Cyndi Loza

Mark Pfefferman might be Glen Ellyn’s village president, but the Rev. Dave Davis is staking his claim as mayor all over town.

Davis, executive pastor at Parkview Community Church, has claimed the title of mayor in places including Starbucks in Glen Ellyn, Five Corners Cleaners, Glen Oak Restaurant and Barone’s of Glen Ellyn through Foursquare, a social networking website and software for mobile devices.

A growing number of local organizations and businesses are taking advantage of social networking websites and mobile applications such as Foursquare, Facebook and Twitter, among others, to promote and market their groups.

“I find it to be a great way of building community,” Davis, 40, of Glen Ellyn, said. “I connect with people in my church. I connect with people in places like (Starbucks) all the time through those tools. It’s a conversation starter for me. It’s a way of communicating to people that I’m here, that I’m present, that I’m in the community (and) that I’m doing the same things that they’re doing.”

Through Foursquare’s mobile application available for portable devices such as the iPhone, iPod touch, Android and BlackBerry, users are allowed to “check-in” to locations they visit, earning a variety of badges and gaining access to special deals along the way. For example, if you check into five different Starbucks locations, you earn a “barista” badge. If a person checks into a particular location more than any other user, they are crowned mayor of that establishment.

According to Foursquare’s website, the mobile application “is a cross between a friend-finder, a social city guide, and a game that encourages users to explore their neighborhoods and rewards them for doing so. We do this by combining our friend-finder functionality and social city guide elements with game mechanics — our users earn points, win mayorships and unlock badges and specials for trying new places and revisiting old favorites.”

Phones can geographically confirm proximity to the location and, thus, the legitimacy of a person’s check-in. Some establishments offer specials to those who hold mayorships or check in for the first time. Starbucks locations in Glen Ellyn and Wheaton participated in a nationwide company promotion from May 17 to June 28 that offered the Foursquare mayor for each store $1 off any size or flavor Frappuccino for each day they held the title.

A Starbucks spokeswoman said the company has made social media a priority in hopes of finding new ways to connect with customers in stores and online.

‘Speaking their language’

Though Foursquare keeps tabs on a person’s location, Davis said he doesn’t see the application as dangerous.

“If you wanted to do harm you can create a sort of a social map of someone and see where they are frequently, but I don’t really concern myself with that,” Davis said. “I’m careful with it. I view everything — Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, all those things — as if they’re completely public, so I would never post anything on there that I wouldn’t feel comfortable with the whole world knowing.”

If a person checks into Parkview Community Church through Foursquare, they are greeted by a message welcoming them to the church, Davis said. He said his church participates in social networking tools such as Twitter, Facebook and Foursquare to reach out to the community.

“There’s so many things grabbing for people’s attention, and this social media is the language of the younger generation,” Davis said. “This is the billboard, the newspaper of our parent’s generation. So, I think from our perspective, if you’re thinking ‘where am I going to go to church,’ the younger generation consults their iPhone and if we’re present via Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, there’s a likelihood that someone will look at that and say ‘They get me. They’re ready for me. They understand me.’ So, that’s why we use it.”

The Glen Ellyn Public Library opened a Twitter and Facebook account last year, Adult Services Librarian Carol Waller said.

“We wanted to be using some of the social networking that a lot of people use,” Waller said, adding the library posts daily updates. “(We’re) hoping to reach people there that might be using those services and let them know about our programs and events.”

Davis encourages other organizations and businesses to use social networking tools.

“I think it opens the door to another generation,” he said. “It makes your church or your organization more accessible to the younger generation of people who are, by the way, far more skeptical than any other generation before them. So, if you’re speaking their language and trying to reach them at their spot, they’re more likely to visit your spot.”

Not your mother’s four square

HOW FOURSQUARE WORKS Users “check-in” to locations they visit using applications available for mobile devices such as an iPhone, iPod touch, Android and BlackBerry.

WHAT THEY GET Users earn badges and can get special deals at businesses based on the number of times they visit.

TAKE THE LEAD The person who checks in the most becomes “mayor” of that location.

INFO Visit foursquare.com or your phone’s app store.