Ginkgo Restaurant & Bar Beijing

Current media fave Foursquare, has been making big waves in the US and Europe over the last year and back in November it launched in Beijing, where it has seen steady growth over the last two months. I have been experimenting with it both personally, and as a marketing tool for Ginkgo, and feel it’s now time the rest of you knew about it.

What is Foursquare?

Foursquare encourages people to explore their city and then rewards them for doing so. This is done by combining friend-finder and social city guide elements with game mechanics – users earn points, win mayorships and unlock badges for trying new places and revisiting old favourites. It’s a great way to explore Beijing and you will find yourself discovering new and unusual places to visit.

Get Foursquare

To play, first install it on your mobile. It’s available for iPhone, Android, Blackberry, or Palm or if you are on another phone, via the mobile website. You can also signup for an account from your computer here.

Your friends can be easily imported from your existing social networks such as Facebook and Twitter so you won’t need to spend hours adding them either.

Check-in to Places

People use foursquare to “check-in“, which is a way of pinpointing your whereabouts. When you check-in someplace, it’ll tell your friends where they can find you and recommend places to go & things to do nearby. People check-in at all kind of places – cafes, bars, restaurants, parks, homes, offices.

You’ll find that as your friends use foursquare to check-in, you’ll start learning more about the places they frequent. Not only is it a great way to meet up with nearby friends, but you’ll also start to learn about their favorite spots and the new places they discover.

Share your experiences with friends

Foursquare helps you make lists of your favorite things to do and lets you share them with friends. Think beyond your standard review – we’re looking less for “The food here is top notch” and more for “Try the fresh Rosemary Pizza – it’s delicious.”

As you check-in around the city, you’ll start finding tips that other users have left behind. After checking-in at a restaurant, it’s not uncommon to unlock a tip suggesting the best thing on the menu. Checking-in at a bar will often offer advice on what your next stop should be. Every tip you create is discoverable by other users just by checking-in.

Earn points and unlock badges!

Every foursquare checkin earns you points. Find a new place in your neighborhood? +5 points. Making multiple stops in a night? +2 points. Dragging friends along with you? +1.

And as you start checking-in to more interesting places with different people, you’ll start unlocking badges. There are badges for discovering new places and for traveling to far away places. Spending too much time singing karaoke or been hitting the gym consistently? Yes, there are badges for those too

Become the mayor! Unlock some freebies!

We all have our local hangouts and Foursquare keeps tabs on who’s the most loyal of all the regulars. If you’ve been to a place more than anyone else, you’ll become “The Mayor”… until someone else comes along and steals your title.

It may sound a little silly until you see the list of places that are offering freebies to their mayors – free coffees, free ice-cream, free hotel stays – it pays to be a foursquare loyalist and check-in whenever you go! In Beijing, Ginkgo, Lush, Beer Mania, Fubar and The Brick already have Mayor offers with more places adding theirs regularly. Other businesses can signup here.

Ginkgo is Getting things Started…

Over the last few weeks, I (Olly) have been checking into Ginkgo myself which makes it very hard for anyone else to become the Mayor since I am here everyday! As of today I am stopping this, and am also launching a little competition. The first person to become the official Mayor of Ginkgo will receive a free pizza and a drink (beijing beer, soft drink, glass of wine). Furthermore the Mayor will then be entitled to the special offer shown in the widget on the left every time they visit!

When you become Mayor just show your phone to Rod or Olly so we know you’ve done it. Good luck.

Beijing Boyce has a good writeup about Foursquare on his Blog here.