LocalResponse finds customers, check-in or no

Social advertising network scans for explicit and implicit check-ins across the social Web

Only 39 percent of smartphone users in the U.S. actually use at least one location-based service to check in to places when they go out.

In spite of that, location data on users is far more pervasive than one might think.

Social advertising platform LocalResponse is announcing Tuesday its new brand platform, an advertising network that uses all manner of social interactions, including check-ins and status updates, to help brands reach local customers. The new platform helps advertisers serve contextual ads to consumers at the point of purchase in real-time, and all by analyzing customer interactions on social media sites.

Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, Gowalla, Loopt, Whrrl, Booyah, Instagram, Path, Color, Flickr--the list of social sites goes on and on and on. While the mountain of user data available to agencies, brands and local merchants should be a dream, it can quickly seem a nightmare for those that don’t know how to tackle that much data.

And it’s obvious that you can’t just focus all your time and energy on just one service. Users don’t, so why should brands and merchants?

The real magic of LocalResponse is its ability to scan both “explicit” and “implicit” check-ins. An explicit check-in is the obvious kind, like a user literally selecting a venue on Foursquare or Facebook Places and marking themselves as present at that location. For implicit check-ins, LocalResponse digs a little deeper by parsing and analyzing natural language in a status update or tweet, as in the statement “I’m headed to Whole Foods.” The service also looks at user-marked metadata on uploaded photos, like one titled “Madison Square Garden.”

LocalResponse says explicit and implicit check-ins combined account for a total of one billion check-ins each month from over 200 million unique users around the world.

“All other types of targeting out there is [sic] an approximation. Whether its demo, behavioral, contextual, look-a-like or social -- it’s still approximating/guessing,” argues Kathy Leake, co-founder and president of LocalResponse. “Our platform gives marketers the opportunity to know where people are, when they are there and they can react in real time, via mobile. LocalResponse is next generation targeting being social, local, mobile and real-time all in one.”

Its beta campaigns delivered an average of 25 to 40 percent for CTRs and 30 to 50 percent for redemption rates, according to LocalResponse.

Today’s announcement follows the public unveiling of LocalResponse’s local business less than a month ago. The New York City startup, which was previously known as Buzzd, is backed by Greycroft Partners, Charles River Ventures, Verizon Ventures, Metamorphic Ventures, Extreme Venture Partners, BOLDstart Ventures, Jim Pallotta and more.