Geo-location or Location Based Services (LBS) are getting more press all the time.  In the same way we have heard for a few years that mobile computing would be the next huge thing, we are now hearing about Foursquare, Gowalla, Wrrrl, Loopt and Brightkite.

On a side note, only 42% of Americans currently use smart phones.  This doesn’t mean that mobile computing won’t eventually be predominant, but that people usually overestimate how quickly adoption rates of new technology will reach a mainstream tipping point.

We are at the tail end of the early adopter phase for location based services.  When the rumored Facebook location based service rolls out to compete with Foursquare it will be a whole new ball game.

Our favorite LBS apps were just served a slap of reality by Forrester Research, who discovered that only 4% of online users in the US report using a location-based application on their cell phones. The takeaway from the report is that marketers should wait for the LBS market to mature before integrating them into their campaigns.

As a blanket statement that makes obvious sense.  But when you review successful campaigns that have already run, and account for the impact that different local and regional markets can have from LBS marketing, it’s another story; and both stories are true and include many nuances.

There is no form of marketing that gets the same results across most or all industries and locations.  Marketing is an art blended with some science.  In the case of location-based services, tech savvy cities like Palo Alto, San Francisco, Boulder, New York, Los Angeles, Seattle, Portland and Chicago are going to have much more success than markets that are traditionally slower to adopt using new technologies.

Starbucks recent partnership with Foursquare is an example of how mixed results can be.  Tech savvy Foursquare lovers ran into not-so-tech-savvy food servers and managers who weren’t properly informed of the campaign and had to be educated by their customers instead of by corporate headquarters. Though this is awkward, it is part of the growing pains as we all figure out how to market through location-based services in ways that excite customers and allow the brands to have fun while they drive some good word of mouth.

So are location-based services ready from prime time?  When you don’t research whether your customers are participating in “check-ins” through Foursquare or posting LBS pictures through Pegshot, no way.  When your research and brand strategy mixes correctly with the local markets you are trying to serve, and when you realize that the growing percentages of location-based service users are trend setting influencers, definitely.

In conclusion, if you are new to the geolocation and location-based services conversation, I highly recommend reading Rob Reed‘s guest post at SocialWayne.com on 10 Ways Geolocation is Changing the World.

Isaiah, the new Old Spice pitch man, makes the men laugh and the ladies swoon.  His commercials generated so much heat that television could not contain him.  Now Isaiah and Old Spice are social media darlings spreading viral smiles across the globe.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Isaiah is now in the pantheon of commercial celebrities like the “What’s the Beef?” Wendy’s Lady and the Burger King King who most recently showed up on chat roulette giving away coupons in a smart social media play. While Isaiah is at his peak, and after the World Cup domination of Twitter has ended, Old Spice rolled out this campaign that everybody’s talking about.

In a brilliant PR move,  Isaiah has spent the last couple of days responding directly to bloggers, journalists, celebrities and random Twitter followers through well crafted, funny and sensual You Tube videos.  He even asked a woman to marry a man who requested that Isaiah deliver the proposal for him. The “Isaiah Talks to You” social media marketing campaign hits high notes few have seen.

The Old Spice You Tube channel is bursting at the seams with entertaining videos that you can’t help sharing with others.Though you won’t have enough time to watch them all at least check out the Alyssa Milano response above (which will surely get Isaiah a date) and the Justine Bateman response.

Rick Bakas gives a good overview of why this social media marketing campaign is so effective with some points that are worth repeating. The big takeaway for anyone interested in beefing up their social media marketing is to connect with influencers who care about your product or service.

Isaiah’s first videos responded to bloggers and journalists that had written about the Old Spice commercials.  They have huge audiences, and like all people, they like to hear their own name.  If Isaiah responded to you in a You Tube video how many people would you tell?

The main ingredients of the Old Spice social media marketing campaign come together to show how online and offline branding can work amazingly well together with good strategy.  What we can all learn from this, besides the fact that sex still sells (especially when the bare chested man speaks directly to the ladies by name), is that social media marketing has hit the mainstream.

Major corporations are building relationships with their audiences in more and more creative ways.  Social media has moved the needle to being a very powerful tool that any brand can use to generate awareness, interest and more sales.  So who is your Isaiah and when are you rolling out your next campaign?

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

As this service launches across 65 countries this week, it will be another brick on the geolocation path that is quickly changing how we use social media and mobile devices.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Brands like the NBA and PGA are using Push.io to reach subscribers with push notifications of content like video of sports highlights pushed to mobile phones 60 seconds after  they happen.  Facebook is expected to  launch their expected geolocation features soon which will cause the path to build and weave yet again. Then there are upstarts like Goby that are adding even more utility to location based services.

So why should you care about geolocation services?  Because when someone checks in at your location on Foursquare or Gowalla they are broadcasting to their friends (and Twitter followers) that your location is cool.  If it wasn’t, why would they want to share that they’re there?  Repay their free promotion with something that will make them want to come back and give them something to add in the ‘Tips’ section for future customers to benefit from.

Many creative and interesting ways to engage customers will continue to evolve from geolocation technology.  You can get started now by adapting some of the aspects of these successful campaigns into how you market your brand.

1. Offer a coupon or special incentive to everyone who checks into your stores or stores that carry your products.  Many stores offer a coupon to the person who is the mayor, the one with the most check ins at your location, but why not give more people reasons to spread great word of mouth about your company?

2. Have 8coupons list your coupon with others in specific cities.  Coupon lovers will see your offer on an interactive map with complementary offers.

3. Create a contest where anyone checking in at your location is entered to win. People love to compete and you are giving them a fun way to interact with your brand.  By creating experiences for your customers you are building solid relationships that pay dividends for years.

What other ways have you used geolocation services or seen others using them?

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

You may have noticed that Facebook Fan Pages switched over to becoming “Like” pages instead this week.  That was only the beginning.  With a Facebook “Like” button that every website can install for free, you will now be able to show your interest in articles, bands, movies and every other type of content on the Internet.  Once you click “Like” on a piece of content it will automatically show up on your Facebook wall with a link back to the page that you like.

Because this is so easy, and will soon be ubiquitous wherever you go on the web, you will be bringing your friends with you to every site you visit.  When you click on a CNN article you will see which of your friends have “Liked” it before you. CNN is one of the first websites implementing the Facebook “Like” technology.

Facebook is now the fourth most-visited Web site in the world with over 500 million visitors a month. According to Nielsen Co., Facebook visitors spend more than five and a half hours each month on the site.

In essence, the biggest shift from this is that many people who do not participate very much on the social web outside of Facebook will now.  Imagine a year from now how much participation will be going on when you see a “Like” button on every web page.  People who have never bookmarked a website through Digg, Delicious or Stumble Upon will find it second nature to click the “Like” button on Fandango while purchasing movie tickets.

Everyone is an influencer and now we will be influencing each other at warp speed.  The top down model of companies with the most money and power controlling a monologue of information is dead.  As brands interact more with consumers through all social media channels their outreach will deliver greater benefits.  We have moved from monologue marketing to dialogue marketing.  Now we are entering a new phase where community marketing is gaining traction because technology is laying the highway for it to happen naturally.

To better understand the changes coming with Facebook’s Open Graph, read Jeremiah Owyang’s excellent post with a matrix breaking down all the implications. To delve deeper into How to Delete Facebook Applications (and Why You Should) check out Read, Write, Web. To discover how Facebook’s Open Web will affect your privacy read this Mashable article. This is only the beginning of what you will be reading about regarding Facebook’s Open Graph. It’s changing how we use the Internet.

Return on Influence may never be seen as important as Return on Investment by CEOs and shareholders, though it should be for anyone interested in the health of their business.  This ROI’s rewards are not as immediately apparent, though the ultimate impact on the strength of a business from Influence is quantifiable.  There are some good models for early adopter successes of companies using their influence online.

Read the full article here.

My takeaway from this is that it’s a great reflection of how connecting online has become a basic daily activity.  Beyond that,  the ways in which we can better connect to larger numbers of people in various ways continues to grow at an astronomical rate.  What’s your takeaway from watching this?

Click here to view the embedded video.

It is an interesting time for social media.  Fifteen years ago bulletin boards and  forums were the only platforms available.  Three to five years ago blogs, MySpace, YouTube and Facebook were carving out a niche.  This week Google announced Buzz which was added to the internet social landscape along with Twitter, Side Wiki, Wave, SlideShare, Vidler, Vimeo, UStream, Ning, MyBlogLog, FriendFeed, etc.

The entire web is getting more social by the second and user generated content is king.

Social media is still looked at as a fad by some, a necessary business tool with unproven value by others and a deeper way to discover great people to have great relationships with by millions.  Marketers and PR folks are racing to figure out how to use the tools, but are mostly using old school tactics and ignoring the strategy needed for long term gains.

A handful of companies are actually using social media to authentically deliver better customer service, listen to people and make their businesses and bottom lines better.  A mountain of critics who don’t use or understand social media are still ignorantly claiming that it’s stupid because it’s just people announcing when they go to the bathroom.  (Note to self  – don’t criticize what I don’t understand.  And definitely don’t do it as if I have a clue about what I’m talking about or I’ll look like an idiot.)

The revolution in communication is being ignored while the focus is on the revolutionary technology.  After the mainstream called social media stupid for five years, the pendulum swung to claiming that it’s the new great hope for advertising, marketing and PR.  Now we are now making our way to the middle.  This is where we start to realize that daily use of social media is like daily use of a cell phone or a car.  It’s just part of how we live today.

Websites have become media properties (which most have not realized yet), publishing is  now dominated by individual passionate influencers, and social media is lubricating a massive transition from top dogs having power to passionate participants creating what matters to the public.

In five years the term social media may fade away because we’ll wake up to realize that: 1.People are inherently social (well over 75% of your day is spent communicating with other people), and 2.  All media has become social (even CNN and newspapers use blogs, Twitter, etc. to connect with viewers and readers).

Calling media ‘social media’ is like calling water ‘wet water’.  The more you use it, the more you’ll live it and the more connected, tuned in and turned on you’ll be.

That information has been online for at least a couple of years.  Has it hurt you? I doubt it.  You’d be better served to set up a Google profile so that people will read information about you that you would like them to see.

Currently 74.2% of the American population is online.  That leaves about 80 million people who are still not using the interwebs, but their information is most likely on the interwebs even though they’re late adopters.

The opportunities of being ubiquitous online are so far beyond the risks that it’s hard not to laugh when people express fear of baddies on the internets.  Do they exist? Yes.  Just like you’ll find a sex offender in your neighborhood if you search for them.  Have they shown up at your door lately? Probably not.

Yes they’re a threat, but the perceived threat is huge compared to the actual chance of a real threat.  Trying to be invisible online is about as effective as moving to a remote cave to be protected from a sex offender since they’re in every metropolitan neighborhood.  Studies since 2005 have repeatedly shown that identity theft, the largest privacy concern for most people, happens less often, is less harmful and is less costly online rather than offline.

Evidence continually points to the fact that being online, being able to be found and building your personal brand are incredibly beneficial and those who are ignoring this are doing so at their own peril.  The web is evolving into being the social web and those who embrace connecting to Influencers and becoming Influencers will be the ones to enjoy the most personal and professional benefits from this shift.

As Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s founder, recently said at the Crunchies conference, “Public is the new social norm.”

The latest 2010 breakthrough prediction is that next year is the year that social media ROI will finally be measurable.  This will be a great leap forward for advertisers if it comes true.  It will also solidify the shift from traditional media domination of ad buys over to a large increase in those funds moving to work with individual online influencers.

My company predicts that, based on our extensive research, 2011 will be the Year of The Influencer.  Therefore, it’s not a surprise that I agree that 2010 will be the year that social media ROI can finally be measured.  One reason why I expect that to happen is that we’re one of the companies working hard to build the structures to make it happen.

Aside from that, the biggest question about social media in 2009, especially from people new to the field, was “what’s the ROI on a social media marketing campaign?”  The analytical tools like Klout, Radian6, Twitter Grader and Filtrbox are getting sharper by the day in measuring online influence in ways that actually matter to answer that question.

Brands are just starting to seek out channel partnerships and influencers who can be brand advocates.  In the last six months this space has become white hot and is currently in it’s infancy.

Remember that ‘Twitter’ was declared the most used word in 2009 and ‘influencer’ may be on it’s heels for that title in 2010 or 2011.  When those two words create the return on investment everyone’s looking for, then the evolution of media power from traditional media to social media will begin it’s second phase fueled by multiple models of profitability.