Yesterday as I was waiting at the crosswalk for the walk signal, I pulled out my mobile phone to look something up on the internet.  Afterall, I had a few seconds to spare. The funny thing is, as I looked around me, I noticed how many other people were doing the exact same thing.

We are becoming attached to our phones and this increased reliance on our smart devices is driving growth in mobile internet usage. According to eMarketer, by 2013, 142.1 million users (53.9% of the US mobile user population) will access the internet using mobile browsers or applications.

For marketers, this creates opportunities for increased engagement and outreach to potential customers via mobile. However, the mobile marketplace is fast paced and marketers will need to keep up with the changes as well as consumers expectations.

A great place to begin in assuring your company is ready to accommodate mobile users is making sure your company website is mobile friendly.  But what makes a website “friendly” to a mobile user? What do they expect when it comes to their mobile web experience?

Gomez, a web performance monitoring firm, recently released the results of a survey “What Users Want From the Mobile Web Experience” that takes a look at what is most important and what frustrates consumers the most when accessing the internet via their mobile device.

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If you’re lucky enough to be a friend of mine on Facebook, keep an eye out, I just might buy you a drink!  I’m not talking about a virtual drink, but one that you can sip (or chug) and enjoy.

Most of you, I’m sure, are familiar with the Facebook Gift Shop where you can purchase and send virtual gifts to your friends for their birthday’s or… just because.  And although the idea of sending a virtual gift is pretty silly in itself,  it was great fun and who didn’t feel special and cared about when receiving one?

Well, times are a-changin’.  Facebook is ready to move on and recently announced that on August 1st they are closing the doors to the virtual gift shop.  The question is… why?  Although there have been no official announcements, it could quite possibly be to open the door to a new era of e-commerce.  Where instead of purchasing and sending virtual gifts, you will be able to send bigger and better real-life items.

There has already been some movement in that direction as a few companies are developing e-gift apps which let’s users purchase real-life items for friends.  Cold Stone Creamery’s e-gift app sends a code for an actual product to one or more friends, which can then be redeemed at one of the chain’s 1,300 locations.  And Webtab’s Bartab app, which uses both Facebook Connect and mobile technology let’s users buy tickets for drinks to send to friends.  Then he or she goes to the bar, which must be part of the network, and redeems the digital ticket.

With the number of Facebook users topping 250+ million, as marketers, this opens up a whole new avenue for placing products or services in front of one of the largest communities on the web.  If you’re not already, now is the time to start thinking and planning for the development of an app for your company.  New opportunities are on the way and by planning for them now you will be fully prepared to take advantage of them when they arise.

So let’s bid farewell to all those virtual bears and cupcakes and say HELLO to new opportunities.

Cheers!

I am on a mission.  A mission to become the mayor of my neighborhood Starbucks!  The mayor?  Yep, that’s right.

I recently downloaded an up-and-coming mobile application on my phone called Foursquare.  Although you may not have heard of Foursquare yet (they are an early stage start-up), you are sure to soon. They are growing at a tremendous rate, so much so, they just hired a number of staffers to keep up with the landslide of inquiries from marketers interested in participating.  And for good reason, it’s a unique and exciting application, with many potential marketing opportunities.

Foursquare defines their mobile application as a cross between a friend-finder, a social city-guide, and a game that encourages users to explore their neighborhoods and rewards them for doing so.   Users can search for nearby businesses, earn points for checking in (telling Foursquare where they are) when they visit each location, win mayorships, unlock badges and access specials for trying new places and revisiting their favorites.

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Imagine what used to be your traditional print ad… moving, growing, talking and interacting with your customer.

With the development and growth of Apple’s iPad, traditional print publishers have been rushing to develop an app version of their publication that will allow them to offer issue downloads and digital subscriptions via the iPad.  The iPad has created some new and exciting opportunities for traditional book, magazine and newspaper publishers, which in turn is opening the door for advertisers in these publications to offer a completely new level of customer interaction with the content in their ad.

The iPad gives marketers some creative and unique opportunities for engaging consumers and developing meaningful experiences through advertising.  The ads are embedded in the publications app, which allows marketers to really focus their efforts and provide content rich, interactive ads, enhancing the consumer experience with animated graphics, 360° product images, video, music and games.

However, to fully take advantage of the new platform, new ad formats will need to be designed, developed and customized specific for the iPad.  It will not be enough to simply make existing ads larger. It’s leveraging the rich media capabilities of the iPad that makes this a truly unique opportunity.

Just last week, Wired magazine announced the launch of their first digital edition of the magazine, specific for the iPad.  The result of this yearlong effort is a pretty amazing interactive consumer experience.  You can catch a glimpse into the power and possibility of this form of multi-dimensional interaction here for yourself in Wired’s video about their new iPad digital edition:

As print publishers begin to move into this arena, advertising opportunities will grow.  Now is the time to begin thinking about and planning for interactive content that can be incorporated into the iPad platform.  By doing so, you will be prepared and ready to take advantage of the opportunities as they arise.

Have you ever found yourself wishing that your print ad could reach out, grab your customers and reel them in… literally?

In traditional marketing campaigns, such as print, outdoor, radio, and TV, the ability to gauge and track customer response has been limited.  These campaigns have primarily been one-way marketing tools, and even though including website URLs and phone numbers help to create a call to action, marketers are still often left feeling uncertain about the results and without a direct connection to potential customers.

With the rise of the mobile phone (91% of the U.S. population are using mobile phones), these traditional marketing tools can now be turned into lead generating opportunities.

Text coupons allow a marketer to reach a potential customer directly, on their mobile phone, and at their request.

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No texting while driving.  Hands free head set only.  We’re so crazy about our mobile phones that laws have been created to regulate how and where we use them.  It’s predicted that by 2013 there will be over 5.8 billion mobile subscribers worldwide.

Smartphones have already obtained a loyal following among business professionals and they’re changing the way professionals communicate. For B2B marketers, this creates a huge opportunity to integrate a new form of outreach and connect with customers on a whole new level.

So where do you start?  Begin with your company website.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve tried to access a website from my Blackberry and it pops up looking like a scrambled mess.  Professionals are attached at the hip to their phones, yet most corporate websites are not optimized for mobile viewing, are difficult to navigate or impossible to read.

If your website is not mobile-friendly, your prospects will move on to one that is.

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