Nick Cifuentes

In a just-released Forrester research report, it said that most marketers should refrain from location-based services, citing that just a mere 4% of the US online adults have ever checked in on the “location game.” And only 1% update these services more than once a week.

The study revealed some interesting statistics, as it looked at a large number of location-based sites, including popular players such as Foursquare, Gowalla, MyTown and Loopt. And to add to the study, a whopping 84% of respondents said they had no idea or were not even familiar enough with such types of apps. This study comes at an interesting time, since 2010 was marked the year of location-based services, igniting fires under social media marketers - all trying to integrate location-based strategies into their marketing programs.

And to add to the bottleneck, the report said almost 80% of location-based service users are male, with close to 70% of them between the ages of 19 and 35, and 70% have college degrees or higher. Forrester also discovered that 38% were more likely to say friends and family ask their opinions before a purchase, in addition, this crowd was very open to mobile coupons and offers as well. This vertical is also more resourceful with research prior to a purchase where nearly 20% are more likely to consult their phones before buying to conduct more research and read customer reviews.

Location-Based Reality Stinks?

This certainly brings most marketers back to reality before jumping on the location game bandwagon.

Although this data cuts down a very small segment to target, it’s still very approachable when you consider products that live in the gaming, consumer electronics, and sportswear verticals. These are the verticals that lead the way with testing these applications, according to Forrester. However, the location space is full of brands that are already proving they are not just for the male audience. Big players such as Starbucks, Oil of Olay, Bravo, Gossip Girl, Campbell’s Soup, Louis Vuitton, Bon Appétit, Lucky Magazine, TLC, and PepsiCo are all currently experimenting with location-based services.

But as in any new technology, there is always the question of adoption rate, and to be honestly blunt, these networks are very much in their infant stages. Foursquare has just over 2 million users; Loopt has 4 million, and MyTown with 2.5 million - barely a drop in the bucket from a marketing standpoint.

And the next question is scale, when this will happen? As of now, the digital social network rulers such as Facebook, Google and Twitter are not fully involved in the location game. When their entrance takes place, this will help set the market more efficiently, creating a much higher adoption rate. And a drastic shift in competition for the current market.

Thoughts…

As Forrester always does well, and does often - it reports the facts. I don’t think marketers should completely avoid location-based service programs, nor is Forrester saying that. They are however saying that you should tread lightly and not expect any massive returns as you start to experiment in this sort of advertising.

However, the market always moves quickly, as we all have become aware of over the past several years in social media’s popularity. If digital adoption rates stick, I’d say we would be in a good place to give this just a bit more of time before more users begin amass on each of these networks.

Depending on your specialty, I’d say it’s reckless to not at least consider location-based services when considering new social media programs. Your brand’s demographic might not fall directly into what Forrester reports, however, you should consider the question of “When?” At exactly what point will the ‘branded’ location-based network space take off in popularity? When will they eventually act like your Facebook branded community does now?

I think the real question is: Do you want to get involved now, or several months or years from now when every brand on the planet is doing it?

These types of applications will grow; they will be built beyond a cliché, cornball badge to tell your friends on Facebook or Twitter about. Monetary, if not branded products will soon replace these and be offered in place of  a ‘real’ incentive for checking-in. We already have started to see this in mobile coupon deals that Starbucks offers.

These incentives will get better and will have a stronger support system as the adoption rate increases.

We’ve just started in this game kids…just give it time.

According to a new report from Forrester Research, social media isn’t just for kids any longer. The new report notes that more than 60 percent of baby boomers are actually engaged in social media channels, such as blogs, videos, podcasts, and forums.

In 2007, the percentage of baby boomers consuming this media was at 46% for people ages 43 to 52, and 39% for people ages 53 to 63. By 2008, the number increased in a massive way, 67% and 62% respectively.

In addition, the number of baby boomers responding to content posted online increased as well. For the younger boomers, responding to content doubled from 15% in 2007 to 34% in 2008. According to Forrester, this is now at a percentage that’s high enough to target this group with social media applications and content.

When it comes to joining social networks, the activity has widely increased among baby boomers as well. Today, almost one in four of the younger boomers are actively engaged in social networks, up from 15% in 2007.

The one aspect of social media that is up, but not at a significant increase when compared to the other activities, is the aspect of actually creating content. Besides updating their online profiles and leaving blog comments, the baby boomers are still not heavily involved in writing blog articles or creating videos and posting them online. In 2008, 16% of younger boomers were involved in content creation (up from 12% in 2007) and 15% of older boomers (up from 8% in 2007). Both groups saw an increase, but it still remains the least popular activity online for baby boomers.

What Does this Mean?

According to Forrester’s suggestion - the best bet for getting baby boomers involved in your content is to create blogs or videos that relate to the life and/or work style of baby boomers. And creating these content channels without so many complex sign-up processes are most likely the smartest direction to take your ideas, as the numbers above show that baby boomer’s feedback is limited - so consider the sensitivity of your channel.

This research opens the door to start considering serious steps into creating social applications for this particular age group (ages 43 to 63). Although the group isn’t as active as the younger generations, their participation levels are now at a moderate level and increasing - very worth of a company to start to seriously consider marketing towards.

So when thinking about marketing to this age group, consider the social networks that many of the baby boomers now favor. Websites like Eons, BOOMj.com, TeeBeeDee, Classmates Online, and AARP’s new online community.

Fin.

Social Media Map.

Late last week, our team at Overdrive Interactive released the first version of the Social Media Map. This map is designed to help marketers and random people alike view the components of the social media landscape and determine how it can be best leveraged for their marketing or personal branding needs.

“We know how complex and overwhelming the social media landscape can be,” said Harry Gold, CEO of Overdrive Interactive. “We wanted to map it all out, so that marketing professionals can use it as a guide to what we believe are the most important social media tools out there. The power of social media is growing exponentially by the day, and now is the time to harness it.”

The map details the ‘key’ social media websites that Overdrive believes you should know about. As a key component in putting that list together - I can’t stress enough the importance of what we did with this social media map.

Our efforts to bring you the most up-to-date social media strategy for you company is key in our mission of social media branding. You have all heard me talk in the past about various websites that come and go, and the social media websites that seem to be flashes in the pan - but remember, they are all relevant in someway. They are helping us shape society on the Internet, and the way people, brands and identities communicate with each other.

Think about the various social engines that are present in the social community; micro-blogging, social bookmarking, groups, life-casting, travel, wikis, B2B social networks, blogs, and more! Many of these have become key points of interest in your daily Internet life, and many of you might still be wondering what certain websites do, and how you can utilize them. That is where this social media map comes into play - for you to see what type of ‘expressions’ on the web you might be curious about, and how you can get started involving yourself in them.

Soon, we will have an interactive version on the web - so stay tuned! Although for now, head to http://www.ovrdrv.com/social-media-map to download your copy today & take part in the revolution!

Fin.

You figured it would happen at some point - social networking sites are popping up for conceivably every market demographic - and now a social networking site for babies has made its way to the market.  

Totspot.

This amazing feat of success has brought Totspot into a place where they might find a profitable niche.  

The service that is built on Ruby on Rails, just went through a private beta test and is now open to all parents and babies to take part in.  This Facebook for children platform allows babies (probably their parents) to enter their favorite nickname, book, food, etc…

Totspot, which as accumulated 15,000 users, is part of an social movement into the ‘newborn’ realm of social networking.  Odadeo, Lil’ Grams and Kidmondo are also some growing social networking sites for parents to spread updates of their newborn babies.  

For quite a while, Facebook, and photo websites like Flickr and Photobucket, among others, have been popular places to track a baby’s progress - things such as a first step, first pictures and video at the zoo, first time eating an oreo cookie, and so on.

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