Social networking dominators, Facebook and Twitter, have some growing competition from a website called FourSquare. This rising star in the social media scene is garnering quite a bit of attention and buzz for its ability to not only capture a large percentage of market share, but to do it so quickly.

What’s the 411?

So what is FourSquare and how does it work? FourSquare is a location-based social networking space that applies to mobile applications, meaning your iPhone or handheld device. Using you phone’s GPS, users can connect to friends and share and update their locations through text streams. So far this sounds very Twitter-like, but what makes it so much different is the integration of FourSquare’s social gameplay.

I Wanna Play Too

FourSquare members use the application to let others know where they currently. This is called ‘checking-in’. Checking-in can be at a restaurant, museum, bar, park or anywhere. Based on the location entered, FourSquare reports which friends are nearby.

Here’s where the competition kicks-in - each check-in earns a point and interesting check-ins will users badges. Badges are unlocked depending upon how adventurous you are when it comes to exploring new places or things. Even if you visit the same coffee shop day in and day out, you may earn yourself a badge. Frequenting a place will earn you the title of 'Mayor'. Essentially, being dubbed Mayor is the goal of FourSquare users, but holding on to that title will take some work. Visit often, send out tips and rack-up points to maintain your seat of authority, otherwise someone else can steal it away.

Beyond visiting locales, FourSquare members also share tips and to-dos with other users. This is kinda like telling people about the most important things they should know about a particular venue. If your favorite shoe boutique has a BOGO (buy one get one) half-off offer each Thursday, you’ll want to tip that to your friends. Friends save the tips as to-dos on their personal check lists.

WIIFM and My Business

Businesses from a multitude of industries can get people to start talking about their establishments and reward them for their patronage. For example, local pubs could offer free drinks to the Mayor during happy hour. Businesses can easily get in on the action and develop offers to keep the competition engaging and fun.

Set-up a FourSquare event that recognizes those that support your business the most. It will make them feel special and it's much more unique that advertising coupons, discounts or sales. FourSquare is definitely a buzzworthy topic. Using it to market your small business may grab the attention of local media and that extra PR can work to your advantage.

Of course, there's good old fashioned advertising on FourSquare too. The FourSquare platform features a leader board for each city that highlights members who've earned the most points. This leader board is now available for sponsorship. It's an excellent way to leverage your business, especially since it's an advertising locale that's exclusive to one sponsor. Check out Pepsi's fantastic example of using FourSquare's leader board for advertising with a charitable tie-in.

Create a badge for you business that's more challenging to earn. Next, host a special event that rewards large point buckets for those who attend. This will bring your FourSquare patrons that much closer to earning the coveted badge and it will boost business revenue when people rally to support the event.

Fun with Company Kool-Aid

The possibilities for business marketing with FourSquare are endless. For instance, many companies are using the technology to enhance internal relations among employees. Some businesses are awarding HR-related points to people who participate and perform various activities. Others use FourSquare to encourage attendance at meetings and monthly webcasts. Attendance can be confirmed for employees who check-in when they get to the office too.

With internal use of FourSquare, companies can create a variety of badges that employees can strive for. Examples include, the Business Traveler for staff who check-in to other corporate locations or the Corporate Java Junkie for those that hit the breakroom's coffee pot more than 10 times per week.

The great thing about FourSquare is that it brings a some fun competition into mobile technology. Make it work for yours and tell us how it goes by leaving a comment on our MindSprout Marketing blog post below.