Is it time for you to pay attention to Foursquare?

Maybe Probably.

Right now, Foursquare has somewhere around a million users – and they are adding about 15,000 users per day.

My own experience with Foursquare when someone became the mayor of my house – at 4am.

And I just happened to be up and working in my office when it happened.

Wait a minute, someone can be the mayor of your house?

Yes.

But that isn’t really why you will be hearing more about Foursquare in the future — you will be hearing more about Foursquare (or Gowalla or other services just like it) because as the web becomes more and more mobile using smartphones, marketers are getting more savvy at something called location based marketing.

Location based marketing. As in, consumers notify you that they are “here” and you have a chance to market to them.

One simple example of how location based marketing potentially works:

Go to Downtown Gilbert and plan on going to Oregano’s for dinner. As you walk in the door, you “check in” on Foursquare. As you check in, you are notified that there is a Foursquare special for Joes Real BBQ for anyone who checked in at Oreganos where you get 50% off if you show your phone to them in the next 10 minutes.

Then did you know that tracking internet activity is easily possible if you use the right software? So, you can easily track what remote staff are doing and ensure that they are doing the right work which obviously makes managing them a lot easier.Are you still going to wait in line at Oreganos (they always have a line, right?) when you could go across the street and save 50% on your meal?

I call it “customer stealing” – you can call it whatever you want.

But it is here.

And with the adoption velocity increasing at an increasing rate for applications like this — it won’t be long before businesses figure out the best way to market to you when you are in their immediate vicinity.

It’s early — and some of the smartest people I know say that right now Foursquare needs businesses more than businesses need Foursquare…

But it won’t be long before the tables turn.

So if you are a small business (or a big one for that matter) and if you are wondering if there is an ROI for Foursquare — go ahead and sign up for the Foursquare ROI Challenge and get your business set up offering your customers Foursquare specials.

It’s free in the month of June.

And start picking off those customers from your competitors across the street.

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About the Author:Justin McHood calls himself a “Mortgage Commentator” and works for Academy Mortgage Corporation. You can find his loan officers at Ten Day Close and read more of his thoughts on the mortgage business on Zillow’s Mortgages Unzipped Blog. You can also find him at most East Valley Friday Nights gatherings. He’s the one in the blue shirt.