One of the more popular social media trends to surface are location-based websites like FourSquare, Gowalla and Loopt, among others. These social media sites have incorporated GPS technology with a layer of gaming businesses are quickly discovering that they’re able to leverage their presence in unique and exciting ways. If these names sound foreign and location-based social media is virgin territory for you, this explanation might help.

FourSquare is a website that really used for letting your friends, co-workers, family or whomever, know where you are. Using your smartphone, you login to FourSquare every time you arrive at a destination. You can ‘check-in’ to a grocery store, the Starbuck’s on the corner of Broadway and 5th Avenue, your favorite French restaurant and even a fun clothing boutique. The gaming aspect happens via check-ins by assigning points that allow you to earn ‘badges’ that can be used toward just about anything a particular merchant can think of.

The more you check-in and interact with a location or business, the more points you earn. Points can earn you the position of “mayor” of a specific location. Eventually, you can become ‘mayor’ and most companies will offer special discounts and offers to the mayor. So there really is a payoff to “hanging out all day”.

In terms of promoting your business, these new sites are a marketing dream with unlimited potential. Some of the more notable ways that companies and individuals are utilizing these social media sites to drive traffic include:

Starbucks. For all FourSquare participants, each store has extended a local offer to the mayor of each location. Starbucks provides a $1 off frappuccino coupon to mayors nationwide.

Kentucky Derby and Courier Journal. This famous sporting event and largest local newspaper united forces to develop a city tour and bar crawl on Gowalla. Users could check-in to specified locations to earn points and even a badge for successful completion of the tour. This was a great revenue generator for the businesses and bars who were involved.

St. Edward’s University. This is a great example that shows you don’t have to be a retail location in order to benefit from location-based social media. The university used Whrrl to have more than 180 students, parents, staff and faculty to check-in and exchange photos and experiences during a graduation ceremony. Instead of having individual Facebook and Twitter updates, people collectively contributed and connected through Whrrl that created a sense of community on a very special day.

Put on your creative caps and try using these social media platforms to build some buzz for yourself. Lots of possibilities with nothing to lose. How can you use this to market your business or book?