Earlier today, MTV announced that they will ‘reward’ people for having STD check-ups if they show they have done so on Foursquare. For those that hate jargon, this basically means that if you are signed up to the social network Foursquare, which tells other Foursquare users where you are through the GPS location of your smartphone, MTV will see that you have physically entered an STD clinic and congratulate you for doing so. The reward is a Foursquare badge, which is basically the digital equivalent of saying “I woz ‘ere”. The badge shows other users where you have been, and a desirable way to show you’re an active member of the community. While other brands besides MTV have been rewarding Foursquare users, this is the first highly promoted use of the social network for healthcare that we’re aware of. There are surely therefore other applications of the network worth giving some more thought in terms of healthcare…
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Posts Tagged ‘Foursquare’
MTV reward you for STD check-ups shown on Foursquare
Wednesday, September 1st, 2010Why privacy issues won’t put people off Facebook
Friday, July 30th, 2010The author of a report which features the personal details of 100 million Facebook users says he released the information to highlight the privacy issues associated with social networking. This has received widespread media pick-up because it is captivating, and a classic attention-grabbing scare story. But it is not the massive scandal it might appear to be. People who don’t want to share their personal lives online don’t. And people who are happy to be open about their information online aren’t going to stop using social networks just because of this report. Facebook scare stories are nothing new (as we said in a post not long ago). So is this a complete red herring? Should we care in the field of healthcare communications?
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