his economic bus tour in the Midwest. Of course.
Users who want to follow Barack can check out the White House Foursquare page here, where they can now subscribe to White House Tips as well as check in to the White House when they visit as well as Presidential events. And Barack has already left his first “Tip” linking to a blog post about the tour’s first stop at Lower Hannah’s Bend Park in Cannon Falls, Minnesota. Eh, someone should tell him that’s not exactly how they’re used.
One wonders how much of this social media outreach is the doing of newly brought on Obama campaign CTO (and former Threadless CTO) Harper Reed who is hep to these things, and how useful the location-based service will be in getting the word out to supporters. In any case it seems like you need to follow the President through his page to actually find him — searching for “Barack Obama” on the mobile app got me a guy in Salt Lake City Utah and a Barack Obama in London.
While probably the service’s most famous, Barack isn’t the only politician on Foursquare. Mayor Bloomberg famously checked into the Marriage Equalitocalypse earlier this summer and Mitt Romney and Cory Booker are also sharing their checkins with fans. *Insert joke about Obama automatically being the mayor of everything he visits here.*
Also: It seems like Foursquare has set up the White House Page to automatically follow people back, otherwise Obama would be fielding A LOT of friend requests. I personally can’t wait until he joins Instagram.
Foursquare is a geographical location based social network that incorporates gaming elements.
Users share their location with friends by “checking in” via a smartphone app or by text message….