Thinking about spending a boatload of cash on a location-based marketing campaign? Maybe you should hold off for a little while, because the general population is a long way from adopting the new technology.
A new study from Forrester found that a measly 1 percent of U.S. adults are using location based social networks on a weekly basis. Only 4 percent of adults have even tried these social networks, which include Foursquare and Gowalla.
So who's actually using Foursquare? Young male influencers with college degrees -- or the type of people you see at marketing conferences preaching about how location-based technology is the way of the future.
There's absolutely nothing wrong with this demographic, which I should probably include myself in. But 1 percent of the population simply isn't the type of scale marketers are looking for when it comes to digital. Forrester predicts that location-based advertising will have its time, but that day is still a ways away.
