Are you a Superstar? Do You Really Need a Badge? (I’m not worthy….)

Four-square.

Blip.

Trade show. (Ok, it was SXSW.)

How different is this from the “Good Work!” sticker we’d get on our 2nd grade math test? Not much. At some point we realize that these badges are just that- one big puffy sticker saying we’re awesome.

Where they do have some importance is when they can be translated into currency.

At Foursquare “checking in” to all the places you go and snatching up badges has cache within certain circles. Mostly if you’re 18-34 and a mobile-urban marauder. If you check-in the most at an establishment, and become a Four-square “mayor,” you get free stuff (drinks, roll of hockey tape, free shoes.) It’s  a part of Four-square’s business plan- by establishing and helping maintain loyalty for businesses.

Another one, Blip, the music sharing DJ site, does badges as well. Source a new song? Get a badge. Get reblipped by another DJ or props get another? Get some more badges. And so on and so forth.

For those that work in/on/around social media it’s practically a necessity. That, and your twitter follow numbers, your blog draw, reputation and resume makes, well, makes your resume in some arenas.

I just find it interesting. The cache of badges as another measurement of how “plugged-in” you are. For some it’s just fun, a factor of how cool you are. For other’s it’s a requirement, and tells others how competent you are.

But at some point it will not be. Fun or a requirement. When everyone is doing it, when all businesses are participating in it. Once the uniqueness is gone, when everyone has the same badge, then what? It will just be another thing on the to-do list. I mean, if everyone is special, then no one is special.  Actually just today, someone posted on FB a picture  of a printed “table tent” from a bar, saying something to the effect that if you’re the mayor, show your Four-sqaure status to the waitress and get a free beer- one per person per day.

Lame.

If McDonald starts giving out a special badge for, say, being the first to try their new McFlurry- it’s not so cool is it?

Not really. And that’s the real nugget isn’t it? That is the challenge for Blip and Four-square, keeping the tension between accessibility and cool.

Do really need the badges to reveal how awesome we are?

I don’t play Four-square. Actually I’m not that much of an urban maurader, and I also find it slightly creepy that people would know where I am or where I go. Creepy.

I blip not for badges, but because I love to share music on Twitter.

But that’s just me.