Oh Tampa, you’ve been there with me through it all… except you can kind of be like that friend that will party with you but if you have to move they’ll find a reason not to be there. It’s not that you aren’t a good friend, we just don’t get to see each other much anymore and you just need a little motivation. Well, Tampa… here’s a reason to finally get excited, and you can do it from anywhere.. yes, even…. the local bar. You lush.

Foursquare Day is checking itself into Tampa (and worldwide) on April 16th and you need to get involved. Why? If you are a Tampa resident in the know about all things tech or social media, you’ve probably wondered why the heck we as a large city, don’t seem to have the frequent “tweetups” or gatherings that many other social media savy areas have.

*gets out map*

How many cities of the Tampa Bay area can you name? Yeah, it’s a doozy. We’ve got at least 20 different parts of Tampa, not to mention Clearwater, Largo and St. Pete. And yes… Pasco County counts. But only up to ten…*snorts*. When I lived in Greenville, South Carolina…the social media meetups were at least 3 times a week. Well, everyone lives 15 minutes away from Downtown Greenville. Many of the larger cities have mass transportation and smaller groups in different areas… Bottom line, it’s hard to round everyone up out of their different areas to get them into ONE place at one time.

Foursquare Day is a landmark solution to this problem, it allows all the nooks and crannies of Tampa to be involved in one event while in their own areas. Foursquare is an application you can use on your I-Phone or Smartphone to “check into” places in your town. By doing so you can see if your friends may be checked into the same place, earn badges and even become the mayor of the location if you visit the place frequently. At first about hearing of Foursquare, I was pretty sure I might as well just give the stalkers my address. But it does have privacy features and not to mention more and more businesses are embracing foursquare for a promotional tool. Example: Hyatt Regency Tampa is giving a 50% eatery discount to anyone who becomes the Foursquare Mayor of their hotel. Pretty great way to get people to keep on coming back and it rewards you for just going to your favorite places. No Tampa… I don’t think Mons Venus is offering a Foursquare discount.

But if that’s what you want Tampa, get involved with Foursquare Day. Check into those businesses on that day that are offering discounts, get rewarded, finally meet those people that have been stalking you. Do you go to a place that isn’t announced as an Foursquare Day check-in spot? Find them on twitter, tell em about Foursquare.. show em this post… maybe they’ll get on board as well.

More details to come soon about exactly where you’ll need to go on April 16th.. but keep posted to the Foursquare Day Facebook and Wiki. In the meantime, be proud Tampa and tell everyone about Foursquare Day… it’s a huge day in the way of how technology is changing not only our social lives but promoting small local business and bringing communities together. It all started here in Tampa, so if you see @natebw and @redheadjessica checked in somewhere, say thanks for getting Foursquare Day from just a local idea to now a worldwide event.

Mayor of Destructo HQ,

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