The Dangers of Foursquare Badge Fatigue

One day it will happen.

You’ll get tired of collecting Foursquare badges.

It may not happen right away, but with new badge releases and major brands jumping on the Foursquare bandwagon left and right – the tiny shining symbols of geek cred will ultimately lose their luster.

Some questions to consider:

  • How long do you think a Foursquare badge for Starbucks will bring people in the door?
  • How about a badge for Bravo?  Is that going to get people tuning in to Real Housewives of New Jersey?
  • Right now, it’s kind of sexy for marketers to suggest that brands get custom Foursquare badges. But since a custom Foursquare badge can be mostly bought, how long until it reaches a point of saturation?
  • What happens when your corner market forks over the cash for its own custom badge – would you care?

And what will that mean for Foursquare?

Sure, the power users who have been on Foursquare for the last year or so are having a much different user experience then those who just joined.  But the folks who just joined will eventually catch up.

In order to keep the game mechanics of Foursquare (and user interest) rolling long term, the geolocation app will need to figure out a new social play.

What drove the initial appeal of the badges was the scarcity of the item and the hoops you had to jump through to get it.  As the scarcity and hoops decrease – where’s the appeal?

Call me crazy, but I say that Foursquare badges go the way of POGS, Tamagotchis, and Farmville – interesting ideas that captivated our attention for a time, but ultimately lost out.

Will you ever get tired of Foursquare badges?  How can Foursquare overcome badge fatigue?

Photo Credit

Related posts:

  1. Four Ways Foursquare Can Survive the Facebook Onslaught
  2. Six Ways Your Business Can Leverage Geolocation Marketing
  3. Foursquare: Do You Accept Friend Requests From Strangers?

About Colin

Colin Alsheimer is an Account Supervisor for Weber Shandwick and the VP of Promotions for the Social Media Club of Dallas, among other things.