Is Your Local Business On Foursquare Yet?

Are you a small business owner? Does your business thrive on local customers walking in the door?

If you are not on Foursquare yet, then you are missing out on the fastest growing location-based social network. Yes, Facebook has a much larger userbase, but users seem to be very slow to adopt the Facebook Places application. In fact, even though Facebook has a userbase of 500 million people compared to Foursquare's 2 million, but Foursquare is used FIVE TIMES MORE than Facebook Places.

On thing that people find that comes in handy with Foursquare is the ability to get an idea of what is available in their area, be it entertainment or good food. For example, I took a trip to the Riverwalk in San Antonio last weekend. When my wife and I were looking for places to eat on Saturday night, I pulled up Foursquare to see what others had said about the restaurants in the area.

Foursquare users are able to post tips about different venues that can provide valuable information to other users. As a small business owner, you can view these tips that have been posted and get a better idea of what people really like about your business (and what they really don't like). Sure, you could ask your patrons in person, but most people have reservations about being critical to somebody's face.

And as I've written before, Foursquare also offers some unique marketing opportunities. While using Foursquare as a marketing tool will be inherently more successful in a metro area, it doesn't hurt in a rural area to go ahead and claim your venue or at least see who has been checking in. I can tell you that I have seen it grow fairly rapidly over the last couple of months in the Clinton and Weatherford, Oklahoma areas (where I spend most of my time). When more people who know each other start participating, the title of Mayor of a venue really does turn into quite the competition.

So if you're not on Foursquare yet, get signed up NOW! Foursquare offers a great opportunity to compete against the nationally recognized brands in your local area.