As a kid, I learned lbs (non-caps) was an abbreviation for pounds.

Which is silly since the only common letter in pounds and lbs is the s.

You have to know history to know that it goes back centuries before we were roaming the planet.

The Latin phrase “a pound weight “was “a libra weight” when translated to German and so on….

But now LBS stands for something different.

Location-Based-Service, referring to the social media platforms that are based on your “checking in” to a location.

In my world, Four Square is the most popular.

Google+, Facebook, Twitter and a few others have this as part of their options, but I choose not to participate in those.

Ricky Potts and I have talked a few times about how to make Four Square check ins more fun and Kevin Mullett has spoken quite a bit about the bigger picture of how business are a little slow on the learning curve of how to use LBS effectively as a marketing tool and to build relationships with customers.

Last week I discovered two opposing viewpoints on the subject sent to me in the same newsletter.

First the Con: “Only about 5% of U.S. online adults said they use location apps at least once a month”

And the Pro: “Just a small sliver of adults online in the U.S. are actually using location-based apps like Foursquare, but a new report says that group wields a good amount of influence.”

Wanna know the freaky side to these two reports?

If you click thru the links you’ll see that they both drew their conclusions from the EXACT SAME research report!

Say, if you want to truly learn how to use this and all the other technology that we have at our fingertips, come talk to the experts, (Sorry Kevin).

I’m referring to the ones who are doing it, not those who are clueless.

Contact me using the contact form and I’ll be sure to get back to you or you can find me on Twitter too.