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Should you be Mayor of your own business on Foursquare?

by Antony Bailey on July 17, 2010

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I recently got to thinking about the Mayor offers that are made on Foursquare by certain companies and it made me wonder about who should be allowed to be Mayor of a place.

I hate to single out one person, however for the sake of transparency I will choose one whom I know.

: Image by gobanshee1 via Flickr

In my example I have James Kane of Kanes Tea Rooms who was also the subject of a recent blog post.

When I was last at Kanes Tea Rooms, I noticed a sign that invited people to “Follow him on Twitter @KanesTeaRooms” and to “”Like” on Facebook” and “Check-in on Foursquare”. The sign said about offers that are available to the Foursquare Mayor.

This seems awfully well placed and a great way to improve your social presence. I visited a few times on each visit I checked in via Foursquare and was awarded the title of Mayor.

A few days ago, I received an email to tell me I have been ousted as Mayor by James Kane. While, it is a little disappointing to lose any Mayorship, it made me wonder about the use of checking in at your own business that you might use foursquare to promote.

The way I figure it is that if you are at a business more often than the proprietor you no doubt have a shared interest in the company. I can see no way an “average customer” could hope to check in at a business more often than the boss.

I might be thinking about this completely wrong, and it might have a reason. However it got me to thinking, and therefore I decided to ask you my readers what your opinion is.

Image by PartTimeLegend via Flickr
I write this based on the idea of being Mayor of your own business and not as a direct criticism of anyone person. I enjoy the friendship of James Kane and others in related circles. I use James only as a reference point for discussion. I am however very disappointed to have lost the Mayorship title.