PJA: Bow & Arrow

I try to stay up-to-date and actually use most new technology – even if just to try it out for a while. I consider it part of my job as a marketer, but honestly I’m just a gadget geek.

So, if you’re like me, you may have experienced a situation like the one I had this past weekend. Saturday morning, standing in line for my coffee, I look to my phone and become overwhelmed with the number of places that I needed to check-in to.

Foursquare, Yelp, Gowalla, SCVNGR….whew…thankfully it was a long line.

Location-sharing applications are still growing ( some growing 75% faster everyday, in fact), however it’s getting to

the point where there are so many social networking versions of the application that most people I know – myself included – are using the services less and less.

But it’s more than just being overwhelmed; some people are concerned about safety. In arecent survey by Webroot, 55% of geolocation application users were worried about compromises to their privacy.

45% are worried about the tools being used by burglars and 49% of women surveyed were “highly concerned” about letting potential stalkers know where they are.

However, to be fair to the women in the survey, I tried Google Latitude on my phone recently and lasted about 30 seconds before I became creeped out too.

Creepiness aside – it’s important to remember that geolocation isn’t all bad.

In fact, the less-social aspects are becoming increasingly useful. Whether it’s for personal use –  such as finding restaurant recommendations in unfamiliar territory or getting notified of possible speed traps using Trapster. Or for business use, like networking at meetups or creating buzz for your brand through contests and games – the future of geolocation is more than just burglary and stalking…at least I hope so.

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Kevin Smith is an Account Supervisor at PJA Advertising & Marketing. Follow him on Twitter: @Mr_KevinSmith

This post was featured as a social media dream segment of the July 29th edition of This Week In Social Media.