Biggify Your Brand With Foursquare

Foursquare is a popular location-based social application through which lawyers can “check in” to the places they go, tweet this information to their clients, and ultimately biggify their personal brands by collecting supercool badges and becoming Mayor of their favorite hotspots. (We did not make this up.)

In about four minutes, you can get your law office set up with foursquare and be on your way to pseudo-rulers of your domain or office. As a bonus, you can also get Starbucks coupons if you drink enough triple venti mocha lattes, or whatever they’re called.

Best Badges for Brand Biggification

Not all of the badges are law-oriented, but many of them may prove useful for boosting the personal brands of real or hobbying lawyers, such as:

• The “Social Media Guru,” “Early Adopter,” and “A-List” badges, essential to the lawyer who wants speaking engagements at legal technology conferences.
• The “10 for 10” badge, for the personal injury lawyer or prosecutor who only takes on winning cases.
• The “WSJ Banker” badge, for the New York lawyer who likes his buddies to know that he can find his way around lower Manhattan.
• The “I’m on a boat!” badge for the lawyer who doesn’t get out much.
• The “Name Dropper” badge, for anyone who wants to prove he read our post about namedropping. If you drop our name we’ll fax you the badge for free (today only, not to be combined with other offers).

But foursquare isn’t all about badges. It is also about mayorships. Go to your favorite location frequently enough, and you could let everyone else know you totally rule there!

Most Monumentous Mayorships

Depending on your practice area and/or marketing goals, here are some mayorship tweets lawyers way wish to endeavor toward:

• “I just became the mayor of Dunwoody Court House on @foursquare! http://4sq.com/hhjKVH”
• “I just became the mayor of Rincker Law, PLLC on @foursquare! http://4sq.com/gvd80b”
• “I just ousted Emma as the mayor of Denver City & County Building on @foursquare! http://4sq.com/9KBtEE”
• “I just became the mayor of Deschutes County Jail (Adult Facility) on @foursquare! http://4sq.com/avhiTZ”
• “I just became the mayor of The Law Society on @foursquare! http://4sq.com/cjufWp”

In attempt to crowdsource further ideas for lawyers’ use of foursquare for practice development, client communications and coupon collection, we hit the tweet streets and asked about foursquare use among lawyers.

Actual Advice From Real (and Fake) Lawyers, Some of Whom Foursquare

Trending quasi-expert @nikiblack, who is Mayor of her local Starbucks, told us, “”Real” lawyers shouldn’t [use foursquare] because their travels are boring, much like them. Fake lawyers should because the “barista” badge rocks.”

Real lawyer @wolfeattorney’s response, “I’m not on foursquare because I thought I had to have all these awesome places to go to like “home” and “court,” confirmed this.

Personal injury lawyer @AndyBarovick suggested that “Lawyers R using 4sq to commit insurance fraud. They announce when they’re away from home–equiv of ‘pls rob my house.’ Then get $$” Services like Please Rob Me make this a promising possibility. Watch yourselves, yo.

But what about lawyers using foursquare for more important stuff, like trying to keep clients out of jail?

@mglickman, who disclaims that he is not a lawyer but plays one on foursquare, responded to our inquiry with a question: “What if existing client checked in at victim’s location… at time of alleged crime?”

We asked for clarification. “So, lawyers should use foursquare to monitor their clients’ whereabouts? And/or advise them to not check in if robbing the joint?”

“Exactly,” he said. “And to try not to unlock the ‘Recidivism’ badge.”

Sounds like sound non-legal advice to us, especially from a law student. Much more practical than the advice of 3L @huma_rashid, whose comment preceding her ReTweet was “LMAO.” She later requested we amend her comment to “ROFLMAO” and called us “awesome.” We’re pretty sure she’s trying to unlock the “Groupie” badge.

How are you using foursquare in your law practice? Are you the mayor of your local courthouse or neighborhood Starbucks? Which badges do you think are the uber-coolest? We look forward to your thoughts.