I have to admit this badge took some time to unlock. It actually is a fairly simple badge to unlock. In principal it could be one of your first badges to unclock and can be unlocked along with the Newbie badge

To unlock this badge, you simply have to be checked in at a location with 50 other people. When

Swarm Badge

you do you get the message “50+ people are also checked-in here – it’s a foursquare flashmob!”

For me it happened last week when I was in Chicago for Internet Retailer. IR, is a yearly conference for those who are involved in online shopping.

When I got the badge, it got me thinking why on earth did it take so long to actually unlock it, I mean I should have been able to unlock it earlier, but it turns out, I have not been in a swarm.

So what are some swarm suggestion?

Here is some I can think of

Hockey, Football, baseball game

Movies

Theater or some performing arts event

A shopping mall

What other ideas do you have for a swarm? where did you unlock yours?

                          

Barista Badge

an essay to order a coffee, don’t care to wait in line for hours while I listen to some one say, can I have a venti, soy, organic, fair trade, skim non fat milk, raw sugar, pike. Why cant you just go up and say, can I have a large coffee please. But I digress.

Before I tell you how to ear this badge, you should know that this badge is not one that is on the main list of badges shown on your iPhone. Even when you unlock it, it does not get displayed, this is on of the special badges.

To earn this badge, you simply have to check – in at 5 Starbucks locations, once you do you unlock this badge, and get the following message

“Congrats – you’ve checked in at 5 different Starbucks! Be sure to pick up a double tall latte for your friend – I’m sure they’d do the same for you.”

Emmmmm, no thanks

                          

Far Far Away Badge

To unlock the Far Far Away badge, you must be in New York City and checking somewhere above 59th Street, which is not quite clear, as soon as you check in somewhere above 59th St, Foursquare will give you the badge and issue you a “Welcome to the world above 59th Street!”

I got the badge by checking in at Venue 31689 a.k.a Bloomingdale’s, 1000 3rd Ave, btw 59th & 60th
New York, NY

If you find your self in NYC, drop by Bloomingdale’s and get yourself a quick badge, otherwise, that badge will remain unlocked.

                          

gym-rat-foursquare

To become a Gym Rat in Foursquare you have to actually go to a Gym. Now when you actually earn the badge you get the following message from Foursquare

“10x trips in 30 days? Go reward yourself to the nastiest double cheeseburger you can find (bonus points for cheesy fries and milkshakes). And ps: you look nice today!”

So that is what it takes, 10 trips to the Gym in 30 days, but how does Foursquare know you went to the Gym, or how does Foursquare know that the location you are checking into is a Gym? well someone gotta tell it, and that can be you or someone else. To tell Foursquare that the location is a Gym, log in to foursquare and tag the location. The tags are important to unlocking different badges and the Gym tag is the only way for you to unlock this badge

                          

Super-Mayor-Foursquare

The Super Mayor Badge requires a few check ins and some time to earn, but is not a hard badge to unlock.

For you to be a super mayor you have to hold down the mayor ship of 10 concurrent locations, and once you do that badge is yours.

You cant not earn this badge in short order it will take you at least 50 check ins before you are in a position to earn it, unless of course you check in a very unique locations where you are uncontested for the mayor ship. I am not sure what happens to this badge if you lose some mayorships, is it stripped?

Just for fun, here are the locations I am mayors of

+ Barrhaven Vietnamese Restaurant (Ottawa, Canada)
+ C A Paradis (Ottawa, Ontario)
+ Esso
+ Fallowfield Village
+ haiku asian bistro and sushi bar
+ KFC
+ MacEWEN
+ mamaronic police station
+ McDonalds
+ ottawa roastery
+ Philip Killeen Hospitality Centre
+ Phillip Van Leeuwen
+ Saslove’s Meat Market (ottawa, ontario)
+ stronger you martial arts

                          

To be a mayor on Foursquare means that you have gone and checked in at a location at least 2 times, and that you have the most check ins at that location. If someone else checks in to the same location, you will be in a mayor-ship fight until one of you two gives up. I have had the honor or holding many mayor-ships, and even stole one this week (Venue 358342 a.k.a Barrhaven Vietnamese Restaurant). I have gotton a few chuckles from people when I became mayor of some locations, proud to say, I hold down two gas stations, a McDonalds, a meat shop, and a police station.

I had a very annoying professor in college who always said the following statement after every comment made in class , it was annoying at the time, but she had a good point. Her statement was “so what and who cares?”, which is exactly the point of this post, I am the mayor of a meat shop, “so what, and who cares?”

Well I certainly don’t care, I get no benefit out being mayor of a McDonalds. My friends who see my foursquare tweets don’t care if I am mayor a police station, they may chuckle, but should they care?

The people who should care however and care a LOT are the owners of places where people check-in. My friends know, that I complain about many meals I buy from restaurants, and so if I am a mayor of a restaurants, that means I like it enough to go back, and if I am telling my friends that I am back, that means free word of mouth advertising, and that is money. Here is the problem, I asked the manager of the Barrhaven Vietnamese Restaurant if I will get a discount because I am the mayor of their store on Foursquare. I could have been from a different planet because she had no clue what I was talking about. Hence the Foursquare dilemma

The people who should absolutely care about Foursquare, often have no clue of its existence, the rest of us are just passers by.

                          

Superuser badge foursquare

The name of super badge suggests that you among the Elite of Foursquare users (can someone call them foursquarers?) The name however is very deceiving this badge can be yours fairly quickly. You don’t need to earn many badges, actually you only need one badge other than the newbie. The one badge that maybe required is the Local badge. Here is why.

The way you earn this badge is by performing 30 checkins in a month. Technically speaking you can just check in to one location every day, that could be your own home if you so choose, and that badge is yours. If you do that you are guaranteed to have earned the local badge, most likely have become the mayor of that location.

This badge can also be earned fairly quickly in my case it was a couple of days, as I was on the road and checking in frequently. Its more fun to earn this badge along with others and its way easier to earn than the name may lead you to think

                          

Local Badge Foursquare

The local badge is given to those who are addicted to a certain place or…. to those people who check in at work. You can in theory earn this badge as your second badge if you only check into one location.

With that being said, the local badge is given to you if you check in to the same place 3 times in one week. If you earn the local badge, I will be willing to bet that you are also the mayor of the location or in a bitter fight with a co-worker over the mayor ship of your work place. If you do not earn this badge by checking in at work, congrats, not only may you be the mayor of the location, but if the location turns out to be a gym, you could very well be on your way to earning the Gym Rat badge.

                          

Bender badge foursquare

so what does it take to earn such a badge? A little commitment and some time outside the house, that is all. For you to earn the bender badge, all you have to do is check in 4 nights in a row and this badge is yours. Now I cant claim to know when exactly Foursquare starts counting night time hours, so you are on your own there but for me all check in happened after 6:00 pm.

                          

Superstar badge foursquare

Its not hard to earn this badge, all you really need to do is check in to 50 unique locations, and this badge is yours.