Mobile Media Marketing
Mobile media marketing has achieved worldwide fame in the beginning of the 2000s, the time when short messaging service system or SMS started to flourish in countries across Europe, North America, and Asia. Since then, many businesses performed the same marketing tactic they had done in the then-successful email marketing campaigns. They would collect mobile phone numbers like they were email addresses, and then blast off different SMS advertisements to numerous recipients.
In 2005, just five years after SMS became an essential mobile communication tool, advertising products and services through text messages became a legitimate form of marketing in the United States and Canada and many countries worldwide. Organizations that could regulate mobile marketing practices and set rules and guidelines for businesses were immediately founded. These same organizations too would launch and are still launching several campaigns aiming to evangelize businesses to utilize the power of mobile communications.
If you’re a business owner planning to channel a part of your marketing budget to mobile advertising and promotions, don’t be afraid to jump into the bandwagon as SMS marketing is continuously and unstoppably expanding. As you read this article, hundreds or perhaps thousands of text messages are being sent by different companies to their prospective consumers, facilitating direct, personal, and interactive communication between brands and buyers.
One issue that needs to be addressed in mobile media marketing is the misconception that sending promotional text messages is plain spamming. This may be true a few years ago, but not anymore today. In the early years of mobile marketing, there were still no rules in terms of how, when, and who to send promotional messages to. Today however, given the presence of national and international bodies that police mobile business communications, people who receive promotional messages from businesses are able to do so because they are willing to accept such messages. Mobile phone service companies too are now punishable by law if they are proven to sell personal and contact information of their subscribers to third party firms.
Phone service companies are also working hard to develop programs which can help small and medium business owners utilize different mobile marketing techniques. Short codes—the four to six digit numbers that many businesses use to represent their official mobile number—are becoming cheaper and cheaper so they can be more accessible small business owners. These short codes are rented every month for a certain fee and can freely be utilized to create innovative mobile campaigns and provide consumer services.
As mentioned, there are also mobile media marketing organizations and associations that regularly provide free seminars, training sessions, and conferences to boost the development of the mobile marketing and advertising industry. These groups can give business owners a general overview on the local, national, and international status of mobile marketing and consultations on how to start off the utilization of mobile advertising and promotions in certain types of business. Because this type of marketing practice is still expanding, businesses are basically given a huge, unexplored terrain wherein they can discover and craft creative and innovative practices and techniques to engage with their target consumers more efficiently.
Social Media Technology Advancements
The media has penetrated the hemispheres of today’s society by implanting itself into the framework of television, mobile devices, business interactions and other elements that shape our culture. There are a number of technologies that adapt quickly to the hyper-connectedness and transparency of social media such as MySpace, twitter, YouTube, blogging, and Face book.
Social Media Technology Advancements
With advancements and hi-fi technology in mobile revolution, mobile ads such as the Smartphone is a great tool to get people closer to modern communication. Today, the Smartphone is integrating social media claims and having mobile browsers that permit people the ability to use social media channels anytime, anywhere. In January 2010, 30.8 % of Smartphone users accessed social networking sites through their mobile browser, which is an increase of 8.3 points from one year ago. Smartphones allow people to browse, tweet, and email, have video conferences, chat, and play online games with ease.
A recent study indicated that Facebook is the major channel that people utilize to share information such as videos, links, status updates, and news. Connectivity and software in western countries is allowing users to use these technologies with ease and developing countries such as India and China are rapidly catching up. Mobile phones today currently incorporate social media to be used directly with the aid of the integrate third party applications or the browser too.
Currently Facebook has over 500 users and is the most visited and attractive platform for business and consumers alike. Twitter, has also experienced significant growth in both PC-based and mobile visitors and in January it attracted 4.7 million mobile users. The average Smartphone has 22 apps, according to Nelsen.
Another segment of the population who use social media quite often is teens. With the use of texting for means of communication, Facebook is allowing teens to talk to whomever they want, maintain a photo album, and grow a farm.
Internet marketing and
mobile advertising
are great tools to use for your business needs, the following are some methods, and strategies cover a broad range of the following:
• SEM/SEO
• Blogging
• PPC
• E-mail
• Integrated and mixed strategies
• SEO optimized press releases
Through carefully monitored and planned internet marketing methods, your message can be spread and targeted to people that you are trying to reach.
The Mobile Movement: Understanding Smartphone Consumers –Study reveals the extent to which teenagers rely on social media and mobile technology
According to an ongoing survey compiled by the Pew Internet & American Life Project, social networking and texting are becoming the defining factor of this generation of teenagers and young people. The study began in 2006 with the focus on texting trends amongst teenagers, before going on to include social networking activity from 2007.
Many teenagers claim to be unable to live without some form of technological appendage to hand on which they can text, chat, post, listen to music, and swap photos and information. The study covers USA adolescents, but also applies to those of Western Europe as the percentages differ by 1 or 2 points.
Some of the main statistics revealed by the study included:
75% of teenagers own a mobile phone (including 58% of 12 year olds)
Almost 90% send and receive texts – half of whom send 50 or more texts daily, with 1 in 3 sending 100 per day.
73% of teens use social networking sites, with Facebook being the most popular.
Since 2006, Pew Internet & American Life have been documenting the way teenagers use their mobile phones. In 2007, they organisation began to look into the growing usage of social media by those aged between 12 – 17.
Although the high figures may leave some feeling that this generation of young people are wasting their time on computers, and sacrificing the benefits of physical contact and human interaction. However, one professor from Amsterdam, Professor Valkenburg of the Centre for Research on Children, Adolescents and the Media, believes that social networking can be extremely beneficial for adolescents going through what is generally deemed to be a pivotal and sometimes awkward period of life.
She reminds us that adolescence can be a particularly traumatising or embarrassing period of our lives, but it is also one in which we strive to express our identity to others on an unprecedented level, as well as participating in a process of self-disclosure in which we discuss intimate topics.
These processes are very important for our development according to Prof. Valkenburg, but they are also surrounded by copious amounts of self-consciousness and timorousness. Social networking and texting provides a solution to this problem, allowing teenagers to experience these processes, but to forego the awkwardness and embarrassment which is associated with them.
These technologies empower the user, and allow them to gain a greater level of control over their perceived identity. For teenagers it equates to a controllability over what you say and how you say it.
Secrets to PR and Branding with Mobile Marketing and Social Media
Marketing has changed. You don’t have to buy into the Web 2.0 hoopla, but you had better make some changes on how and where you engage customers. They want direct access and interaction with your business.
Creating a mobile or social media marketing strategy can be exactly the tipping point your business needs in 2009. Consumers are increasingly mobile and socially connected. Consumers are constantly connected with friends, family, and community–make sure that is how you connect too.
Mobile Marketing
The cell phone is the average American’s constant companion. So much so it seems more likely to walk out of the house without your pants than your mobile phone.
In fact a growing number of consumers are abandoning their home and office phone for a mobile only lifestyle. This builds great opportunity for smart mobile marketing strategies.
John Edwards used mobile marketing at political rallies you capture opt-in text messaging numbers. He would hold up his mobile phone and ask everyone to text a specific number to sign-up for campaign updates. That is just one of many emerging mobile marketing concepts engaging consumers:
* Sports networks are using it to update you on your favorite team
* T-shirt and bumper stickers are displaying text codes for promos
* Realtors are using it on For Sale Signs
* Cable news networks are using it to take real-time surveys and polls
Getting in the mobile marketing game is critical to your business, regardless of the size.
Social Media
Like mobile marketing, social media is becoming a required tool in your marketing kit. The Internet is becoming a seamless part of not only our workflow, but also our lifestream. Every moment of many of the most attractive consumer segments are spent connected. Connect not only to the Internet, but also to their social networks.
Like the Clue Train Manifesto, a prophetic book about the coming of Web 2.0, predicted markets are becoming conversations. If you are not in these conversations you are losing opportunities.
Your marketing plan need to include social networking and social media. Building an audience is important. You need to meet and activate your community where they are–Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.
Putting it Together for PR & Branding
Of course mobile marketing and social media are unlikely to give you results without a plan–objectives that build your PR and branding. Start by planning your core messages and perceptions you want to build in the market. Then you can fully leverage these emerging marketing opportunities.
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