A quick glance on a Twitter stream, or perhaps a Facebook and you’ll probably see mentions of Foursquare with a person’s location, or perhaps a small graphic detailing, with an address, just where another person is, using Gowalla. These location based tools are frightening to some and a welcome to others, but like any emerging technology, is fun and interesting to play with. Currently the heavy hitters mentioned above will soon be joined by updates to other programs that offer similar services, Loopt and Yelp. Knowing where you are is always nice, but knowing where you are in relations to others and businesses is more important.

The idea of sharing your location may seem irrelevant to many, but marketers are seeing ways to harness the power of geo-location services and finding ways to entice customers to join their friends, take part in their special offers, or just simply be aware of what’s around them. In an example shared from a report during Social Media Week, you could walk down the street and be instantly notified of two friends having a drink at a bar near you. A few steps further and you’re notified of a bakery offering buy one get one free special. Another few steps and you’re notified that some co-workers just started their Karaoke night. May sound crazy, but that’s where geo-location marketing is going.

Marketers Transcend Traditional Social Media Models

Taking a page from Foursquare, some brands are offering mayoral specials for those that frequent their establishment often. Being a “mayor” in Foursquare simply means that you are the singular person that has visited that spot the most, but your position is always in jeopardy as others may vie for the same position looking to be the next person who frequents that location the most, and in the end the business ends up benefitting by having more people visit their location for the sake of a mayoral special. As these tools progress we’ll see more development of not just the way we use them, but the way ads are marketed to us.

In a sense, marketers are being offered an entirely new way of interacting with us. This concept transcends social media, it transcends traditional models of marketing, this marketing literally affects our physical time and space. What’s the key? The key will be to keep everything as an opt-in or opt-out scenario, giving users the ability to decide how far they really want to go. The moment a marketer is no longer adding value to the space is when the blow back will be severe enough to make large numbers opt-out of your notifications. So it’ll be interesting to see how marketers rethink their approach to this new form of engagement and if they will see it as a way to develop real time relationships with their audience.

It’s not too late to experience the benefits of engaging your audience in new ways. Already Gray Web Tech is working with several restaurants to create unique models that will attract not just their existing clientele, but also interest new customers as well.