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It not as bad as it sounds. U.S.-based footwear retailer Journeys has jumped into the location-based social networking arena by allowing its customers to check-in via their mobile phones and complete challenges in order to receive discounts on their next purchase from any Journeys store.

But don't worry, early adopters, the company isn't launching their own branded application for this - they're teaming up with SCVNGR, the location-based gaming app, in order to offer these rewards.

Marketers take note: a new study from research firm Gartner has discovered that a majority of today's consumers rely to some extent on social networks to help guide them in purchase decisions. Despite this fact, social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, and others, while critical, are currently an underutilized aspect to the marketing process, the report says.

But not everyone using social networks is worth targeting equally, as it turns out. Instead, there are three types of online personalities that make up just one-fifth of the consumer population but are the key influencers in the purchasing activities of 74% of the population. Gartner calls them Salesmen, Connectors and Mavens.

Has your company spent seemingly countless hours tweeting on Twitter, networking on Facebook and writing the company blog? Have you found yourself wondering if it's all a waste of time? Maybe that last Facebook fan page contest saw fewer entries than you'd hoped for, or that last Twitter-only coupon had fewer redemptions than you'd expected, but perhaps that's not all that matters.

According to the the latest report by analyst firm Forrester, many people are looking at the face-value dollars and cents of social media marketing and, put simply, they're doing it wrong. Beyond clicks and coupon redemptions there lies a case for social media marketing that shows its value is well beyond what we see on the surface.

San Francisco-based micro-blogging service Posterous launched a marketing campaign back in June that raised a few eyebrows across the Web for its apparently brazen approach. The company has been rolling out new tools since the beginning of the campaign aimed at helping new and existing users transplant their data onto Posterous from other services - services it referred to as "dying platforms." Today, the campaign came to a close with the release of the company's final switch tool for the behemoth blogging platform, Wordpress.

As we have mentioned previously, the success of augmented reality depends partly on its exposure through major mainstream brands. Late last week, the Ben & Jerry's ice cream empire took its first steps into the world of AR by adding the functionality to its iPhone app - but not in the way you might immediately assume. Today, I had the opportunity to chat with Katie O'Brien from Ben & Jerry's about the app and how a large brand approaches unique and niche emerging technologies.

Ah, the Microsoft Kin. For such a short-lived product, it has given geeks and comedians (and/or tech-bloggers) a wealth of material for amusement and analysis.

A failed product launch - whether from an established company or from a startup - is worth analyzing, to be sure. And one of the key take-aways from the Kin debacle is certainly to pay attention to your target audience. Aimed at a teenage audience, the Kin device was soundly rejected by that market.

Never underestimate the importance of having a good story when pitching your startup to potential investors, clients, partners, and journalists. As Seth Godin writes in his 2005 bestseller All Marketers Are Liars, "Either you're going to tell stories that spread or you're going to become irrelevant." Godin's book addresses a shift in marketing - away from simply presenting factual information and towards telling great stories. As Godin suggests, these stories make us want to believe - in a product, in an idea, in a company.

Have you ever walked the streets of a historic city such as Boston or New York and recognized famous buildings from old photographs or movies? Have you ever wondered what it would be like to view those various locations through the eyes of the past? History fans undoubtedly have considered this, and now thanks to an iPhone app from the Museum of London, looking into the past has never been easier - at least not in London.

What's this? The oddball, quirky and occasionally X-rated site that connects random strangers for video chat is a marketer's dream? That doesn't sound right. But that's exactly what Travelocity, the popular travel brand known best for their mascot, the travelling gnome, is saying. In a recent interview with ClickZ, a news and advice site for digital marketers, Travelocity company spokesperson Joel Frey, discussed the Chatroulette marketing campaign and its successes: 350,000 impressions and 400 conversations between potential customers and its "chat specialists." (Yes, Travelocity pays staffers to surf Chatroulette!)

I just spent the last two days at Northern Voice. And you know one of the best things about being at a conference that's focused on social media as a personal activity instead of as a marketing function? The lack of buzz words.

Granted, I use them as much as anyone else - including the one in this cartoon. But man, it's nice to speak English again... even if it's just for a while.