The other day I walked into a local institution and curiously asked if anyone knew “Liz M.” I had just checked in on Foursquare and noticed that she was the mayor.

No one did, but clearly the woman behind the counter had served her if she’d been around for a while. She is the mayor of said establishment on Foursquare, I told her.

“Foursquare? What’s a mayor?” was the reply I got. I was sadly dissappointed, but explained that it was a geolocation app on my phone. Blank stares.

But since this company does no local promotion and has little community interaction, I let it go.

But I’ve had the same experiences at major retailers such as JCPenney, so the incident isn’t reserved for small businesses.

The point? The woman who gave me the deer-in-the-headlights look is among the majority on this one, according to a new study by Forrester.

The study suggests that 7 in 10 people have never heard of (more…)