GetGlue Integrates With Foursquare, Announces Sponsorship With NFL Network, HBO Sports & More

Major announcement today from GetGlue headquarters in New York City– besides an update to its website, GetGlue.com, and its iPhone app, GetGlue is now integrating with Foursquare to allows users to check into both the sports event they are watching as well as the location they are watching it from.

GetGlue makes it easy to share their sports related check-ins via Foursquare and Twitter and more check-ins will lead to sports-related stickers, Fan and SuperFan status, and even Guru designation.

More Sports Partnerships

Besides Foursquare integration, GetGlue announced partnerships with the NHL, Showtime Sports, FOX Sports, the NFL Network, Speed, Fuel TV, Speed, the San Antonio Spurs, and Turner Sports, who handles the NCAA tournaments.

This partnership and major overall update allows users to integrate their Foursquare and GetGlue check-ins, so users can now post updates that include what they are doing, where they are doing it.

This goes beyond sports events, especially because GetGlue allows users to check into not only televised events, but also movies, books, and music.

Examples include:

• “I am watching “The King’s Speech” (GetGlue) @ AMC Theatre (FourSquare)”
• “I am reading “The Hunger Games” @ “New York Public Library”

More Initiatives & Rewards

The GetGlue iPhone and website update also showcases several new features that promote user activity.

According to GetGlue, the update includes:

• Check-ins: New check-in flow including Recent Check-ins, Featured Stickers and Fan Club.
• Rewards: Tiered rewards and specials for all GetGlue fans of shows, teams, movies, etc.
• Suggestions: New Suggestions screen featuring fresh weekly picks based on user’s tastes.
• Trends: Trending shows, movies, music, books, etc. refreshed every 10 minutes based on activity on GetGlue.

Impacting The Social Web

As I mentioned in my previous column, Engaging in Entertainment Social Networks, which was about the growth of these types of check-in services, GetGlue’s integration with Foursquare gives them a major leap forward when it comes to combining all social networks.

Their “Trending” feature is similar to Twitter’s Trending Topics, and ‘Suggestions’ is reminiscent to Facebook’s Suggested Friends feature.

Badges and Rewards provide the initiative that has made FourSquare and Gowalla so successful.

GetGlue’s interpretation of what works for other social networks and making it work for the entertainment social network vertical allows them to enjoy all the collaboration tools of Twitter or Facebook while remaining a valuable and popular social networking tool.