Dana Herlihey

This weekend I’m participating in The Ride to Conquer Cancer – a 2 day, 200 km bike ride from Toronto to Niagara Falls benefiting the Princess Margaret Hospital. Last year, during The Ride to Conquer Cancer, I kept friends and family informed of my team’s progress via Twitter. To be honest, there weren’t very many other riders using twitter as a means to update their progress. However, with the impressive increase in adoption rates of smartphones and social media tools in the past year, The Ride to Conquer Cancer has successfully embraced everything from Facebook, twitter, myspace, delicious, flickr and now – Foursquare.

This year, the Ride to Conquer Cancer has designated Foursquare check-ins along the route. Riders can check in at locations including Opening Ceremonies, Camp, designated pit stops, Niagara Falls, and the finish line. Special Foursquare badges will be rewarded as you check-in, making the experience that much sweeter.

While doing the Ride to Conquer Cancer is a reward in and of itself, the social media junkie in me can’t help but be excited about the virtual rewards that the Ride is offering through Foursquare. Not only does this facilitate my ability to keep friends and family updated about my progress and whereabouts during the ride, but it also signals a fun approach to the use of social media during live events. So often, tools such as Twitter and Foursquare are defined (and criticized) by their use in banal day-to-day situations. And while twitter has made good use of hashtagging and searching to join people who are in the same location or attending the same event, Foursquare has consistently found a way to quite literally inject itself directly into the event, demonstrating it’s unique ability to create fun and relevant interactions with it’s users. I for one am pretty excited to see what kind of badges I might attain for my participation in the ride, and more importantly, to make that final check-in when I cross the finish line this Sunday!

Track my ride this weekend on Twitter or on Foursquare