Howdy, from Austin, TX! I’m Jonathan Carroll, Community Manager, Biz Dev guy and all-around Killer Robot at Gowalla. I have the pleasure of guest-blogging today. 
Gowalla is a location-based social service, and we think it’s the easiest way to share places you go with friends. It uses the GPS and location services on your mobile device to help you discover new places and events in your area, and is integrated with social platforms like Facebook and Twitter to make it easy to share with your friends. We’re partnering with Bike Hugger for the Mobile Social SXSW in Austin this year to create a sponsored trip using our service. A ‘trip’ on Gowalla is just a collection of spots you can visit that are all linked together and which, if all visited, reward the user with a special achievement pin. The trip we’ve implemented for the Mobile Social SXSW features just 3 spots, all of which will be easy to obtain on the group ride:
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- The starting point at Brush Square Park
- Half-way stop at the Texas State Capital
- Ride’s end: Mellow Johnny’s
Everyone who uses Gowalla to check-in at those spots will have completed the Mobile Social SXSW trip and will receive the super-groovy Bike Hugger pin.
So how can you participate? Well first, grab Gowalla if you don’t have it just yet:
- Gowalla for iPhone
- Gowalla for Android (handset link only)
- Gowalla for Palm (handset link only)
- Gowalla for BlackBerry
Next, create an account and then link up your Facebook and/or Twitter account! Doing this allows you to easily share the places you go with your friends, in your status updates, live feed news items, and also in your Twitter stream. Each time you use Gowalla to ‘check-in’ at a spot, you’ll be given an option to keep that info to yourself or alternately to push it out to those social network services.
On the day of Mobile Social, make sure you’ve got your device on hand, charged and ready to go. Then, at each of those locations mentioned above (and shown on the Gowalla website here), you can open up Gowalla, check-in at the spot, and get the groovy stamps! Then, upon completion of the ride, share your Bike Hugger pin with your friends on Twitter and Facebook. (Hey, they should’ve come out right? Time to brag a little!)
Gowalla will be out and about during the ride, and our branded Mini Cooper will be parked at the festivities at Mellow Johnny’s where we’ll be giving away t-shirts and goodies to people who complete the trip. We hope to see you there!
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