If 2008-2009 represented the arrival of social media in force at least in terms of mainstream acceptance, you might say that 2010 and beyond represents the same for location. Services like Foursquare and Gowalla, which allow users to broadcast their current locations by “checking-in” with their mobile phones, have grown by leaps and bounds in recent months; Foursquare has, for instance, around 725,000 users, as well as 22 million total check-ins. Those numbers might seem like small potatoes, but they have bigger social networks on notice: Facebook will roll out a location feature within the coming weeks.

For those who aren’t familiar, here’s how these services typically work: Users access the service via their mobile phones (Foursquare has iPhone, Android and Blackberry apps) and are presented with a list of their friends locations. They can then “check in”, or add their own location, which works with the phone’s location features to determine where the user is. Since those features have a margin of error, a short list of places in the vicinity is presented to the user; he or she can pick from the list and share the correct location with their friends via Twitter or Facebook.

So, for instance, I could check in from my desk here at CEB, or dinner tonight at Bistrot du Coin, or the spin class at my gym.  Each time, my location would be shared with my Twitter followers and my Facebook friends.

In addition to location sharing, Foursquare and Gowalla both include video game-like features like “points”, where users collect virtual points and badges for checking in at certain places. For instance, Foursquare users can get the “Bender” badge for going out 4+ nights in a row, or the “Overshare” badge for checking in 10+ times in a 12 hour period. The person with the most check-ins at a particular location is the is called the “Mayor” of that place.

The current userbase of location services is small but growing fast, and will dramatically expand in the next few weeks, as Facebook implements its own location features.

Services like Foursquare have enormous potential for brands and marketers to drive awareness, as well as to study people’s shopping habits in ways that previously weren’t possible. According to this New York Times piece, brands like Pepsi, Starbucks and Marc Jacobs are using both Foursquare and their own proprietary location tools to drive loyalty programs, advertise directly to consumers who are near a retail outlet, and gather data on shopping patterns and other preferences.

You can expect that the location concept will gain enormous traction among your competitors in the coming months, particularly as Facebook turns this capability on for its 100 million users. But, in keeping with our advice to avoid big, shiny social objects, you should make sure to have a coherent plan before jumping into the space unprepared.

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