This is a guest post written by my good friend and fellow Social Media practitioner @GuillaumeFoutry

Foursquare, the location based social game, has taken over the social media world.  Given that, you would think that businesses in London – the Twitter capital of the world and a European technological hub – would jump on the band wagon and use it.  But they seem surprisingly reluctant to try it.

I estimate, based on my check-ink all over London, that there are probably 30 companies using it.  That is too few if you think of the number of tech savvy people working in London and more broadly of the size of the city (7.5 million inhabitants).  It is a shame that more local businesses are not seizing this new opportunity to promote their services.

As a marketing tool, Foursquare offers lots of advantages to businesses:

  • A promotional channel: A location based marketing channel (your offer appears to anyone who checks in around your venue).
  • A social CRM opportunity: Insightful data about your customers: discover what kind of people check in at your venue, why they come, etc.
  • A business awareness catalyst: A new way to reach online influencers as Foursquare users are the kind of people that write revues on Yelp and tell their friends on Twitter or Facebook to go to a nice bar or restaurant.

But I may be too impatient – Foursquare is only one year old (reaching 3 million users worldwide in the next few weeks) and its growth just accelerated earlier this year. And not all businesses have been shy using it: Domino’s Pizza has integrated Foursquare into its social media marketing mix, which has helped the company to increase profits by 32.7%. Louis Vuitton has used the ‘Layer’ feature to provide users with its own London experience. If a brand coming from the luxury industry  – an industry known for its conservatism – has taken the leap in the dark, then other businesses should follow.