Foursquare Love Affair

Today, I joined Foursquare.

I know, I’m a little late for someone who wants to think of herself as an emerging “expert” in social media as a PR tool.

I knew Foursquare could be used to help businesses communicate with their clients/customers, and so I’ve understood a good deal of it’s marketing value. You can reward your loyal customers, make it easy for them to suggest your business to others, etc. It’s a great, organic way to grow and maintain your client base.

However, what I didn’t fully realize until today, is the ironic way that this social media tool actually drives you into real places, real events, real people.

With the boom of social media, critics preached that although people are networking more extensively, they are losing any meaningful contact with others. And to a significant degree, I think they were, and still are correct.

But Foursquare is different. Yes, every entry is recorded online in app-world, but the whole point of it is to encourage you to go out in your community, to get away from your computer and do something real.

Foursquare transforms our technology addiction from something that keeps us in our comfort zone, alone at our desk,  to a facilitator of face-to-face interaction, experience.

Foursquare is a perfect example of how social networking should be used– no, utilized.

Foursquare fulfills not only the PR/Marketing side of me, that wants to see as much of this positive communication between businesses and their audiences as possible, but it also inspires me to go enjoy my city and its people.

Foursquare, I think I love you.

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