All Big Brother jokes aside, one can be on social media these days and have one's audience know their whereabouts every second of the day. You don't even need to be on Foursquare – an app that lets users “check in” to locations and simply win points, unlock merit badges or even receive swag – in order to be tracked, monitored and recorded in the deep, dark recesses of the internet.
This puts a lot of people off using social media. After all, isn't it bad enough that your spam inbox is a veritable cross-section of every life event (and then some) that you could ever hope to enjoy? Never mind that companies have astounding amounts of your data filed away to be used on your favorite social media platforms. And if Ad Age has anything to say about it, Twitter might be is the next platform to hop on the specialty advertising bandwagon.
As the news provider notes, Twitter is not the first social media platform to use location-based advertising: Facebook got there first (hint: look at the ad boxes along the right side of the page. You can blink and almost miss them.) But now Twitter is likely set to follow suit. According to the site:
Twitter will enable ads to be targeted to people who are near specific latitudes and longitudes and could be ready as soon as the fourth quarter, according to two people briefed on the product.
Long story short, Twitter will know your location and send advertisements that best suit your spot.
The article also notes that this could be a boon for retailers, hoping to offer up-to-the minute savings to potential consumers, or even entice shoppers to walk right in off the street. Either way, users will certainly be receiving a bit more information that they expected from the humble social network.
From a business standpoint, we're curious as to what you think: Can location-based ads in social media attract business, or freak out prospective customers? Weigh in with your views below.
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