We recently finished setting up Missouri State’s page on Foursquare, the popular location-based social network. This fall Foursquare announced it’s new university program, allowing schools to connect with students through a new communication platform. We applied to the program and were accepted, and have been building our Foursquare page over the past two months.

Foursquare is a geosocial networking website that connects users and locations through mobile devices. By creating an account and downloading an application to their smart phone, users can check-in at venues listed on the Foursquare website. Users can also see what venues their friends like to visit, read comments and tips they leave about each venue, and receive badges and special offers for checking in to certian locations.

All buildings and locations on Missouri State’s campus now exist as venues on Foursquare. By checking in to these locations, users can now find specials at certain locations (the Bookstore being a great example). University badges are also now available to users who check in to campus locations at certain times of the day or often enough. Here are the University badges that are available:

We plan on adding more specials to Missouri State venues over time and will continually be working on new ways to utilize this new aspect to our social media strategy.