As a social media marketer, I sometimes find myself interacting almost entirely with other social media marketers online. Throughout the week I’m reading other marketing blogs, writing about social media marketing topics, checking in with folks in the industry on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn and sharing stories that are related to this field.

While this is great for sharing thoughts with like-minded individuals, it can be extremely limiting as well. In that respect, I want to urge you to get out and start networking beyond your field or industry or niche on a daily basis. Don’t box yourself in, so that the only people you’re engaging with are similar to you.

Why? Well, social media is all about making connections. As Lori McNee argues, “Not only can I attract my own niche readers, but I can appeal to multiple audience profiles while staying true to my target audience.” Lori wrote this back in 2009. Now, more than ever it is important to break out of our niche and appeal to multiple audience profiles.

Of course, some of you might be thinking that your topic or industry or niche won’t be of interest to outsiders. Let’s say for instance that you tweet and blog about social media marketing (like I do). If you’re not a marketer already, why would you care about any of this?

That’s why it is important to write about broad topics every now and then and even go completely off topic if you can. This allows you to appeal to a wider audience, while showing a different, fun and personal side to your work.

Furthermore, Lisa Shaughnessy reminds us that “Communicating only with people in your own field can close you off from meeting people who can give a new perspective or even someone to collaborate with down the road.” As she puts it, you should expand your horizons.

So as you craft your social media strategy, try to factor in how you’ll reach beyond your network. Talk about current events, broad industry trends, funny stories and industries that are related to yours. Comment on a diverse range of blog articles. Like and follow people and pages that don’t exactly pertain to what you do.

These tips will only help you gain new followers, while increasing the likelyhood that your content will be shared beyond your circle. Oh, and you just might learn some interesting things and make a few new friends along the way. Good luck!

How do I get more likes? How do I get more followers? I am asked these questions all the time and usually I just respond with some of the tips I’ve written about in detail on this blog. I suggest sharing more content, creating more dynamic content such as images and videos, encouraging engagement, connecting with others through @replies, mentions, tags and more.

But then yesterday, I started thinking if these are even the right questions to be asking in the first place. After all, many social media marketers remind us how a campaign based primarily around “getting more likes” is almost always doomed to fail. As Nate Elliott states, “To put it bluntly, if you’re focusing on fans and followers, then you’re almost certainly doing it wrong.”

So, what should we focus on then? Well, what do all of the best social media techniques have in common? They all require the production of lots and lots of unique content as well as lots and lots of attention given to the content created by others.

Furthermore, if we study the most successful folks who are using social media, we would find that these people produce a tremendous amount of content usually on a daily basis. Moreover, these are the people who try to reach out to as many other folks as possible. They might share an article that they found interesting, leave a comment on a blog post, give a shout out to someone they respect or take a dozen other actions.

In the end, it is this endless stream of fresh content and continuous interaction that powers their social media success. In return, such successful individuals have been able to amass significant followings on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+ and elsewhere.

The numbers are all fine and dandy, but on their own, such numbers don’t mean that much. A full content stream and a high interaction level are what people really want, so that’s what we should focus on, instead of just drooling over how many people clicked the like button.

Sheila Scarborough argues, “Counting heads is fun – we’re all guilty of it, including me – but unless those people are helping you achieve stated objective(s) for your organization or business, you’re fooling yourself that anything is accomplished by totting up raw numbers.”

Therefore, we’re asking the wrong questions. Don’t ask how to get more followers. Instead, ask how to produce more content and personally reach out to more individuals. This now turns the tables from something that is abstract and out of our control, to something that is well-defined and within our grasp.

For example, we can’t guarantee that we’ll increase our following by 10% next month. That’s impossible to predict. What we can do though is guarantee an increase in the amount of content we produce and connections we personally make by 10% (or more) next month. That can be done and it surely will contribute to more followers, likes, etc.

So stop thinking in the abstract language of likes and follows. Instead, start thinking about using the time you have more wisely and more efficiently, so that you can write more blog posts, produce more videos, create more meaningful status updates, comment on more blogs, mention more people and reach out to more new fans.

Additionally, by doing this you’ll be able to see how successful your campaign is, since it can all be tracked and measured. Then, after a while, tweak what you need to, so that you’ll do even better next month.

Will this technique get you more followers or likes overnight? Of course not. Anyone who promises big rewards for seemingly little effort is selling nothing by lies. Successful social media marketing takes time and effort and on top of that, it takes excellent time management skills. Focus more on these things than on your following count and you’ll surely see that such time and effort was put to good use.

We often forget about the one thing that makes blogging different than just writing an article. Blogging is meant for engagement. In other words, the vast majority of blogs give users the ability to leave comments for a reason. Without such interaction, why even bother?

Have you ever heard people talk about blogs and social media, as if they are in two completely different hemispheres? Adam Singer explains, “Blogs are social media.” I fully agree!

Since blogs are social by nature, anything you can do to make each and every blog post more social will only help you. One thing you could do to increase your readership and level of interaction is to mention other folks in every blog post you publish.

For instance, if you’re writing about the latest changes to Facebook, see what others are saying about it online, on blogs, on Twitter and anywhere else. Then, give them a mention (with an appropriate link) if you feel it would add value to your article. By doing this, you’re accomplishing several things.

First, you’re recognizing the work of others, who will definitely appreciate it. Look at it from another perspective for a minute. If you just found out that someone quoted and linked back to to your content, wouldn’t you be thankful? You might even end up engaging with them through the comments section of that post, on twitter or elsewhere.

Moreover, you’re more likely to share their blog post with your friends and followers since it mentions you. Yes, that sounds egotistical, but a lot of social behavior is driven by egotistical behavior. As Aaron Balick argues, “If we think of the ego as an estate agent, its three most important needs are “recognition, recognition, recognition.” When we think about social networking, we can see how well it is created in the service of recognition.”

Also, you’re delivering something of value to your audience from an outside source. This shows that your blog is not all about you, your thoughts and your website. That’s what being authentic is all about. Authenticity is partially built through what we share.

Barrie Davenport takes this idea one step further and suggests writing tribute posts every now and then:

This is a post where you mention several other larger bloggers in your niche, perhaps quoting from their blogs or linking to a particular post. Or you could pick a particular topic and find bloggers who write about that topic well. For example, you could write a post called Perspectives on Self-Esteem from Ten Top Bloggers. Then you might get quotes from each of the bloggers.

And if you’re wondering how folks will know that you’ve included them in your blog post, you could always tweet a link and and mention everyone who you’ve quoted. Here’s what I did for the blog post you’re reading right now:

Instantly Make Every Blog Post More Social w/ insights from @susangunelius, @coachbarrie, @draaronb & @adamsinger blnk.it/MBQM2F

— FastBlink (@FastBlink) June 13, 2012

Of course, always keep copyright and fair use considerations in mind when mentioning the work of others. As Susan Gunelius tells us, “Providing attribution and a link back to the source is often enough to satisfy another blogger as long as you don’t copy their content at length verbatim.” Always give credit where credit is due!

Whatever approach you take, it doesn’t hurt to mention others in your blog posts. You have everything to gain and nothing to lose. Give it a try and let me know how it goes!

These days, it’s easier than ever to have a 24/7 social media presence on a multitude of channels. With tools such as Hootsuite, Triberr and Buffer, we can pretty much schedule our social content well into the future. Now, even Facebook allows us to schedule posts on Facebook Pages!

Basically, we’re able to achieve top-of-mind awareness with greater ease than ever before, across time zones and when we’re fast asleep. While that’s great, there is a downside to having a continual outpouring of social content without ever taking a break.

Here’s a list of 5 reasons why I believe we all need some social media downtime every once in a while:

1. Posting 24/7 just isn’t authentic

If social media marketing is all about authentic engagement, then how can we be authentic if we’re automating our messages, every hour of every day? While such effort is very important in order to build top-of-mind awareness, there are limits to how far we should go. All I’m saying is that we should each take a break every now and then. It can be one random day per month, or more or less frequently if you wish. Just show that there is someone behind your tweets and posts by switching things up a little.

2. Continuous effort can lead to social media burnout

Just as with any task, if you’re not careful, you’ll get burned out. Then your productivity and effectiveness will diminish. Prevent this from happening by taking a break from your social media campaign when you feel like you need one. Again, I’m not advocating for a regimented pattern of downtime. Just give yourself a little space from time to time. An interesting article about social media burnout by Jennifer Beese can be found here.

3. Talking less allows us to listen more

Effective social media marketing depends on how well we listen to our audience. Sometimes, we’re completely off-message from what our audience wants, all because we didn’t listen. Other times, we’re so busy thinking about what we should say that we’ve forgotten how important it is to listen to what everyone else is saying. By giving ourselves some downtime, we can really focus on delivering the types of content people actually want to see, so that when we return, we’re on point.

4. Going quiet builds interest and suspense

Psychology would tell us that when we are used to seeing something continually and then it disappears for a while, we’re curious. This peaks our interest, if only subconsciously. So by taking a day off from continually tweeting and posting, we’ll be peaking the interest of our audience, who may have expected to see a new update from us. Then, when we return, there will be a renewed sense of interest in what we have to say. Again, do this at random for maximum effectiveness.

As actionable marketing expert Heidi Cohen argues, “While some branding advertising uses repetition to build recognition, consumers today are more likely to block these ads to reduce message overload.” While this applies more to ads than to social media content, the idea is the same. Don’t overload your audience.

Well, I hope everyone reading this understands that I’m not against automating some of our social media tasks. I use automation tools in a limited capacity all the time. I’m simply saying that everything has its limits, including such tools. Add a sense of curiosity, mystery and randomness by changing things up every now and then, even when all you’re doing is doing nothing at all.

Let me know what your thoughts are on this topic. I haven’t found very much written about taking a break from social media, so I’m curious as to whether you agree or disagree with me.

Writing regularly on a blog and tweeting regularly go together like peas and carrots. Obviously, Twitter is a great tool for getting your blog articles found, read and shared. It’s great for content distribution. But did you know that Twitter is also a great place to refine your blogging skills?

Here are 9 ways Twitter makes you a better blogger and just a better writer in general:

1. It forces you to get to the point and be concise

140 characters is all you’ve got on Twitter to get your point across. There’s not much room for fluff. The better you get at tweeting within these confines, the better you’ll get at writing a concise and powerful blog post.

2. It helps you get in the habit of writing more often

Twitter is meant to be used every day. You might use a few tools to schedule your tweets, but you still have to keep tabs on where the conversation goes. This means you’ll be thinking about what to say and actually writing in small bursts on a routine basis, which helps you improve your blogging skills. Practice makes perfect.

3. It teaches you to write catchy headlines

As Brian Clark states, “Your headline is a promise to readers. Its job is to clearly communicate the benefit you’ll deliver to the reader in exchange for their valuable time.”

Coming up with an awesome headline is one of the most difficult parts of blogging. On Twitter, everything we write is pretty much a headline. Your tweets need to be short, interesting and make your readers want to know more. Doesn’t that sound like the perfect prescription for a catchy headline?

4. It keeps you focused on the conversation

Let’s face it, we’re not blogging in a vacuum. One of the main goals of any blog is to get people to read and interact with our content (through comments, social media and more). Twitter is all about interaction, with @replies and mentions. Take what you’ve learned over there and apply it to your blog. Write so that people want to engage with you.

5. It supplies you with a valuable source of inspiration

As Kathi Kruse argues, “Social Media and Blogging is literally ONE BIG conversation. As you read others’ opinions, your own are born. The need to express those opinions is what inspires all of us to act.”

I can’t count the number of times I’ve found inspiration for a blog post from something I read on Twitter. The more we read and learn, the better we shall become as writers, both in terms of content and style.

6. It provides you with public opinions on a topic

Want to know what’s going on right now about virtually any given topic? Give it a search on Twitter. Look for related hashtags. See what people are talking about. Ask questions to people in that field on Twitter. You’ll often get a reply in a short amount of time, which you can use as a quote in your blog post. Twitter is all about tapping into the real-time conversation on anything and everything.

7. It trains you to write in a conversational style

Who wants to read a blog post that looks like it was copied out of an academic paper? Boring, boring, boring. If there’s one thing every blogger should know, it’s that you must write in a fun and energetic style if you want to keep people coming back to your blog. The same advice applies to getting more Twitter followers. It all comes down to showing you personality through your blog posts and your tweets.

8. It informs you of the most popular topics of the day

Twitter trends are great for tapping into hot topics of the day. Even if your blog isn’t directly related to such topics, you can often find a way to tie it back to what you normally write about. In doing so, you’ll get more traffic, because that’s what people are searching for and talking about at the moment.

David Meerman Scott wrote a great book on this called Newsjacking, which he defines as, “the process by which you inject your ideas or angles into breaking news, in real-time, in order to generate media coverage for yourself or your business.”

9. It shows you the power of mentioning others

On Twitter, everyone wants to be mentioned by someone else. The same rule applies to blogging. Just as I’ve mentioned several folks throughout this article (and linked to their Twitter profiles), you should do the same if you want to increase the reach of your blog post.

Look at it from another perspective. Wouldn’t you be more likely to share a blog post that mentions your name? Of course, keep it relevant to the subject and use this technique sparingly. You want to have balance in your article between what you say and what others are talking about.

Well, that concludes my list. I’d love to hear your thoughts or suggestions on other ways Twitter helps us as bloggers and writers. Leave a comment below and let’s get the conversation started! Also, if you found this list helpful, please share it with your friends by giving it a “like” or tweeting it out with the buttons below.

It’s very easy to get caught up in the social media numbers game. You know the game, right? The one where our perceived success or failure is driven by the number of likes or followers we have.

We sometimes get into the mindset that these rather arbitrary numbers actually mean something on their own. Guess what? They don’t.

Well, let me be more specific. The number of likes you have on your Facebook page or the number of followers you have on Twitter doesn’t speak towards your social media success when viewed independently. Such numbers don’t say much about our engagement level with our audience and that’s what actually matters. Who cares if someone likes your page or follows you if they never (or very rarely) interact with you?

As PR professor and social media researcher Tina McCorkindale stated, “Liking something may not translate into anything of value such as behavior or attitude. Just because someone “likes” something doesn’t mean they would actually recommend, purchase a product, give money, or engage in any other type of behavior.” In other words, likes are a part of the social media engagement process, but they certainly are not our end goal.

As so many folks have said before, social media is a dialog. The back-and-fourth communication between you and your audience is what drives the vast majority of social success. In that case, the mere fact that someone clicked a like button is only the first step in the engagement process. It is then our job to produce and share outstanding content that will get our fans and followers talking.

So the next time you think about asking someone to like your Facebook page or to follow you on Twitter, think about what you’re really doing it for. Are you just out for the numbers? Do you think that by having more likes than the next guy that you’re actually succeeding with your social media marketing efforts?

At the end of the day, I’d take an audience of 100 loyal fans, who engage with my brand on a daily basis over an audience of 10,000 “fans” who don’t even know why they liked my page in the first place and never even look at my content.

However, don’t feel discouraged if you’ve been focusing more on quantity and less on quality. We live in a society that loves numbers and as of right now, likes and follows are easy to measure than abstract concepts such as “social engagement level.” But just because something is easy does not make it better.

Remember, our job is to deliver value to our audience, in order to generate engagement. So focus on the content you deliver first and foremost. And if you do this consistently, the likes and the follows will come naturally, because people will truly find value in what you have to say.

One of the most important things about social media is that it is meant to create a dialog. Old media was almost the exact opposite; You were presented with a message and expected to take a specific action. That was it. There was no talking back or sharing. But that’s why it is called old media. We’ve definitely evolved.

These days, you have to be agile with the content you create, in order to generate the greatest potential for action among your audience. How? Well, think of social media content creation as a game of tennis. One person serves, but once the ball is in play, it usually stays in play for a while. Similarly, there is a back-and-fourth dialog that happens in all successful social media campaigns. One that is very similar to the back-and-fourth movement of the tennis ball.

Creating such a dialog is not always easy and many folks don’t know how to serve the ball, let alone keep it in the air. However, with the right strategy and plenty of effort, you can master this art.

All social media content can essentially be broken down into four parts: Topic, Medium, Source and Audience. By combining these four parts in the right order, with the right timing can mean all the difference in the world for your campaign. Let’s look at each of these components in detail.

1. Topic

The topic of your content (whether it be a tweet, status update, video, infographic, blog post or anything else) is extremely important, because it helps you stay relevant and authoritative. Most of us have a particular niche in which our topics will fit. For instance, I am a social media marketer, so I write about helping people build their brand through online social channels. You might be in the real estate industry, so you would probably produce content related to buying and selling a home. What many people don’t do, is think in more specific terms than that. Blogging about real estate is fine, but there are many other folks doing that. Blogging about the luxury lifestyle that many home buyers seek is much more specific and this will help your content outperform the general stuff. The lesson to take away here is this: Be creative with your content, especially with your headlines. Get specific and think outside of the box.

2. Medium

Content comes in all forms. Photo, video, audio and text are the big categories into which most content can fit. Depending on your target audience, some types outperform others. Also, depending on the platform you’re using, some content is preferred over others. For example, Facebook  puts a higher ranking on video and images than on just text and links alone. This is one of the factors going into their EdgeRank algorithm, which basically decides what you see and don’t see in your news feed. A good rule of thumb in general is that content that takes longer to produce (images and videos) will usually rank better than stuff that was just thrown together (text and links). Furthermore, people are lazy and nobody wants to read your 5000 word essay on marketing strategies. Quickly summarize your main points and add visuals if you can.

3. Source

It’s simple; Either you created the content or someone else did. If you did, then you’re the content creator. If someone else did, then you’re the content curator. For the best search engine optimization (SEO) boost, it’s better to create more and curate less. Google loves original (non-duplicate) content. Produce enough of it and the search engine ninjas will reward you. Of course, sharing the work of others is still a very important part of a social and search strategy. Just use it as one of many strategies and make sure you’re reviewing everything you share for quality. If you don’t like it, your audience won’t either.

4. Audience

Believe it or not, knowing your intended audience can really help you create the best content. For instance, if you’re targeting a younger demographic, use more visuals and less text. If you’re looking to attract business professionals, write in a professional style and back up your claims with facts and statistics. If you’re creating content for Facebook, try to boost engagement by asking questions or using other call-to-action tactics. On Twitter, take advantage of hashtags in order to attract new followers. With YouTube, a general rule of thumb is to keep videos short (under 3 minutes) in order to prevent your audience from losing interest. As you can see, there are many ways to tweak your content, depending on who you’re trying to target.

We covered a lot, yet have only touched the surface when it comes to content strategy. If we really wanted to get into more detail, we could talk about specific content formats, engagement levels, timing, frequency and more. Instead, this post was intended to just cover the basics.

If you think about the four basic components listed above as you create your content, you’ll be well on your way to building an engaging campaign. Good luck and be sure to let me know how it goes!

Liked this article? Please give it a tweet:

“Social media content can essentially be broken down into 4 parts: Topic, Medium, Source and Audience.” blnk.it/JRgDYI via @FastBlink

— Nicholas @ FastBlink (@FastBlink) June 5, 2012

Why are YOU on Facebook? I’m not talking about your business page, but your personal profile. Why do you visit the site everyday? Is it to stare at the advertisements in the side column? Is it to see what folks are selling? Is it to buy something right now? No, of course not.

Chances are, you’re primarily on Facebook so that you can interact with your friends, family and coworkers. After all, it is a social network and not a sales network (although some companies haven’t gotten that memo yet). My point is, Facebook is about genuine connections, whether such connections are between people or pages.

When pages start looking more like a sales letter and less like a place to connect, that’s when the “unlike” button starts getting clicked. To prevent that from happening, you need to put everything you say on your Facebook page through a quick “friend test.” Just ask yourself this: If the content was posted by one of your friends (instead of the brand or company behind the page), how would you react? Would it seem out of place?

This will help you find the right “voice” for your page, because believe it or not, that actually matters a whole lot when trying to increase engagement in such a busy world. You see, your page is not only competing for attention with every other page your fans like, but also with all of the content posted by their friends as well.

If you give your page a voice, folks will be more likely to engage with you through the page, because it won’t seem like you’re just trying to make a sale. So act like a person rather than a marketer when coming up with the content for your Facebook page. It’s not tough; but creativity will certainly help. If you grasp this one simple point, you’ll have nailed down one of the most difficult parts of social media marketing.

To put this in perspective, let me give you a quick example. Why does the Coca-Cola Facebook page have over 42 million likes at the time of this writing? Do you think everyone just loves the soda (or pop, or whatever you call it) that much?

While that is certainly a big factor, there is more to the Coca-Cola brand than just the product. They have become an icon, one of the most recognizable brands in the world. They represent something bigger than soda and if you scroll through their Facebook page, you’ll see that their content reflects this. Go check it out!

So what I mean when I say “blend in to stand out” is that the more you can make your page content look and feel like it was written by a real person rather than by a sales person, the more your fans will feel like they can and should engage with such content. Again, it’s all about being authentic with everything you do.

LinkedIn and their network of over 161 million professionals (at the time of this writing) can be one of your strongest tools when it comes to social media marketing. However, a vast number of LinkedIn members are not taking full advantage of their network. They are signing up, filling out part of their profile, adding a few connections and then forgetting about it altogether.

If that’s the extent of your involvement on LinkedIn, it’s not going to take you very far. Just like anything else in social media, it takes continuous effort to see results. I’m not talking about going crazy and becoming a LinkedIn power user; I’m simply suggesting that you take a few minutes each day or each week (if that’s all you have) to work on making the most of this powerful networking tool.

To help you get started, here are five simple things you should be doing right now on LinkedIn:

1. Make sure your profile is 100% complete and optimized

Your profile is only as good as you let it be. According to LinkedIn, in order to reach 100% completeness, you should add all of the following to your profile:

• Industry and postal code
• A current position with description
• Two more positions
• Education
• At least 5 skills
• Profile photo
• At least 50 connections
• A summary

Additionally, make sure you’re using the right keywords in the right places when writing your summary, work experiences, skills and professional headline. This stuff really matters to search engines and other users.

2. Join and participate in LinkedIn Groups

Getting involved with groups on LinkedIn is one of the best ways to connect with professionals who share similar interests or for generating new leads. There are groups of all sorts for pretty much every industry you can think of. The main reason you want to be participating is to position yourself as an expert in whatever it is you do.

3. Answer questions related to your industry

Another way to position yourself as an expert is to participate in the answers section of LinkedIn. Many people don’t even know this feature exists. Take a few minutes every now and then to see what others are asking regarding your industry and jump in with an answer if you can. Do this enough times and it will surely get your profile noticed, especially by job recruiters, if that’s what you’re looking for.

4. Ask for and give recommendations

Recommendations and referrals are the lifeblood of business. People trust what their friends, family and coworkers say, more than they trust what a stranger says. It’s super easy to leave a recommendation on LinkedIn for someone else and if you do it without being asked, you’ll be remembered for it. Want to know how to get recommendations? Start leaving them and you should see folks returning the gesture. Try leaving one recommendation per day for 30 days. You’ll probably get 10 or more recommendations in return.

5. Use the LinkedIn Events app

Here’s how LinkedIn describes their events app:

LinkedIn Events helps you discover the events you should attend to become a better professional. See personalized event recommendations based on your industry, connections, and more. Search events in your location or your industry. Once you’ve found an event, make the right connections by browsing Attendees You May Want to Meet, or by filtering the attendee list by current company or industry.

As an event organizer, create your event on LinkedIn to get exposure to millions of professionals. Your event will automatically be listed in our directory and recommended to the right members.

As a business professional, you’re probably attending and/or hosting events on a routine basis. Take advantage of technology and make the most of every event. I’ve personally discovered a bunch of great events that I would have never known about if it weren’t for this app.

Well, there you have it. These tips will hopefully allow you to make the most of LinkedIn starting now. If you’re already doing some of the suggestions above, that’s great. The interesting thing about LinkedIn is that what I’ve covered here barely scratches the surface of what is possible on the platform. Start using it today and see for yourself.

Brands are still in their infancy when it comes to taking advantage of social, location-based services, which have been popping up all over the place. And who has been leading the charge? I’d have to say none other than foursquare. They really nailed the mobile check-in concept, and in doing so, my entire perception of their business model has changed since I first heard of them.

When the idea behind foursquare became popular back in 2009, it was based around social gaming. You’d check in and earn points and if you check in more than anyone else, you’d become the “mayor” of that establishment. You could also earn virtual badges and compare your standings with those of your friends. In essence, it was all about competition between friends, which was accomplished by adding game dynamics to real-world activities such as checking in to a physical location.

Nowadays however, it seems like most foursquare users use it more for the perks and the tips than for the fun of the game. For instance, if you check in at Chili’s Grill & Bar, you can get free chips and salsa, every time, no questions asked. Many other establishments have begun to take advantage of these check-in offers, which can include anything from discount coupons to free prizes and more.

Also, foursquare has essentially become a way for users to discover new and exciting things to do, wherever they may be. One way they do this is with the ability to leave “tips” on any venue in the system. Whenever I go to a new restaurant, I always check the tips section of the venue page on foursquare to see what others are saying about the place. “Try the guacamole” or “Stay away from the chicken salad” can be extremely helpful advice at times, especially when in unfamiliar territory.

So what I’m saying is that location-sharing platforms (and most notably foursquare) have evolved over the years from something that was just fun and goofy to something that is now very useful. It is this usefulness that attracts more and more users to the platform and puts the entire concept in a more professional light.

Such an evolution has taken place many times before. Remember a few years back, when the majority of tweets were useless babble about what someone had for breakfast or what they were doing at that very moment? Yes, some people still use Twitter like that, but for the most part, Twitter is now about sharing useful information in real-time, with an emphasis on useful.

From a marketer’s perspective, such an evolution from playful to professional is extremely helpful. Businesses are now using foursquare as a tool for attracting new customers and keeping them coming back. If you’re still waiting to jump on the bandwagon, I’d suggest you not wait much longer. The rules of marketing have changed and these new tools are allowing small businesses to compete with the big brands in ways that were never before possible, all thanks to social, location-based technology.

If you’re focusing your marketing efforts on local markets (and who isn’t?) then you need to be using foursquare and other location-based social media platforms. Whether you’re a real estate agent, a car dealership or a bakery, there’s a strategy there for you, so give it a try. And if everything stated above isn’t enough to convince you, keep this in mind: Location-based marketing is still new, which means very few brands are truly using it correctly to the fullest potential. That gives you a tremendous opportunity to actually get it right, before everyone else does.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on foursquare marketing. What has worked for you? What do you see as the future of location-based sharing? Leave your comments and questions below. Also, if you’re looking for more information on how to build brand awareness on foursquare, check out our recent article on that topic.