In 2009, foursquare was launched and became the first widely used social network based on location. It now has over 7 million registered users. In 2010, Facebook launched places and allowed people to check in via their cell phones. Both companies have been on a pretty big spree as of late in terms of features release. Facebook has an all new news feed and profile page called timeline and foursquare has just released daily deals and lists. Which leads us to invariable questions of Facebook v. Foursquare?

So as a marketer where should my ad buy go?

That’s easy – Facebook by a mile

OK well what about as a small business?

Even easier – Facebook again and this time by the curvature of the earth.

How about if I am a regular consumer?

Sorry – it’s Facebook again but it’s close.

Let’s try and understand each and why Facebook has literally pulled the rug out from under Foursquare.

• For marketers, especially digital marketers, there has to be an ROI on the ad spend. Facebook provides a higher ROI, not through a daily deal but by being able to get the person to follow a retail location forever in its News Feed. Every day for as long as I like the brand location I can receive drink specials, menus, special events, news, etc. Foursquare doesn’t provide a news feed for brand locations. People can check into a place and receive a special but I don’t ever capture the user to keep marketing to them. I can’t build an audience in Foursquare like I can in Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube.
• For small business, it’s an easier ad to buy and there are simply more people on Facebook. If I am already buying Facebook ads, it’s really easy to buy a sponsored story about people who have checked in to my place or a competitor’s place. Even if I don’t buy ads, I most likely will have a Facebook page for my business and if I enter my address, Facebook allows for check ins. Foursquare doesn’t offer those kinds of ad buys. They simply offer a special that people can only use once. Secondly, with more people on Facebook, it’s more likely that a Facebook user will come into my store, check in and like it so I can send them news alerts than a foursquare customer coming in looking for a daily deal. So if I am going to buy ads, or set up a page for people to check in than I am going to most likely use Facebook book because I already have a page and it’s going to have a bigger audience.
• For the regular consumer, it’s all about the timeline and size of Facebook. One of the cool aps from foursquare was being able to see where I checked in and how times I have been there. Timeline killed that ap. Now, I can see where I have been my entire life all on my profile page, complete with pictures, status updates and comments. While foursquare offers that kind of ability, it’s simple numbers at this point. 800 million people are on Facebook and 7 million are on Foursquare. More people have the ability to tag me at different spots on the planet, more people have the ability to “like” where I am or comment on what I am doing and it all goes on my timeline. One social network to live by, no reason to manage a personal one and a location based one. The badges and mayorships were cool, but they are so 2009 and I would rather chat with my friends.

Sorry, foursquare, it’s been a good run, but Facebook just passed you at the quarter pole and is accelerating away. Facebook has done the best job of anyone in understanding what consumer’s want (information about their friends) and how to intersect it with small business and brands able to market to those consumers on a recurring basis. Foursquare started out very promisingly with connecting friends with locations of other friends, but has failed to come up with a way to allow venues to market back to their customers. Having a daily deal special doesn’t help a small business if they can’t get the person to follow their brand when they have another daily deal special or a sale or new product coming in. Facebook solves that problem by allowing subscribers to “like” a store right after they check in and then the specials and the news are just an update away.