Location-Based Social Media And The Future For Mobile Research

As the research industry continues to move towards a “respondent-centric” paradigm of engagement and embraces the concept of going to the respondent on their terms for insight gathering vs. asking them to conform to our traditional approaches, location based mobile social media will increasingly play a significant role as a primary channel for consumer contact.

Socialfresh.com has a very useful overview of the current leaders in the space and how brands are using them to engage with consumers. The article can be found here, and the intro there is a neat summary of the current state of this innovative new media channel:

Location based social networks are  the current darling of social media. Foursquare is leading the way with what seems like a new Fourtune 500 endorsement each week. It is unclear where all these tools will lead us. Foursquare, Gowalla, Whrrl, and even MyTown are getting a lot of attention and a lot of businesses, big and small, are experimenting.

Innovators in global MR should be watching this space with interest, because these companies hold part of the solution of how to move our industry forward as an integral part of consumer insight driven strategies.