Monmouth v Belmont, Foursquare Style

As we spoke about in a previous article, Foursquare is a newer social networking system whereby people connect with friends and “check-in” to various venues. For people who check in the most frequently, they get badges. Super-users become “mayor” of a particular venue. Sound a little strange? Yes, it does to me, but I am no longer twenty.

In the original article we hinted we might be surprised to see too many racetracks on the list (and quite honestly Foursquare was so new then we were not even sure it would fly). However, it seems some of the younger foursquare set are visiting racetracks, and they are telling their friends.

I did a quick scan today on Bing, trying out their new social search tool. I typed in Monmouth Park and found a link to Foursquare, which shows its visits, who has been there, a map to the track, and tips about the venue.

That is 215 visits from Foursquare folks, which is not too bad at all.  147 uniques and 215 visits shows a fairly good repeat visit rate, as well. Congrats are in order to John F, who seems to be a horseplayer. He’s the “Mayor” of Monmouth.

I decided to check a few other tracks. Since Belmont is more accessible to a larger population, I assumed we might see more action than its Jersey cousin. However…..

Only 142 visits. But the Mayor of Belmont? It is some guy named Joe M. I don’t know about you, but I think this guy oozes racetrack.

There are some promotional opportunities for businesses who embrace this medium. I wonder what might work for racing, or if anyone has begun to brainstorm about it.

If you would like to check more racetracks to see if the younger demo is visiting your favorite, you can at Foursquare.com.