Superswarmldn – the UK’s first 250 check in on foursquare
Niel Armstrong – the moon, Edmond Hillary – Everest, Amelia Earhart – The Atlantic, Vincent Haywood and 249 others – UK’s first SuperSwarm Badge on Foursquare.
Maybe not up there with those names, yet at 19:03 October 7th, the UK foursquare community unlocked the UK’s first Super Swarm Badge and damn we were proud.
To explain, a superswarm badge is achived when 250 or more people check in to the same venue via foursquare. The closest I had come to this was with a Swarm badge(50 people). (Achieved at a Muse gig at Wembley Stadium with 54 other people)
There were two Superswarm attempts on the go the first being last nights at Jewel in Picadilly Circus and the second in the Bank house, Cheltenham on the 9th October. The one on the 9th is still on the go for those that want to get the badge.
A few things stood out to me regarding this event and that was how it was organised, how quick it spread and how over target it was. On top of this the Jewel Bar scored by having a guaranteed 250 people turn up, not for the entertainment, or drinks. But to get a badge. A simple virtual badge. Organiser Chris Pearson’s goal was to get at least 250 Foursquare users to check in to The Jewel bar in Piccadilly within a three hour window. The Foursquare community surpassed the target reaching 325 check-ins – at last count.
Organiser Chris (@cpchannel) used Plancast to schedule the event and constantly tweeted and blogged as much as he could to get the word out. From using other networks and tweeters such as , @foursquaregames, @UnicornRW, partnering with @londonist and @LDN plus organising a nice freebie at the door with Jewel at Picadilly Circus, Kodak jumping on board with a giveaway and photographer @paul_clarke who uploaded all his photos to flickr.
Helping Chris along the way was Rebecca Williams, @unicornRW. By using twitter accounts she was able to broadcast to followers interested as to what was happening, also by using tweetdeck and social mention she was able to monitor and engage with anyone mentioning #superswarmldn and superswarm. Regular ‘shouting’ and leaving tips at the chosen venue on the last few days before the event on foursquare to the community ensured promotion as well, and lastly using new kid on the block getglue to discuss and react to UK foursquare fanatics to get to the event.
With Foursqaure recently having an 11 hour downtime a lot of involved foursquarers were slightly nervous. However at 19:03 there was a big cheer as we hit the 250, then back to the drinks. 
If you think about it, at no point in time was there any paid media, no TV, no print, no search. Just a free events tool, a free microblog, a free social site for checking into interests, a free blog and free monitoring tools. Add a handful of people passionate about social media and you have a great event. This drove over 350 paying consumers to a bar in Picadilly Circus.
Imagine when the UK goes for the Mega Swarm – if it ever exists, that venue will benefit big time. then there’s the Super Mega Swarm, then the Plague and finally the armegeddon which I think is all of us checking into earth.
In short, the Foursquare community, as small as it is in the UK right now and as much as we have had to deal with the “facebook places will kick foursqaures ass” we achieved a little something last night that we were all part of. Even the little retweets we all did helped achieve a goal through the power of Social Media.Bring on the next one!
Well done!
P.S did anyone check into Facebook places as well?
All Comments
Slightly surprised this hasn’t yet happened at a natural event, something like a concert or football game, where the numbers are into the thousands.
Perhaps this shows just how far from mainstream the check-in phenomena is.
yeah, good point I mentioned in the posting I achieved a 50 checkin at a gig at Wembley Stadium and that got me thinking that it should have been a lot easier judging from the crowd size.
Was thinking the same thing, but as you say Foursquare isn’t as mainstream as we like yet. Imagine when it is.
However, I like the fact that Chris and his team simple used the tools available to achieve a target through Social Media
Thanks for the kind words Vincent. A few points to mention.
I checked in with Gowalla also (1 other user had also) and facebook places (1 friend had also), so make of that what you will.
There is another strange mechanic with the superswarm checkin and its around the checkin or VOTE. My very first checkin that night was no more important than the 250th but equally they are hugely important to each other. The truth is that I was no more important in getting this badge than anybody else its a ‘how many people does it take to change a superswarm lightbulb’ – 250 and nothing less.
The big suprise for me was the complete smash through the 250 in 63minutes.
And the last point is London ready for a superduper swarm badge well on last nights count i think so.
I checked into Gowalla too, like the look of Gowalla strange its not growing like 4sq.
Didn’t bother with Facebook places though
Considering that the concept of checking in is not really mainstream this is an excellent achievement.
I like the fact that the organiser organised the whole event using social media without any paid advertising.
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