As consumers use their mobile devices -- especially smartphones -- more and more, you can expect a dramatic shift in the way restaurants market to their patrons:

Restaurants' use of location-based marketing to promote to and drive consumers to a particular restaurant while they are mobile will "explode" in 2011, predicts research provider Packaged Facts. 

As consumers' uptake of location-based services continues to mushroom, with check-in services such as Foursquare, Gowalla, Facebook Places, Twitter geolocation and competitors "not only becoming ubiquitous, but also more sophisticated," context-aware restaurant advertising will take off "sharply" this year, the report notes.

Of course text message marketing is going to play a role here, given that the vast majority of consumers have never used location based services.

Learn more about how restaurants can market to their patrons using text messages.