Business Social Media

What Is Mobile Advertising?

February 19, 2011 By Kim

Curious about how to reach the millions of mobile users? Learn the secret to mobile marketing!
By Chris Carol

In the marketing world, mobile advertising is the way of the future. Advertising through this medium is similar to advertising online although the potential target is much greater. In 2009, the number of mobile phones in the world totaled over 4.6 billion. Computers totaled less than a quarter of that. Currently the amount spent on mobile advertising is only around 1% of total advertising budgets. Media for mobile phones is quickly evolving. Approximately 90% of the United States population owns a cell phone according to CTIA, the International Association for the Wireless Telecommunications Industry.

Mobile advertising has really taken off in countries like Spain, France and Japan. In Japan, 44% of mobile phone users click on ads they receive via their phones. The largest mobile advertising company in Japan, D2, announced in November of 2009 that the industry was worth 900 million dollars in their country alone. There are several forms of mobile ads from web banners to SMS advertising to advertising within applications and games. Other forms include audio or video recordings that play while interacting with different services. You can get free instant access to the best mobile marketing newsletter.

According to Mashable, an online guide to social media and one of the top ten blogs worldwide, trends to watch in mobile advertising include:

- Innovations through SMS

- Advancements with rich forms of media like sound, gaming and video

- Mobile applications or mobile websites

- Geo-location as an advertising tool

- The role of mobile video

- Innovations through SMS

Of the available mobile phone models, 98% are capable of short message service, or text messaging. This form of communication is one of the most popular methods in the world. Text messaging is easy to use with a low-cost. There are no applications needed to text another person. Service providers offer a range of options from unlimited plans to plans that give up to 250 messages per month. Even if a person opts out of a text message plan, he or she still is capable to receive a message. Statistics show that in late 2008, the average American user sent 357 text messages per month. Experian reported that text messages are usually read within 15 minutes of being received and responded to within an hour while email messages might go unread for several days.

Advancements with Rich Media

With the number of smartphones saturating the market, rich media will begin to have a stronger foothold in the mobile advertising industry. Consumers prefer engaging, interactive ads, designed through rich media like gaming, sound and video. A drawback to this form of mobile advertising is that skills and time are necessary to create ads. Big companies have the advantage with this media as they are more likely to have the budget and staff capable of tackling this type of advertisement.

Mobile Applications or Mobile Websites In Advertising

Advertisers have to decide if they are going to create a mobile application or a mobile website. Some will opt to do both. Certain factors like operating systems, types of devices, and screen size all play a role in how they will present mobile marketing. Internet giant Google is taking the mobile web road while Apple is going the application route. At this time it is difficult to find out which type of platform consumers will prefer in the future. This causes many issues during the development stage.

In an April 2010 survey conducted by eROI, trends in mobile marketing, less than a third of marketers in the United States consider the mobile marketing experience important to their customers. Only 23% of the respondents reported having an optimized website for a mobile device. An internet trends report by Morgan Stanley estimated that by the year 2014, mobile devices will conduct half of the web browsing done by Americans.

Advertising with Geo-Location

Geo-Location is one of the newer trends in mobile advertising. Applications like Foursquare are place-based programs for smartphones that help consumers find new ways to explore their city. Although there is an interest in this type of marketing, a recent study by Foursquare indicated that only 4% of users have taken advantage of place-based services. Only 1% actually log in to a location once per week.

Some concerns with geo-location based mobile advertising centers around privacy issues. This is also the case for other forms that deal specifically with targeted marketing. When companies customize ads, they use personal behavioral data, user profiles, and other data mind information. Privacy advocates have warned the industry that this may result in privacy infringement. Generally users have to give consent when opening an account for an application. This consent will override many privacy issues. The Mobile Marketing Association has published guidelines to aid marketers but as this is a rapidly growing area, the Association has found it difficult to keep their guidelines current.

The Role of Mobile Video

Internet video consumption has experienced a huge growth with today’s internet users. Because of this trend with internet video, marketers assume that mobile video will also experience a huge growth. Cisco, a worldwide leader in networking, believes that the use of video will occupy about 66% of mobile traffic by 2013.

Mobile advertising has definitely caught marketers attention and the amount spent on advertising is growing. Marketers can measure the effectiveness of mobile ad campaigns by the number of views and clicks as well as other interactive tools. Swedish analyst, Berg Insight predicts that by 2014, mobile marketing will represent 11.7% of the total digital advertising market.

Your business can flourish by getting some information on mobile advertising. What better way to reach your customer than to use a device that over 85% of the US population uses: cell phones.

Want to know more about effective mobile marketing campaigns? Contact me today.

Check out www.trendsinmobilemarketing.com/mobile-advertising/ for the best online tips for everything related to mobile marketing. Mobile is an emerging media with new rules and ways to optimize for maximum exposure and ROI. With the right resources you can be ahead of the curve vs. your competition and oust them with the latest mobile marketing tactics.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Chris_Carol

http://EzineArticles.com/?What-Is-Mobile-Advertising?&id=5675183

Filed Under: Business Social Media Tagged With: Advertising Budgets, Advertising Company, Article Author, Different Services, Marketing Newsletter, Mobile Ads, Mobile Advertising, Mobile Applications, Mobile Marketing, Mobile Phone Models, Mobile Phone Users, Short Message Service, Target, Text Messaging, United States Population, Video Innovations, Video Recordings, Web Banners, Wireless Telecommunications Industry, Worldwide Trends

Why and How to Network on LinkedIn – Simple Instructions and Suggestions to Get You Started

February 16, 2011 By Kim

Among all of the social networking sites today, LinkedIn is only one for business professionals. Learn why you should be using LinkedIn today!

By James Yoakum

Did you know that:

o LinkedIn has over 8.5 million members. It is the leading social network for business professionals.

o All Fortune 500 companies are represented on LinkedIn. In addition, thousand’s of medium and small companies represented too.

o LinkedIn usage had been increasing yearly by over 500%.

o One hundred and thirty different industries are represented on LinkedIn.

o Over 150 countries around the world have LinkedIn members including all major industrial companies.

o Over 90,000 of LinkedIn members are chief executive officers and over half a million occupy other jobs at the C-level.

o Many notable people are among LinkedIn members including President Barak Obama.

o Perhaps as many as 90% of all employers utilize LinkedIn to recruit and vet potential employees.

There are many social networks sites. But no doubt, the most prominent business networking site today is LinkedIn. It provides an immeasurable opportunity to enhance your networking success. It is simple and it’s free. Further, being a LinkedIn member will provide you a Google presence. Your Google page rank for LinkedIn will be high: generally your LinkedIn profile will be within the first five Google hits. (Note: To have a Google presence, you will need to select the “full view” LinkedIn feature. Your page rank can be further increased by having a customized URL, i.e., your own name thereby replacing the standard URL automatically provided by LinkedIn.)

To begin networking with LinkedIn, you will first need to build your profile. Your profile needs to be complete and have substance. Spend the time; a poor or sparse LinkedIn profile is worse than none at all. And it is important that your LinkedIn profile uses correctly spelled words, is grammatically correct, and contains no capitalization and punctuation errors. Optimize your profile – Make sure it represents the way you want to be viewed by strangers. And once you have completed your profile, you will want to fully utilize all the features offered by LinkedIn. Doing so will enhance your networking experience.

In building your profile keep in mind:

(1) Your Headline — It matters. It is what people see first when they visit your profile.

(2) Your Summary – You want summary to peak a reader’s interest and want them to “read more.”

(3) Work Experience – Include details like dates, the actual names of the companies you have worked for and excellent descriptions of your jobs.

Having a good profile will enhance your connectability. People will more likely to find you.

After compiling your profile and to maximize your LinkedIn networking experience, you will want to start using the features provided by LinkedIn. First and most importantly, you will need to establish numerous and many connections. People with more than 25 connections are four times more likely to be approached by others. The average LinkedIn member has about 60 connections. Beat the average! Your visualability will increase as you acquire more connections.

Secondly, you will want to join LinkedIn groups. There are thousands of LinkedIn groups to join. Begin with school and employer/company alumni groups. Joining alumni groups provides an opportunity to network with others with the same backgrounds. Next add business association and interest groups. Joining these types of groups provides an opportunity to network with others with the same work backgrounds and interests. Despite LinkedIn limiting membership to 50 groups, sufficient opportunity still exists for robust networking with utilization of the groups feature. Further, your experience with the groups feature will be enhanced by participation, e.g., posting, responding to postings, group activities, connecting to other group members, etc.

You should also participate in the LinkedIn question and answer feature. Ask for advice. This will also increase your visualability and result in new connections. If you ask questions, remember it is important to your networking efforts to respond to every comment.

Another valuable LinkedIn feature is the recommendation feature. Ask people for recommendations. And voluntarily provide recommendations to others. They are powerful. Recommendations let people know you are a good resource and a valued professional in your field.

Lastly, search companies and their employees. Ask to connect to those who could be a good member of your network. These contacts and the company information can be useful for sales and marketing efforts, job search efforts, etc.

These are just some of the LinkedIn features. As you become proficient LinkedIn user you will discover other features to utilize that expands your networking success.

While on line networking and LinkedIn should only be one element of your networking efforts, it is essential in today’s world. It is necessary to be a successful networker. Following these simple suggestions will get you off to a good start. So build a great profile, fully utilize the LinkedIn features and make LinkedIn a regular part of your networking activities.

Jim Yoakum is an accomplished executive leader with over 25 years of diversified (financial services, insurance, manufacturing and governmental) experience in risk management, internal control, regulatory affairs, operations and systems, law, compliance and taxation/accounting. He has many successes achieved in managing the creation of new or changing/evolving functions and managing projects/programs in resolution of significant issues. Jim has strong project/program management skills, using an inherent logical thought process honed by many years of technical training. He possesses the ability to manage human resources in a changing environment with passion, creativity, results-orientation and self-motivation. Jim is resilient, acts with decisiveness and to foster/adapt to change and new environments. Most importantly, Jim never wants to stop learning; never to stop helping others. He continues to develop and educate with writing, mentoring and networking.
For any help creating and optimizing your LinkdIn account you can contact me today!

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=James_Yoakum

http://EzineArticles.com/?Why-and-How-to-Network-on-LinkedIn—Simple-Instructions-and-Suggestions-to-Get-You-Started&id=2378870

Filed Under: Business Social Media Tagged With: 5 Million, Barak Obama, Business Networking, Business Professionals, C Level, Chief Executive Officers, Countries Around The World, Fortune 500 Companies, Google, Google Page Rank, Half A Million, Linkedin, Networking Success, No Doubt, Notable People, Presence, Profile, Social Networking Site, Social Networking Sites, Social Networks, Vet, Yoakum

Memorial Day Support Hours 2010

May 28, 2010 By Justin Premick

AWeber’s support offices will be closed the following days as we observe Memorial Day:

Monday, May 31, 2010

As always, we will monitor the AWeber system and the support inbox to address any critical issues.

We’ll be back at 8:00AM Eastern Time on Tuesday, June 1st to answer your questions by phone, email and live text chat.

Thanks, and have a great holiday!

Filed Under: autoresponders, Business Social Media Tagged With: Address, aweber, Critical Issues, Eastern Time, Email, Inbox, mailing list, Memorial Day, newsletter

AWeber Blog Nominated for a Stevie Award for Writing

May 18, 2010 By Justin Premick

Exciting news!

The American Business Awards have recognized AWeber and our blog by nominating us for a Stevie Award.

We join six other finalists in the Best Writing/Content for a Website or Blog category:

Accenture
Adams Kessler Professional Law Corporation
Baseline StudioSystems
Brocade Communications
Summit Medical Group
Walmart

For more details, see the press release below. (You can also see the release here.)

AWeber Communications Named 2010 American Business Awards^SM Finalist

8th annual Stevie Awards® will be presented on June 21 in New York City

Huntingdon Valley, Pa. (May 18, 2010) — AWeber Communications, a leading provider of web-based email marketing tools for small businesses, today announced that the company’s educational email marketing blog has been named a finalist in the Best Writing/Content category at The 2010 American Business Awards.

The American Business Awards are the nation’s premier business awards program. All organizations operating in the United States are eligible to submit entries – public and private, for-profit and non-profit, large and small. More than 2,700 entries from organizations of all sizes and in virtually every industry were submitted for consideration in more than 40 categories.

AWeber’s blog provides tutorials, case studies, articles, interviews and webinars in an effort to lead the way in moral, direct response marketing. Blog entries are designed to address different vertical markets, share customer campaigns, offer expert insight and relay best practices. The blog aims to modernize the way small businesses approach email by educating the novice and more advanced email marketer in ways to increase customer acquisition and retention rates through responsible, permission-based email marketing.

“We go to great lengths to ensure that we lead conversations about responsible email marketing,” said Tom Kulzer, CEO and founder of AWeber. “Being recognized for our writing and content is a true testament to the value our educational initiatives provide small businesses and email marketers.”

This year’s Stevie Award winners will be announced during the annual gala on Monday, June 21 at the Marriott Marquis Hotel in New York City. More than 600 executives from across the United States are expected to attend. The event will benefit Oceana, the largest international organization focused on ocean conservation. The ceremonies will be broadcast on radio nationwide by the Business TalkRadio Network.

Members of the Awards’ Board of Distinguished Judges & Advisors and specialized final judging committees will select Stevie Award winners from among Finalists in final judging that will continue through May 28. Finalists were chosen by business professionals nationwide during preliminary judging in April and May.

Details about The American Business Awards and the list of Finalists in all categories are available at www.stevieawards.com/aba.

About AWeber Communications
AWeber Communications helps businesses increase sales and profits through its suite of web-based email marketing tools. The privately held, debt-free company was founded in 1998. For more information, visit http://www.aweber.com.

About The Stevie Awards
Stevie Awards are conferred in four programs: The American Business Awards, The International Business Awards, the Stevie Awards for Women in Business, and the Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service. Honoring organizations of all types and sizes and the people behind them, the Stevies recognize outstanding performances in the workplace worldwide. Learn more about The Stevie Awards at www.stevieawards.com.

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Thanks For Reading The Blog!

By reading, commenting and sharing the email marketing tips on this blog, you’ve helped us get recognized and nominated as a finalist for a Stevie Award. Thanks!

Hopefully we’re fortunate enough to win the award. If so, we’ll certainly be sharing that news here.

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Filed Under: autoresponders, Business Social Media Tagged With: aweber, Aweber Communications, Baseline Studiosystems, Best Writing, Brocade Communications, Business Awards Program, Content Category, Customer Acquisition, Direct Response Marketing, Expert Insight, Huntingdon Valley Pa, mailing list, Marketing Tools, newsletter, Permission Based Email Marketing, Professional Law Corporation, Retention Rates, Share Customer, Stevie Awards, Summit Medical Group, Tom Kulzer, Vertical Markets, Walmart

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