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Unless you have been stuck in a closet or living in a cave for the past few months, you’ve most likely seen the new social media sensation, Foursquare, somewhere in your twitter or facebook stream. No longer your average sidewalk kid’s game, Foursquare (or four square or 4square or 4 sq or 4²) is a location based phone app that combines gaming, friend stalking, and coupons all into one!

This small tech startup which was only a twinkle in co-founder’s Dennis Crowley‘s eyes a year ago, was a smashing success at SXSW where they managed to sign up over 100,000 people in a matter of a week using creative, and slightly awesome, guerrilla marketing techniques. In fact, the user base has grown leaps and bounds since then, and is now teetering on 1 million users:

But enough ABOUT foursquare, what you’re waiting to hear about (I’m sure), is how a day dedicated entirely to Foursquare and social media came about, and the amazing activities that ensued. The genius behind this social madness? Well you might be surprised to know that this entire day of social media celebration was not, in fact, concocted by the @foursquare team. It was actually started in Tampa by Nate Bowilla-Warford, a long time dabbler of social media, who figured out that April 16th fit perfectly as 4sqday [for all of you non-math majors out there, 4² =16, therefore the logical conclusion of the fourth month, April, and the 16th day.]

Long story short, after no response from pleading attempts for a 4 square day badge, a group of people decided to run a fast spreading grassroots movement to declare a national social media celebration day!  I, personally, only found out about Foursquare day at a local Barcamp event a week before it was set to happen. I was very excited, but also let down that I would have to drive to Tampa to partake in the festivities (I’m located in Orlando – a good 1.5 drive.) Once I found out that Foursquare headquarters caught word and scrambled to throw together an epic party, I knew I wanted to head into NYC to join in… So I bought a plane ticket the day before and headed on up to the Big Apple!

In the end, over 150+ cities AROUND THE WORLD celebrated in masses by swarming in set locations, checking-in, tweeting out #4sqday and receiving badges. Even though pictures posted from other gatherings seemed like everyone had a good time, I remain 100% confident that the best party took place with the founding crew members and hometown users in the Penthouse Suite at Hotel Rivington. Here are some of the pictures from the night:

In order to get into the party, 4sq employees found a way to inform users to check into a secret location beforehand to get wristbands into the penthouse. Those guys are constantly coming up with new ways to interact with their users!

Good thing we already had our wristbands

The mood was set

Looky who we found - Thanks Dennis for a great time!

I’m glad the douche bags decided to brand themselves beforehand, so I didn’t have to

On the 1s and 2s

Rain couldn't spoil the view from the Penthouse!

AND OF COURSE - Hot tub business deals were made!

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The new addition to my badge family

It was a blast and I hope to see you all checking in for Foursquare day 2011! Here’s to a SUPER SWARM next year!!!