As I sat down at a local frozen custard joint, I pulled out my iPhone and went to the Gowalla app, ‘checked in’ and quickly let my friends know exactly which dessert I was enjoying. People do this every day on apps such as this (including the more popular Foursquare).

It made me realize that apps like this are going to revolutionize word-of-mouth marketing. Once you see a few of your friends all visiting a local hot-spot that you haven’t tried, you’ll be tempted to try it out more as well.

The real question is how can businesses leverage this type of organic word of mouth? Should they encourage patrons to post/tweet about their store, or does that take away from its organic nature? There’s always horror stories about customers walking into restaurants in Yelp.com t-shirts in hopes of getting some freebies or better service.

I personally feel that businesses should focus on their business. Provide a good product, or good service, and in the end it will sell itself. A strong business will benefit from the new revolution of word-of-mouth without having to lift a finger. But those who try too hard will probably get called out for it.