I Will Follow: MTV Passes Bravo On Foursquare

MTV-Foursquare

MTV has overtaken Bravo as the most popular brand on Foursquare, based on followers. According to the social media monitoring and consulting service Osnapz, MTV has 80,835 followers, while Bravo has 80,249, as of the last week of October.

MTV has made a concerted effort to amass followers on the location-based check-in service -- and could be seen as taking a shoot first, ask questions later approach to the platform, in which it attracts followers but is unsure of what to do with them once it has them. Leading up to its MTV Video Music Awards in September, MTV ran a contest offering two tickets to see the show live in Los Angeles to those who clicked "Follow MTV" on Foursquare. To enter, the contest users then needed to check in at any music venue to receive the "Moonman Badge."

"This growth underscores how the approaches we've taken with MTV, VH1 and LOGO are strongly resonating with our audience and is serving to benefit us and fans across the board," Kristin Frank, GM of MTV and VH1 Digital, told Online Media Daily. A rep points to the fact that MTV News often uses the "tips" section of Foursquare to highlight locations where subjects were interviewed. MTV has also offered a "Get Yourself Tested" badge (5,000 of which have been unlocked), encouraging followers to be tested for STDs.

Bravo, one of the first big media brands to partner with Foursquare, has also offered prizes to followers, but eligibility is generally predicated on participation. The network been lauded for its use of the service, creating "guides" to cities by its personalities and engaging followers in games. Most of the interactive elements center on Bravo's slate of reality show including "The Real Housewives," "The Millionaire Matchmaker," "Top Chef," "Kell on Earth," "Top Chef Masters" and "Shear Genius."

The leaderboard is, perhaps counterintuitively, heavy with media properties looking for a social media outlet to promote their shows. Although right behind Bravo is Zagat -- which has offered no prizes for following its brand page, but of course comes with a much more obvious value proposition for followers than the TV brands that seem to predominate the list of most-followed. Rounding out the top five are the History Channel and MTVN's VH1. Besides Zagat, all of these brands have used their TV presences to push the Foursquare integrations, and the list of most-followed is testament to their reach off-line as much as anything, it seems.

 

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