Forrester Research issued this week a new report - detailed in an Advertising Age article – that describes social location applications (like Foursquare, Loopt, MyTown, Brighkite, etc.) as a minor phenomenon still too small for major marketers today.

In the study Forrester found that only 4% of U.S. online adults have ever used such service. Only 1 percent updates these services more than once per week and 84% of respondents said they are not familiar with such apps.

In addition these networks seem to be used essentially by young, geeky, over educated men. The study found that almost 80% of these users are male. Close to 70% of them are between the ages of 19 and 35, and 70% have college degrees or higher.

The gender divide is confirmed by another study that looked at hard data from Foursquare and Gowalla. Robert J. Moore, CEO at RJMetrics used the API provided by these social networks to build metrics and came to the following conclusion: “On Foursquare, men outnumber women almost 2-to-1. Exact gender breakouts are not available for Gowalla, but the most popular first names suggest a similar distribution.”

However Forrester sees an interest for a category of brands to be first on these new medium. The research firm recommends that male-oriented brands such as gaming, consumer electronics and sportswear lead the way while others wait and see.

Dennis Crowley – the CEO of Foursquare – might have done the front page of WIRED 18 months only after launching his start-up, but the “check-in” phenomenon will take more time to reach mainstream America.