Facebook Places is just a few weeks old, so the big debate over whether it will cause the slow death of Foursquare is yet to be seen. While both are location-based check-in services, they currently serve very different purposes.
Foursquare is much more business-friendly than Facebook Places (for now). As a business owner, you can offer discounts to anyone who checks into your store or office, reward the mayor of your business and encourage groups to meet at your place in hopes of creating a swarm. Foursquare is more like a game than anything else. The more times you check into a location, the more points you get and the higher rank you receive. You can even see who else has checked into the same location, which leads to the awkward look around the room to see if you can spot the other cool kids playing the same game. Privacy is more secure on Foursquare- only your Foursquare friends know where you are, unless you allow your check-ins to be posted to Twitter and Facebook.
For now, Facebook Places is a novelty being used by a brave few souls. And just like folks tweeting what they ate for lunch when Twitter first rolled out, Facebook Places is just as annoying. Eventually, Facebook Places will be tied into Facebook Business Pages, which opens a whole new level of opportunity for business owners. Until Facebook deals with their trust/privacy issues, Facebook Places will not be embraced by the masses. Who knows if that will ever be settled.
Until then, consider adding Foursquare to your marketing arsenal. It is a fun way to reward customers and is still new enough to be hip and cool.
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