By Jeanne Hurlbert, PhD

There’s a hot new tool that offers HUGE opportunity to ramp up your marketing results, by linking social media with surveys.

Today, we’re going to fill you in on the new tool and show you EXACTLY how you can capitalize on it.

Pay close attention because this kind of geographic targeting promises to be the next big thing.

Here’s the scoop:  a small (1%) group of Twitter users now has access to a new service, Local Trends.  It’s a new twist on local search that lets you measure trending topics in a geographic area.

With this tool, you can do 2 very important things.  First, you can target your own area (appears you can change it when you travel).  So if you market locally, this gives you a huge opportunity, because you can

• stay on top of hot topics in the local market and keep your brand in the conversation,
• follow up on these topics in your surveys, to get more systematic information, and
• use these topics in your marketing messages and offers.

The second function of Local Trends is where it really gets cool for those of us who market nationally or nternationally.  Local Trends lets you click on a list of cities and countries to find out what the trending topics are there.  Right now, the list is small, but you it will grow.

Once this list does grow, this gives you a HUGE opportunity to really increase your conversions.

We’ve told you for a while that segmenting your list and personalizing your offers could skyrocket your conversions but this can put it on steroids.

Here’s an example:  Let’s say you’re getting a lot of prospects and customers in Vancouver, BC.  With Local Trends, you could find out about issues, hot spots, trends, controversies—all sorts of things going on in Vancouver so that, when you send messages, offers, or invitations to your customers there, you can connect with them in a much more personal way.

How do you do that—how do you KNOW if a lot of prospects and customers come from Vancouver?  Use surveys.

Use super-short surveys of your prospects and put a customer profile survey in place, as we’ve been teaching you, and include location information in the data you collect.

As your database grows, look for cities, regions, areas where you have “clusters” of customers.

Where those segments are big enough, create a list segment.

Use Local Trends to periodically see what’s going on in that area, so you can use those trends in your messages to that segment.

It’s just as simple as that.  Location-based targeting, like Local Trends and Foursquare, is just the beginning, so stay tuned for updates and get ready to ride the next big wave.