10 Minutes and 7 Steps = An Easy Guide to Texting Foursquare Check-Ins

Those of you who are young, affluent, technically savvy and physically located in one of these cities probably utilize Foursquare.

The location based mobile game eclipsed 1 million users in April, and marketing professionals are taking notice. Many campaigns are integrating the service into their plans, including the Wall Street Journal and Starbucks.

This is all great news for those with an iPhone, Droid, or other smartphone's with GPS and websurfing capabilities, of which there are about 25-30 million. Considering that there are more than 280 million mobile users in the U.S. alone, that leaves incredible room for Foursquare among non-smartphone users.

I am not a smartphone user, and don’t plan to be one in the near future, so I thought today was a good day for me to get started on Foursquare by texting, and wanted to include a quick how-to guide for others who want to get in on location based mobile applications.

• 1.
  Create an account at Foursquare.com. This will allow you to sign in when you visit the site, and gives them your information to track where you visit.
• 2.
  After registration, you will be directed to a page that allows you to integrate your Facebook and Twitter accounts. This will search your social networks to see which friends use Foursquare.
• 3.
  Then you will be invited to invite your Facebook friends to use Foursquare. You can participate in this step, or just skip it and be good with just your Twitter account.
• 4.
  Foursquare’s SMS code is 50500. Text all check-ins to this short code.
• 5.
  Now, its time for me to check-in at work. I texted "@LevelTen ! Talking to @LevelTen_Colin" to 50500.
• 6.
  Pause……drum roll please……..
• 7.
  And now, in less than 10 minutes, I have successfully registerd with Foursquare, earned the Newbie badge, and made an official check-in by texting.

This simple process has opened a new world of tips and suggestions about Dallas. Join me in at least exploring Foursquare and do as their developers say: "Check-In, Find Your Friends, Unlock Your City."