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This Just In…
Most Americans lost when it comes to Foursquare, study reveals
July 29, 2010
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Analysts at Forrester Research say that marketers shouldn’t check in to Foursquare as a promotion tool — yet. They found that location-based social media platforms, while hyped and talked about among online circles, are still too small to be beneficial for major marketing pushes.
According to Forrester Research, only 4 percent of U.S. consumers indicated that they used geolocation services, but of that, just half said that they use them “rarely if ever.” A sizeable 84 percent of those surveyed said they aren’t even familiar with location-based social networks at all.
Forrester analyst Melissa Parrish told Ad Age that she believes services such as Foursquare (2 million users), Loopt (4 million) and MyTown (2.5 million) are only viable for bold brands that target the male adult demographic.
Marketers should hang back until these apps get bigger audiences, she said.
The findings come at a time when Foursquare is reportedly in talks with giants like Google, Yahoo! and Microsoft to add its location-based “check-ins” to search results, a move that positions the service as a major player in the social media sphere.
Ever since Twitter (with its 125-million-strong user base) secured contracts with search engines last October, analysts have speculated that geolocal results are the next step to revolutionizing the ubiquitous Internet search query.
Until a deal is hammered out and location-based media mature, however, Forrester recommends marketers only include the platform in campaigns that target video-gaming, sports-playing or gadget-loving adult males. — Philip Volmar
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