Are you the Mayor of your local hot spot? Have you found yourself creating tinfoil origami over dinner with your friends? If not, you’re missing out on the latest craze in Social Media and the time to start getting involved was yesterday.
Not only are we checking in at our favorite places and finding out where our friends are, but now we are able to engage in games or tasks to win prizes and virtual rewards. You don’t have to be a real time Boss or Mayor to call yourself one anymore. Checking in is fun, but getting prizes, rewards, and a chance to be the Mayor makes day-to-day life that much more exciting.
Some of the Mobile apps that have been on the forefront of this evolution are Foursquare, Gowalla, Facebook Places, Scvngr, BrightKite, and Loopt. While each app has its own distinctive features, they share noticeable similarities.
Scvngr is a Boston-based start-up that helps organizations engage people through location-based smart phone games. Seth Preibatsch, The CEO and “Chief Ninja”, wanted to make the planet more entertaining and engaging by building a game layer on top of the world. Scvngr, unlike other location-based applications, puts gaming first.
Applications like this seem to be popping up all over the place. Here’s one I found that connects sailors in places all over the world, www.bluemapia.com, web and mobile social mapping for boaters. Bluemapia allows sailors to socialize with other sailors and share on the map their sailing trips, videos, photos and comments about the places they’ve visited by boat.
So whether your mimicking the mannequin at American Apparel and cat walking your way to a Fashionista Badge or earning a Foodie Badge for visiting the most restaurants, Scvngr assures you’re in for an exciting day!
