When I first signed up for FourSquare, I didn’t really know how I could leverage it for PR. I got on there to try it because that’s what PR people do when we hear about new social media tools.

I got on Foursquare and started finding people to follow, but at the time there weren’t very many people in my DC Twitter circle on it so the pickings were slim. Luckily, Peter Corbett was on Foursquare, so I followed him and watched his check-ins around the city. There was one that caught my attention, and kept keeping my attention : Chinatown Coffee Company.

I am a coffee snob. So I thought to myself: How in the world was there a coffee place in the city (and apparently right down the street from my house) that was serving divine espresso, that I didn’t know about?! At the time Peter was the mayor of Chinatown Coffee, and thanks to Foursquare, I was able to get the exact address of the place, so one day when I was nearby I stopped in to try it out.

Can you say love at first sight? Done deal. Everything I have ever wanted in my neighborhood coffee shop, my needs all met in one fell swoop. Now, if you know me, you know that for me to say this is major. Let me break this down: minimalist, industrial decor. Locally-sourced dairy. Hawthorne bakery pastries (they always have banana nut muffins, even in summer). Limited seating for an intimate feel. Michele’s granola. Lattes and cappuccinos so perfectly sweet, they don’t even need sugar. A church pew as seating. Customers on MacBooks. Baristas you can talk to about stuff besides coffee.

Just to tell you about the quality of the people this place attracts, once after leaving a PRSA event, Deborah Brody and I went to CC to talk and have coffee, and after leaving we saw Jessica Yellin, a CNN Congressional correspondent jump out of a taxi and head in to grab her java to go. At the time, I was planning PoliTwitch, so I ran back in to talk to Ms. Yellin about possibly getting someone from CNN on the panel. She ended up helping me get Mark Preston, CNN’s political director to speak. And it all started in a round about way with Foursquare.

I say all of this to say, had I not been on Foursquare I may have stumbled across Chinatown Coffee on my own. But because Peter Corbett was the Mayor, it immediately had an endorsement by someone whose taste I trust. And I’m not talking taste in coffee. While that is important, Peter is a busy creative business person so anywhere he chooses to spend any of his precious free time (even if it’s to drop in to grab a cup of coffee) holds a tremendous bit of weight with me.

Think of this as network influence. You may not know of the best place to grab a bottle of wine, but if someone you trust who has great taste in wine endorses an establishment by going there repeatedly and saying how great the wine was, that’s probably where you’re going to go. And if you’re the owner of a wine shop, your job is to find those influencers–the people who know wine, love wine and are always talking about wine–and make sure they are coming to your wine shop, tasting your finest wine, and perhaps getting free bottles of wine. Maybe you need to throw a little private wine tasting just for your wine influencers just so they can check in on Foursquare and put you on the proverbial Foursquare map.

So if your business is NOT on Foursquare, you need to get on there. Because your customers are watching where their friends are checking in. And sometimes, your customers may randomly search for a place to eat or something to do by doing a random “places” search to see what’s nearby. If you don’t pop up, they can’t consider you. And you might be RIGHT under their noses. Just like Chinatown Coffee was  right down the street from my house, but it didn’t exist for me until I saw it Foursquare.

If you need help getting on Foursquare, finding influencers, connecting with influencers, setting up rewards programs or further leveraging Foursquare for your business, let’s talk.

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The ability to create a sound strategy to promote an event, person, product or cause lies at the core of our profession. That means making judgment calls about what medium or combination of media to use when crafting a good pitch. Increasingly, spreading the word and generating buzz requires a multitiered, multifaceted and multimedia approach. In addition to the original channels of media, we must continue to push the envelope and learn creative ways to attract attention and engender the compassion of our target audience-whether they are reporters at the Wall Street Journal or consumers.

This video for Share Our Strength is a great and inspiring example of this outside-of-the-box thinking. Created by the genius creative minds at Washington, DC-based iStrategyLabs, the video is beautifully scripted and animated. And what’s more, it’s scored with original music. Can you imagine sending this thing to a journalist as your pitch?

I recently sat down with two of my favorite and D.C.’s best new media, social media, all things digital strategy and public relations genius wonderboys, James Walker and Peter Corbett. While the two chats occurred on two different days and in two different locales, the commentary is not surprisingly of the same vein, as great minds truly do think alike. Check out James and Peter’s thoughts on why public relations practitioners should use social media and how.

Need help getting social media savvy?

Welcome to the first Test Drive My Job-a column that will profile marketing, public relations and social media professionals at various stages of their careers. Test Drive My Job is meant to do just that-allow you to test drive a job before embarking on a new career or industry change. Use the experiences of your colleagues to find out what careers may be a good fit for you. Feel free to connect on Twitter to learn more about each of their experiences.

I recently caught up with Peter Corbett aka “Mr. Social Media DC,” whom I met at the One party a few weeks ago.

Name: Peter Corbett,28

Twitter: @corbett3000

Current City: Washington, DC

Company: iStrategyLabs

Company Size: 2 employees + 20 something contractors

Job Title: CEO

Time @ Job: 17 months

Mopwater: What are your typical work hours? PC: 7am – 2am (yes…i average about 19 hours a day)

Mopwater: What’s your typical workday like? PC: I move client’s business forward with smart marketing programs that deliver results. Tactically speaking that means I spend a lot of time thinking about their brands and customers and then provide creative ways to deliver value to that audience. Once ideas are on paper, I usually get involved in executing digital builds or physical programs of some kind.

Mopwater: Where and how do you work? PC: I work everywhere. I have an awesome LAB in Dupont Circle and a home office. I travel a lot so I do a lot of work in hotels, coffee shops, book stores. I love this way of working – I’m a digital nomad!

Mopwater: What type of clients do you take on and what do you do for them? PC: We work mostly with consumer brands but also work with some non-profits and the government. We provide interactive strategy, experiential marketing and content creation services. Here’s our capabilities deck. We recently did this project. And this project and this one, too.

Mopwater: How many co-workers/employees do you have? How do you best collaborate with your team? PC: I have 1 employee, my COO. We have 20+ contracts that work with us both in person and virtually. We use wikis, blogs, twitter, facebook, Basecamp, conference calls and all manner of collaboration tools to do our work.

Mopwater: What are your favorite things about working at iStrategyLabs? PC: The most exciting thing is that iStrategyLabs is not definable and ever changing. We’re morphing with the market as we go and are batting a thousand with regard to delivering results for clients. Providing marketing services for clients is what we’re known for, but increasingly we’re an incubator/community developer/innovation company. It will be an exciting year in 2009!

Mopwater: What do you wish was different about your job? PC: I wish I didn’t have to think about internal operations at all – my COO came on board 3 months ago and soon that part of the puzzle will be completely off my plate.

Mopwater: Do you see yourself in this job in 5 years? If not, where do you see yourself? PC: Yes. This is a company I plan to run and keep for the rest of my life. There is no exit strategy. Being an entrepreneur is the most rewarding and challenging path in the world. If you plan to start you own thing remember this – it’s all or nothing. You’ll either be success or you’ll crash and burn. Be prepared for both!