Pittsburgh Steelers Elevate Foursquare Check-ins Inside Facebook

Confession alert.

Even I, a self proclaimed digital nerd, have questions about how much is too much sometimes. I've asked the questions like do teams really need a presence on all of these social media networks? Or we, as individuals -- how many do we need? And until today, I hadn't seen an execution in Foursquare that really felt like it justified a team having a strong presence there.

But today, I present to you amazing inspiration from the Pittsburgh Steelers. We'll show you how they leverage Foursquare, bring it into Facebook (which no doubt many of you are already using), and turn it into something powerful...

Hit the Pittsburgh Steelers Facebook Page and click on "Foursquare," found on the left hand side of the frame. That takes you to the powerful image below...

Wow.

So here, inside a network of 2.8 Million rabid Steelers fans the Mayor (for those of you not hip to Foursquare, this equals the person who has checked into a location the most often within the past 60 days - read more here)... That means you are taking arguably your most dedicated fan and raising him or her up on a social pedestal in front of their peers.

NICE!

And, alongside this, you see how many people total have checked into Heinz Field, plus tips from people who have visited - where to go, what to bring, how to enjoy yourself even more!

Of course, it gets bettter. Clicking through to view the Heinz Field page on Foursquare takes you here, shown below...

Now you get all of the action before plus photos and profiles of the people who are visiting Heinz Field.

Like any network, Foursquare check-ins can be synched with Facebook or Twitter -- and many people do this (yes, it can get annoying), increasing the reach every time they check into your stadium/court/field. Said differently, the more we can encourage people to check into our spaces, the more social currency/buzz we can build!

How could this be better? Two big things here. First, what should/could the Steelers offer their most loyal fan? Maybe he or she can attend the media session before or after the game? I think the key here is access and the Steelers can easily dole that out! Second, I'd love to see the Steelers have their own players check in on game days. Imagine the buzz you'll get when you see Hines Ward check into Heinz Field? This will simultaneously drive game day energy and grow the behavior of fan check-ins!

I'm pretty pumped if you can't tell. Time to take the weekend off from blogging. Don't fear though, I'll be back with more next week. Feel free to follow along via Facebook (here) or Twitter (I'm @andypawlowski, here)

Thanks.

Andy