Grand Valley 'checks in' on Foursquare

Grand Valley is officially connected with Foursquare, a mobile geo-social networking service that connects users to venues. It is a friend-finder, a social city guide and a game that challenges users to experience new things.

Starting with Athletics and Campus Dining, venues at Grand Valley will start offering discounts, specials and giveaways to people who check in on Foursquare and for individuals who become mayor, the user who most frequently checks in to the same venue.

Foursquare announced the launch of its Foursquare for Universities program last September and Grand Valley decided to jump on board. “Our mission is to enhance the image and visibility of the university, and social media helps us do just that,” said Dave Poortvliet, Web manager at Grand Valley. “We’ve had great success in connecting with students through Twitter and Facebook, and location-based services like Foursquare was the next logical step. We noticed many faculty, staff, and students were starting to use Foursquare and we wanted to connect with them so we created a university account.”

Grand Valley’s page is designed to help students, alumni, faculty, staff and visitors share information about classes, building hours, campus activities and traditions, and other information. Users can check in to hundreds of Grand Valley venues ranging from the Kirkhof Center to Mackinac Hall to the Mac lab in Lake Ontario Hall.

Checking in to a venue a certain amount of times awards Foursquare users with virtual badges, rewards earned based on users’ check in habits. Users checking in at Grand Valley venues can earn six badges: Smells Like School Spirit, Quad Squatter, Campus Munchies, School Spirit, Campus Explorer and Bookworm Bender.

Check in to the Fieldhouse Arena on February 17 for the basketball game and receive $5 off a purchase of $10 or more. Visit www.facebook.com/gvsufood for weekly Campus Dining specials.

Visit Foursquare for more information about downloading the free mobile app, which is available for smartphones.

Visit Grand Valley’s Foursquare page at www.foursquare.com/gvsu.