I drove past a billboard this morning advertising Verizon Wireless on Twitter. Sitting in traffic my eyes immediately fell upon it as the lowercase “t” jumped out at me like a social media monster that had escaped the solitary confinement of my computer.  Despite my advertising background, my eyes glanced down at my phone to check my Twitter account like an adolescent consumer.

Advertising is everywhere. We consume media whether we are sitting at our computers or driving down the highway in the refuge of our own cars. As social media continues to cascade out of our computers, into our 3-dimensinal world - just as movies have begun to as well – it will find you. The “Go-Go-Gadget” arms of advertising are getting longer, following you throughout the day and hoping to catch you at that very moment when you submit to a subliminal advertisement.

The odds are pretty good these days that throughout the day you are carrying your phone or using your computer. Marketers have clearly picked up on this and are leveraging location-based advertising in order to conform to these consumer habits.

Location-based advertising (LBA) is a marketing technique that uses controlled information to target users at the location they are accessing the advertising medium. While leveraging location-tracking technology in mobile networks to locate consumers, LBA can offer users geographically based offers and incentives.

There are three elements to consider when it comes to LBA – large search engines (Bing, Yahoo!, Google), social networking sites and mobiles services. The chances of finding your ideal customer are greater when you can utilize the demographic information of social networking sites in conjunction with geographical targeting.

In September 2003, Google filed a patent for location-based advertising, which wasn’t granted until February, 2010, according to Mashable. The patent allows businesses to utilize location information in order to better target consumers.

Where is LBA today?

On May 6, Advertising Age announced that Facebook is planning to launch a new feature that allows users to post their location in their status updates. They also mentioned that this feature will not only be offered to Facebook members, but marketers as well.

McDonald’s is first up at the plate with a Facebook application that will feature products in users’ posts as they check-in at McDonald’s locations. Users should expect to see more Facebook location features being rolled out in the next few weeks.

On May 10, Mashable reported that Foursquare, a location-based social network, had reached its 40 millionth check-in, doubling its number in five weeks. It will be interesting to see how Facebook’s new location services influence this number.

On May 11, Search Engine Land released an article on “The DealMap,” launched by a local search site, Center’d. “The DealMap” is a comprehensive engine that displays local deals and coupons on a map. Consumers can interact with the site by uploading deals and coupons that normally wouldn’t make it onto the internet. It also incorporates deals found on Facebook and Twitter.

Where is location-based advertising going?

Location-based services are expected to show extreme growth in the next few years. Foursquare has already proven itself by gaining 1,000,000 users in just over a year. It took Twitter two years to reach that number, according to TechCrunch. Revenues from mobile location-based services are expected to reach more than $12.7 billion by 2014, according to a new Juniper Research report. The value behind location-based networks like Foursquare, Yelp and Gowalla is more accurately targeted advertising.

Facebook and Twitter are jumping on the bandwagon as well, adding new location-based features, but will consumers buy into it? Many users feel that revealing their location may open the door to overwhelming advertisements; however, special promotions and deals could change their minds.

With location-based advertising on a rise, businesses are encouraged to “think globally and act locally,” meaning adapt global business techniques, while still catering to individuals, groups and organizations in the local community.  While there are multiple mobile marketing platforms to reach consumers, location-based advertising may or may not be the most effective, depending on your industry.