When most of us think about social media, we generally describeit in shorthand as Twitter,LinkedIn and Facebook. In someother fields like the entertainment industry, you're likely toinclude MySpace in your description as well.

Related: Read “There'sgold in them thar hills.”

Even many of the so-called “experts” often have a narrow fieldof vision regarding tools available, but the truth is there arethousands of apps that serve the “social” purpose. And if youinclude apps that are more self-help, utility types or gaming, thenumber jumps to hundreds of thousands.

So it wasn't surprising that when I told my wife I was writing acolumn about Foursquare, she asked if I meant the schoolyard gamethat our son plays with a ball and a box with a cross in it writtenin chalk on the blacktop of the tennis court. The answer, ofcourse, was “no.”

Not just for kids

Foursquare, to my mind, isa combination of Facebook, LinkedIn and Penny Savers. It's partLinkedIn because it builds a network based on your friends,wherever they are and however they came to become “friends;” it'spart Facebook because Foursquare uses iconic badges to signify anindividual's achievements, and part Penny Savers because, just ashow the coupons in those booklets build loyalty between advertisersand their recipient customers, Foursquare is all about building acreative loyalty program.

Foursquare promotes your agency name in the market and reaches amuch more mobile audience than might be possible through televisionor newspaper ads. Granted, the market will tend to be younger, butthat's where the future lies. Positioning your business with aplatform like Foursquare says something about how you look atyourselves so you will have begun introducing your agency beforethe prospect even meets you.

When I was a young boy, my mother collected S&H GreenStamps. I'm not sure how widespread that loyalty program was, butshe was determined to fill the books to redeem them for a toasteror blender or some other kitchen appliance.

Related: Bea fan of AA&B on facebook!

With Foursquare, however, the proof is in the pudding. Whilestill somewhat new, Foursquare has already proved its worth toretailers as a way to build market share and walk-in business.According to a blog on its website, “Foursquare was created tomotivate people to discover interesting things around them.”

This app works by creating environments that provide incentivefor members to visit retail businesses. Every time you're out andabout, check the “Places” button on your smart phone with GPS tosee if it picks up the stores near you. When you visit a restaurantor dry cleaners or some other store, “Check In” online and thenleave a “Tip”–not the money kind, but the information type. What'sso great about that particular establishment (price, service,product, view, energy, whatever)? Similar to Twitter, the Tips arelimited to 140 characters.

The more often you check in to a business, the more points youreceive; at a certain level, you can become “The Mayor” of thatbusiness. All you have to do is check in to the venue more thananyone else in the last 60 days. If you're at an establishment thatisn't showing up on Foursquare, you can add it, check in and stillget points.

Some businesses use this process to identify people who deservecoupons for free items. As an example, Starbucks offered $1 off anysize Frappuccino for its mayors. Already the most “checked in”retailer on the platform, Starbucks saw a 50 percent increase incheck ins since running the mayors' special.

Another store, a chocolate retailer in Palo Alto, Calif., ran asimilar redemption program through Foursquare and a localnewspaper. Using the free Foursquare platform, the retailerrealized 50 new customers and saw more than 100 redemptions afterrunning the program for seven weeks.

In contrast, the $300 ad in the local newspaper netted thechocolatier only one customer with a redemption. The owner alsoclaims that more than 25 percent of people who took advantage ofthe redemption program through Foursquare return regularly to makepurchases.

Local businesses, as well as national chains like SportsAuthority, Ben & Jerry's and Whole Foods, are all leveragingthis platform to drive traffic. Others are using it to buildpartnerships.

As I began researching Foursquare, I created a picture in myhead of a great social media platform for building loyalty, drivingtraffic and for individuals to start seeing the communities inwhich they work and live in a different light. But I was stumped byhow a business like an insurance agency, which customers visitmaybe once or even never by conducting all their transactions overthe phone, could leverage it.

As I read more examples of how retailers created specialprograms for customers, a picture started forming of ways for alow-trafficked venue to use Foursquare to improve its marketing. Abasic tenet of marketing is first to get your brand out into thetarget community, second is to differentiate yourself from yourcompetition and third is to drive your targets to do something(call, visit the website, check your insurance limits, etc.).

Additionally, if you write commercial lines and have someclients that are retailers, you should encourage them to become abusiness venue on Foursquare and then partner with them on aspecial. It will drive traffic to that business and promote youragency at the same time. An example might be to partner with arestaurant you write to give customers a free side dish for everyfifth check in, and the program would have your branding on thewebsite. Or maybe every venue mayor of the restaurant could receivea free home inventory check-up. Even if they are not your clientnow, how much value to you is there in getting them to stop by anddiscuss homeowner's insurance and the importance of taking anaccurate inventory?

These are just a couple of ideas. I'm sure you can think of manymore. Visit the Foursquarewebsite to find examples of other businesses that areleveraging this tool. To get answers to many of your questions froma user or business perspective, visit the FAQ page, and if you wantto “claim” your agency as the manager, search to see if you'realready in the Foursquare listings or add the agency, then identifyyourself as the manager. Currently, the verification process issomewhat manual and may take a little time. Foursquare isdeveloping an automated method that will immediately validate withno waiting time. And then you're off!

Foursquare is just one of thousands of apps that can supportyour marketing efforts. It currently has around 1.5 million usersaround the world, and is growing. If this platform doesn't fit youragency's marketing plan, I'm sure there's one that does.

You may still think you don't need to have a presence onlinebeyond your website, but think about this.

According to “Socialnomics” author Erik Qualman:

• More than 50 percent of the world's population is under 30years old
• 96 percent of Millennials have joined a social network
• Facebook tops Google for weekly traffic in the U.S.–which meansit's becoming more important how your business appears on Facebookthan what position it turns up at in a search
• U.S. Dept. of Education study revealed that online studentsoutperformed those receiving face-to-face instruction
• 80 percent of companies use social media for recruitment
• The fastest-growing segment on Facebook is 55- to 65-year-oldfemales
• YouTube is the second-largest search engine in the world
• There are more than 200 million blogs
• 34 percent of bloggers post opinions about products andbrands.

Social media isn't a fad; it's a fundamental shift in the way wecommunicate.

How well is your agency doing it? Can I help? Let me know whatother social media platforms you'd like to read about.