Before I try to answer that question, I think it’s important to say that social media marketing may not be the best route for your business. Just because it works for some businesses doesn’t mean it’s a fit for everybody, and trying to force a social media strategy on your particular business could result in a lot of wasted time and effort, not to mention frustration.

Who Doesn’t Need Social Media?

Again, this is a tough question to answer in a general sense, but here are a few things I’ve noticed that seem to make social media marketing an uphill battle:

• Your business or industry is one people just aren’t really interested in talking about. Honestly, if you sell ball bearings, it’s going to be tough to find people interested in talking about them. However, a company like Blendtech has done an amazing job of getting people interested in a relatively unsexy product like blenders by being funny and creative with their “Will it Blend?” videos. Can you do something creative and interesting with yours?
• You’re only interested in short-term, immediate sales impact. Social media is great at building brands, making connections, and creating customer loyalty. It’s not necessarily great as a sales tool, with a few notable exceptions. If you’re counting on social media to start bringing in huge sales from day one (or even 100), you’re likely to be disappointed.
• You’re primarily interested in social media as a way to “get your message out there.” While this is something that good social media marketing can do, it’s only a small piece of the pie, and could end up turning some people off. Social media is about two-way conversations and listening to what your potential market has to say. If you ignore the listening and community-building aspects of social media, you’ll probably find your message falling on deaf ears.

What Your Business Can Get Out of Social Media

Even though social media isn’t a magic bullet or a miracle cure for what ails your business, there are a lot of potential benefits to your business if it’s done right (and with the right mindset):

• A more loyal and interested audience- If you treat people with respect and interact with them in valuable, interesting ways, it can do wonders for how people see your brand. Instead of being just a commodity, your business can take on an air of friendliness, authority, and value that would have taken years of effort and thousands of dollars in branding work to accomplish in the past.
• Market research that blows away focus groups- Focus groups and surveys are of questionable value, at best, because people are inclined to tell you what you want to hear, or agree with others in the group so they fit in. However, if you do a good job of “actively listening” (i.e., paying close attention to conversations & communities, and watching trends in your industry), you can learn what people really think and feel when they think the business isn’t watching.
• Getting a leg up on your competition- Recently, I was watching my Twitter stream, and noticed a really influential guy in my industry stating that he wished a competitor of ours that he was using offered a certain feature, and that it was really limiting his business. I quickly replied that the company I work for has that feature, and that I’d be happy to answer any other questions he had. After a few tweets back and forth, he ended up bringing his product over to our company, resulting in tens of thousands of dollars in extra sales for us, and huge headache relief for him. Everybody came out a winner. Best of all, if your competition isn’t using social media yet, you control the conversation in your industry and are free to go after everyone who needs your product or service.
• Proactive customer support- One of the most important things you can do with social media, in my opinion, is address problems or questions your customers or market have out in the open. I know some companies are afraid to engage with angry customers in the open, but hey, they’re already complaining. Isn’t it better to get to tell your side of the story, or give them a solution, right out in the open where everyone can see it? It makes you look like a company who cares and tries hard to support their products. Just leaving a negative comment about your company out in the open for everyone to see is much worse, and if you can turn an angry customer into a happy one (which I’ve seen happen many times on Twitter), even better!

I hope that’s given you some ideas of how social media might be right for you, or even how it might not. The important things to remember are that if you’re going to do it, don’t do it halfway, and always know beforehand what it is you’re looking to accomplish.

Don’t just participate in social media for your business because you think you “should.” Do it because you want to learn, or talk to your customers and market more openly, or tell everyone how great your company is. Have goals and strategies going in, and you’ll be a lot more likely to get great results.

In case you’re not familiar with it, Foursquare is a location-based app that runs on smartphones like the iPhone, Droid, and Blackberry. Unlike some other location-based apps like Yelp that are primarily about reviews and finding specific kinds of businesses you might like based on where you’re at, Foursquare is more of a game (and I don’t mean this in a bad way). You can add friends to your list, and then when you visit businesses or locations, you “check in” and notify your Foursquare friends and/or Twitter & Facebook.

Connecting with friends is nothing new, but the Foursquare designers were pretty brilliant in that they made the whole app essentially a contest. Whoever checks in the most at a particular location becomes the recognized “mayor,” which, depending on the place, might give you some benefits. For example, some bars and restaurants give away free drinks or food to the mayor. This gives people a reason to compete to become the mayor of that spot.

You also get points for checking in, so you can compete with your friends to see who goes out the most and does the most exciting stuff, and you can also unlock some fun “badges” based on where you’ve checked in and how often. For example, I was pretty surprised and amused when I unlocked the “Bender” badge during a trip to Las Vegas recently for going out 4 nights in a row. There are lots of fun badges they’ve recently added, related to stuff like karaoke, what night you’re going out, if there are members of the opposite sex there, etc.

The Bender badge

It’s this aspect of fun that I think really sets Foursquare apart from other location-based apps and gives it serious potential to go viral. Many previous apps have focused on usefulness and the connection-making aspect of locations, but honestly, think about how many people just engage with the Internet or their smartphone for pure, goofy fun. It’s like people using potentially meaningful connectors like Facebook or Twitter to play Farmville or spread celebrity gossip at the speed of the Interwebs.

Fun Competition

Foursquare made a genius move by not ignoring people’s inherent competitiveness and desire to show off a little bit. I have to admit, I was pretty stoked when I became mayor of two pretty popular hangouts while in Vegas, especially since I don’t go out much at home! A little part of me will be disappointed when I get knocked off by a new mayor, even though I had to put almost no effort into getting that “position.”

Laziness

This is another key benefit of Foursquare- it takes almost no effort. I love using Yelp to try to find restaurants, but I’ve written exactly 0 reviews on it in the couple of years I’ve been using it. I’m a total leech. However, with Foursquare I can spend literally 2 seconds checking in when I get to a restaurant, and still get all of the enjoyment out of it.

Their very short “tips” people can write about places are a cool perk, too, since they’re minimal effort for a decent return. I’ve liked reading my friends’ tips about places I check in, even though they’re usually just one sentence.

Worthwhile Business Tie-ins

As I mentioned earlier, one of the coolest opportunities with Foursquare, and one which is underused so far, is the ability for businesses to reward Foursquare users and mayors. By offering coupons to people who check in at their location, or special perks for the mayor, brick-and-mortar businesses have a great opportunity to build some buzz around their business and create some loyal customers on the cheap. They also get their business name and location posted on Twitter & Facebook if people broadcast when they check in there, which could give them a big boost if the user has influence amongst their friends.

If I owned a bar, restaurant, or coffee shop, you can bet I’d be all over Foursquare. This interplay between users and business, in a way that is welcomed by the users, represents a great opportunity for growth and adoption. It’s still possible that other location-based apps like Gowalla and Loopt could overtake Foursquare in this space, but they’ve laid a great groundwork for it to really take off in 2010. I know I’ll be playing.

PS- If you want to be my friend on Foursquare, feel free to add me.

Update: Just a couple of days after writing this, I saw this NY Times article about how Foursquare is partnering with the Bravo TV channel to allow Bravo’s show personalities to give their tips and to-dos, let Foursquare users unlock unique badges, get coupons, and more. Could this be the push that takes Foursquare into the mainstream?