eMarketer published a report today about location based text marketing.  Below are some highlights of the article and you can read the full article here: http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?R=1007782

• 28% of mobile users are at least somewhat interested in text alerts
• 8% are extremely or very interested in text alerts
• Respondents who want alerts are mostly interested in coupons and promotions from grocery stores and restaurants
• 37% of US mobile phone users think location based alerts could be useful
• Placecast reports low opt-out rates among recipients (this could be due to the difficulty in opt-ing out!)

Foursquare and Gowalla were mentioned as check-in apps with a broader potential audience.  Users of those apps are bringing business into the location based social network world whether business owners like it or not.  One piece of advice – be proactive and start engaging the users in Foursquare and Gowalla. Search for your business on those networks and you’ll likely see that people are already checking in.  Engage them and see how quickly they share your business info with their friends.