Foursquare Day on Saturday getting global attention

Social media junkies around the world are getting their smart phones and thumbs all ready for Saturday.

It's "Foursquare Day" on Saturday, the Tampa-born global phenomenon when the Facebookers and Twitterati of the world plan to gather in pre-scheduled flocks at thousands of bars, restaurants and cafes to celebrate Foursquare.

Saturday is April 16 - 4/16 - as in the number 4, squared. Get it?

That's a perfect time to celebrate the Foursquare social media service that lets users virtually "check in" anywhere - the mall, the office, the house - and let their friends know where they are, win virtual badges and even become the "Mayor" of that particular spot by checking in especially frequently.

Tampa's actual Mayor, Bob Buckhorn, will get in on the party by naming someone the "Foursquare Mayor of Tampa;" awarding the title to whomever is the Foursquare mayor of the Sail Pavilion on the Riverwalk at the Tampa Convention Center on Saturday, April 16, 2011 at 2:04 p.m.

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg also declared Saturday "Foursquare Day" in New York, in honor of the startup company that was founded there.

Never one to miss a good marketing opportunity, the business community has also jumped on board, and started offering deals and discounts to users who check in at their stores via Foursquare. So Foursquare Day is the Super Bowl of check-ins.

On Saturday, some McDonald's locations hosting Foursquare parties will hand out "Mayor McCheese" T-shirts to Foursquare fans who check in enough to become mayor of that particular spot. The exact restaurants are being kept a mystery to add to the drama and encourage people to check in at more places.

And in keeping with the social aspect of the event, some details are sketchy or only known by those in the know, or who follow the right Foursquare, Facebook or Twitter celebrities.

Now Foursquare Day is a global phenomenon, with thousands of meet-ups around the world. But it was actually started by Nathan Bonilla-Warford, a local optometrist and social media junkie. (On Twitter as @NateBW.)

"As a personal user of Foursquare, I just kind of liked it," Bonilla-Warford said. "And as a business owner, I realized the opportunity for marketing my practice." Last year was the first Foursquare Day, and there were at least 1,000 meet-ups worldwide, with 14,000 badges awarded, he said.

But that was working on a base of only a few hundred thousand Forusquare users, and now there are more than 7 million.

Users have self-organized meet-ups across the world: in Akure, Nigeria; Riyahd, Saudi Arabia, Novosibirsk, Russia and Reykjavik, and Iceland among many others.

At one meet-up in British Columbia a chef is building a giant cake to feed a crowd. There's also a social media industry conference in Indiana and several fundraisers on the West Coast to raise money for relief in Japan.

Social media guru Amber Osborne (Known on Twitter as @MissDestructo) helped found the day's celebration, helped get McDonald's on board, and will also show up at this area's main event location, Tampa Tap Room in Carrollwood at 4/16 at 4:16 p.m.

You can find a local Foursquare Day community at http://meetup.com/foursquare, or for more information, see http://4sqday.com/learn or follow the original "4sqDay" organizers on Twitter at http://twitter.com/4sqday.

And don't forget to Tweet about your event with the hashtag #4sqDay.