As recently as a year ago, FourSquare was THE thing….people were checking in when they were shopping, dining out, and everything in between. Marketers saw this as a great tool to learn more about their customers and reward them for their business.

It seems as though social media is slowly killing off Foursquare – in fact, as I prepared to write this blog post, it took me several minutes to recall the name of the site. That’s how long it’s been since I thought about it. I’m not alone – thanks to tagging, hashtags, and other social media cues, people can easily share their location and activities directly on any social site they choose without needing to visit Foursquare.

What does this mean for your business? Well, things got a whole lot simpler when it comes to marketing directly to your customers. It’s one less site to focus on, meaning more time for the sites that are most active for you and your customers.

Even if you’re not directly connected to your customers, there are ways to find them and engage directly, even while they’re in your place of business.

Social media monitoring: if you are using such a program, you know the benefits of monitoring for your brand and/or products. It’s a great way to easily find out who is talking about your brand. It’s also easy to connect with them once you’ve found them.

Take advantage of those who are tagging: when someone “checks in” by including your company’s user name in their post on social sites, respond. It can be something as simple as thanking them for visiting, ask them what they’re eating/shopping for, or, better yet, reward them if you catch the post in time – send them a coupon to use during their current visit. You can bet this will get their attention and the attention of others who follow their site.

What to do when there’s no text? Sometimes people will simply post a picture of their meal and comment on it, but not state where they are. Enhanced, location based social media monitoring can help you identify these customers while they are in your place of business so you can reach out and engage with them, similar to what you would do with those who directly tag your business in their post.

While I don’t think Foursquare is completely dead, I do think its time is limited. It was a great tool at the time, but one that was short lived as social media sites upped their game quickly and rolled out tools to encourage users to stay on their sites longer. Two years from now we will be referring to Foursquare like we now do with MySpace…it was good while it lasted, but met its fate too soon.