The Significance of Twenty Years of Text Messaging

On the 20th anniversary of the first text message, I told Mobile Marketer that SMS has driven sales, engagement, and brand loyalty.

"Often maligned, I'll argue that mobile marketing has advanced as far and fast as it has precisely because of text messaging. Sure, it's unsexy and hardly a creative tactic in and of itself, but SMS provides reach to nearly 100 percent of phones and to the 75 percent who text on a regular basis.

"SMS has most effectively made traditional media interactive, moving product, driving trial and building monetizable databases for Macy's, Arby's and many others. Simply, text messaging has proven that mobile works for brands."

The full article is here: http://www.mobilemarketer.com/cms/news/messaging/14322.html

Notes From A Mobilized Marketer - The "What's Cooking" Edition

Visits to allrecipes.com from mobile are 40 percent of total traffic, up from 8 percent a year ago. That makes sense - you’ll find devices used in kitchens and shopping aisles. And folks go to them day after day, unlike many apps that get downloaded, then forgotten.

Headline: Coming in 2013 – Targeted TV Ads. A century after television was invented, you wonder how "mass marketing" made it this long.

24 percent of cellphone owners say the worst thing about them is they make you constantly available and reachable at any time: Pew. It’s simultaneously the best and worst thing, IMO.

On Black Friday, Groupon’s mobile transactions were up 140 percent, 4X a normal Friday A.M. That’s a lot of eyelash enhancement sales.

Mobile LTE subscribers are expected to double by 2014. That means more mobile video consumption.

Mobile app sales are projected to exceed $30 billion this year, 2X to 2011. The death of apps has been greatly exaggerated.

In 2012, mobile accounts for 10 percent of sales and 20 percent of new customers for HSN, the 26th largest retailer.

Of course, it's too soon to know, but you have to wonder if marketers view mobile differently now vs. before Black Friday and Cyber Monday numbers came in large. How can they not, if they are paying attention.

Samsung is the latest to be under scrutiny for factory working conditions. We want our devices, but not at any cost.

In 2008, 25 percent of cell owners used their phone to access the internet. Now: 56 percent, according to Pew.

Embark, a free public transit app, was downloaded 100,000 times after the Apple Maps were revised/screwed up.

Are you mobile shopping if you have you are on phone but don't buy anything? Analysts disagree. I say yes, just like if you go to the mall and come away empty-handed.

iPhone 5 is down to a week shipping time. That’s good compared to where it's been but bad because it’s unavailable on demand more than 2 months after launch.

Service Is The Killer App On Black Friday and Every Other Day

By Saturday, we knew from the likes of comScore, PayPal and IBM approximately how many dollars were spent on Black Friday.

It is a bit more difficult to gauge the activity around Small Business Saturday, an “event” American Express created in 2010 to bring shoppers to small and medium size business.

To encourage consumers to shop locally, Americann Express offered 100,000 cardmembers a $25 credit for shopping locally. The National Federation of Independent Business reported that about 500,000 small businesses around the country participated, bringing in approximately 100,000 million consumers.

Beyond that, American Express will not discuss incremental revenue generated by the promotion.

In a report from Inc. Magazine http://www.inc.com/eric-markowitz/graphing-out-small-business-saturday-succes..., store owners in Wichita, Kansas, and Athens, Alabama, for instance, saw an increase in foot traffic firsthand because of Small Business Saturday. 

Also, the magazine said that there were about 200,000 mentions of Small Business Saturday on Twitter. By comparison, there were just under one million mentions of Black Friday on Twitter.

Regular readers of this blog know how I believe that small and medium size businesses need to provide the mobile experiences their customers and prospects expect. From payment to wi-fi to deals, mobile makes these entities competitive.

I still believe the killer app is customer service. It can’t be matched via a mobile phone or computer. Over the long weekend, our family frequented a small restaurant. The waitress treated us like royalty, so much so that we asked to speak to the manager to make sure that he knew what he had in his help.

Sure, we could’ve ordered food in via mobile app. While that has it’s own cool factor, it is nothing like a superb experience delivered by a service pro.

According to a survey by Ipswitch’s Network Management Division, online shoppers have no patience for poor website experiences – 92 percent surveyed said they have abandoned a website because of a disappointing experience.

Contrast that with in-person quality service – and the customer will come back often.

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This post was written as part of the IBM for Midsize Business http://goo.gl/S6P7m program, which provides midsize businesses with the tools, expertise and solutions they need to become engines of a smarter planet.

Angry Birds On Mother-In-Law's iPhone Signals End Of Early-Adopter Phase

My mother-in-law reached 19 on Angry Birds over the weekend, something that would fit in the “who cares” category except for the fact that she is 83 years old. And she was unsatisfied until she could play the game on both her iPhone and iPad.

My sister-in-law, who is in her mid-fifties, and her husband, who is about 10 years her senior, made purchases via smartphone and tablet for the first time on a Black Friday. What they bought is irrelevant. That they bought anything via wireless brings to life all the stats from IBM, PayPal, eBay, and others about the significance of the growth in mobile purchasing this beginning of the holiday season.

The numbers from these tracking organizations tell us plenty. But I’ll argue that we learn more from observing those around us.

First the Black Friday data:

PayPal saw a 193 percent increase in mobile payment volume on Black Friday 2012 than Black Friday 2011. Between 12:00 p.m. and 1:00 p.m. PST was the busiest mobile shopping hour on Black Friday 2012. Shoppers in these cities made the most mobile purchases through PayPal on Black Friday: Houston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, and New York.

eBay experienced a 153 boost in mobile U.S. volume. That followed eBay a 133 percent increase in mobile U.S. volume transacted on Thanksgiving.

IBM said that mobile purchases soared with 24 percent of consumers using a mobile device to visit a retailer's site, up from 14.3 percent in 2011. Mobile sales exceeded 16 percent, up from 9.8 percent in 2011.

Additionally, the iPad generated more traffic than any other tablet or smartphone, reaching nearly 10 percent of online shopping. This was followed by iPhone at 8.7 percent and Android 5.5 percent. The iPad dominated tablet traffic at 88.3 percent followed by the Barnes and Noble Nook at 3.1 percent, Amazon Kindle at 2.4 percent and the Samsung Galaxy at 1.8 percent.

Finally, according to IBM, consumers shopped in store, online and on mobile devices simultaneously to get the best bargains. Overall 58 percent of consumers used smartphones compared to 41 percent who used tablets to surf for bargains on Black Friday.

Let’s get back to the activities in my house.

We’re seemingly one of the few families left in America that gets a newspaper dropped on our driveway every morning. Thursday’s Seattle Times was, as my father-in-law was known to say, “plum-full” of ads and inserts. However, none drove any of us to retail locations. Instead they provided ideas into what others wanted as presents. Interestingly, there weren’t any QR codes in the ads, which wasn’t a miss in my home since neither my wife nor my in-laws have scanners on their phones, much less interest in interacting with brands that way.

Catalogues also made an appearance at the dining room table. No purchases were made. It was more like a homemade version of showrooming – lots of looking, but no one grabbed the car keys for a trip to the mall.

The initial holiday lists included an iPad Smart Cover for my brother in law and a Kate Spade protector for my mother-in-law’s iPhone. Other accessories for the new technology were discussed.

My takeaway from the weekend? Mobile’s early adopter phase has officially ended.

(first appeared on imediaconnection.com http://blogs.imediaconnection.com/blog/2012/11/26/angry-birds-on-mother-in-la...

Will Square’s Success Make Other Businesses Pay?

News that Square is processing $10 billion in payments annually has ramifications for small to medium sized businesses everywhere.

Visitors to this blog know I’m hardly in the business of hype. I’m not suggesting that every SMB go all in on mobile immediately.  What I am saying is that the $10 billion shows that there is enough activity to push to the forefront the need to determine whether any business has customers that may choose to go elsewhere if the option is not offered.

To review, Square offers a card reader that turns a mobile phones into payment devices. It charges businesses $2.75 per transaction and splits the fees with Visa, MasterCard, and banks.

Square isn’t the only game in town. As Reuters reported this week, in recent months, eBay Inc's PayPal and Intuit have both released their own card readers, while retail giants including Wal-Mart and Target have announced a joint venture to develop their own mobile payment offering. According to Reuters, Visa and AT&T also have projects in the works as does Google, which is focusing on its Google Wallet product.

Beyond current consumer expectations from small to medium sized businesses, the urgency to figure out a mobile payment solution is heightened with the news that Square and Starbucks teamed up to offer customers Square’s mobile payment application. The companies are giving Starbucks patrons in 7,000 U.S. stores the ability to use the mobile payment application, Square Wallet, a way to quickly and seamlessly pay for lattes, cappuccinos and more.

Customers simply download Square Wallet to their iOS or Android device to set up an account. Square Wallet is linked to their debit or credit card, so there is no need to reload a balance. Customers tap “pay here” and scan their QR code – similar to the customer experience on the existing Starbucks mobile payment applications. Their digital receipt appears instantly.

What does Starbucks have to do with small to medium sized businesses in a category other than coffee? With more consumer experiences will come more pressure on SMB to serve the shopper just as efficiently.

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This post was written as part of the IBM for Midsize Business http://goo.gl/S6P7m program, which provides midsize businesses with the tools, expertise and solutions they need to become engines of a smarter planet.

Packing Now Includes The Passbook App

Mobile Marketer asked me what I thought about Starwood Hotels and Resorts enabling its preferred guests to upload their member card to the Passbook application for the iPhone’s iOS 6 for instant access to account information and reservations at all nine of its brands including the St. Regis and The Luxury Collection.

Here’s part of the interview:

“While it is undeniably the early days for mobile wallets, Starwood is wisely giving its customers choice on how to quickly and easily access available points, statuses and more. Some guests will want to use Passbook to pay,” he said. “Others may just want to get to their information fast.

“Given the fact that the affluent over-index when it comes to the use of iPhones and iPads, going the Passbook route makes sense for Starwood.”

My other comments are in the full article http://www.luxurydaily.com/starwood-taps-passbook-for-mobile-member-benefits/

A Chat As Fast As Mobile

I found something that moves as fast as mobile’s blistering pace – a Twitter chat on our industry.

The other day, thanks to Patrick Goodman (@PatrickGoodman), I was a guest on #MobileChat. We discussed mobile shopping, what constitutes a successful campaign, and how to find a job in mobile.

A Storify rundown is here http://storify.com/PatrickGoodman/mobilechat-11-14-12?utm_content=storify-pin...

Notes From A Mobilized Marketer - The "Items May Appear Larger" Edition

A study says augmented reality apps will generate $300 million in 2013. Put on special glasses and it will look like $300 billion.

Unable to deliver iPhone 5s to satisfy demand, word comes that Foxconn may build 130-inch Ultra HDTV panels. Rest assured fewer will want them.

I will remember 2012 as year Twitter became my number one news source. You?

47 percent of 18-34 year old smartphone owners have reportedly clicked on a mobile ad in the past three months. How many have “fat fingers” causing unintentional clicks?

It’s $60 for TomTom's new North America Android app - cheaper than a standalone unit, pricier than Google Maps.

There were 66.8 million viewers for at least a minute of TV election coverage between 8 and 11pm. It was 71.5 million in '08. I expected a bigger dropoff.

Meanwhile, Mitt Romney's "victory" speech was written on an iPad. Was it autocorrect or the nation that changed it to a concession? Or both.

The tablet market is now nearly 32 percent the size of the traditional PC market. It happened in LTE speed, so to speak.

"It's gonna be raining tablets," said AT&T’s CEO on shared data plan growth. To me, it’s first about consumers understanding usage, then making decisions.

Nearly 40 percent of U.S. mobile users accessed social media networks on their device in Q3, according to comScore.

We're in a smartphone frenzy, but feature phones have 80 percent share worldwide, according to new stats from Mary Meeker.

If history of inaccuracy is a guide, Siri will sell you tickets to the wrong movie through the Fandango tie-in.

An analyst said that Facebook will "disappear" in 5-8 years. The better bet is that analyst will vanish.

A headline asked, “Who Will Be Disrupted By The Rise Of Mobile?” The better question is who won't be?

Notes From A Mobilized Marketer - The "Suckers For Apple Products" Edition

Jimmy Kimmel called consumers "suckers" for buying so many similar Apple products. Parody but how true for you? Or me?

Meanwhile, Apple has doubled its ad budget to $1 billion a year.  What's the value of "free" pre-product launch buzz unique to the company?

According to multiple reports, Microsoft is testing its own brand smartphone. There are risks in pissing off their partners, but too much is at stake not to make a run under full Microsoft control.

Speaking of Microsoft, Oprah said this about the Surface tablet: It “feels like a Mercedes-Benz to me, people!” Her stock isn’t what it once was, but what’s the worth of her comment in terms of sales?

Mobile giving could account for 20 percent of Sandy relief efforts. Text REDCROSS at 90999 to donate $10 to the relief efforts. As a reminder, more than 90 percent of those who contributed via mobile to Haiti relief were new Red Cross donors.

Teens who use smartphones may engage in more sex, according to a researcher who doesn't blame the technology.

IDC says the share of users accessing social networks on PCs will drop from 66 percent in 2012 to 52 percent in 2016. Mobile disruption.

You thought it was tough now getting a table at Starbucks - just wait. The company is testing wireless charging for devices.

Free mobile apps are four times more likely to track location, says security company Juniper Networks.

How cool is this? Given tablets but no teachers, Ethiopian kids are teaching themselves.

Neither Siri nor Maps would lead you to the executive shuffle at Apple. Siri would think you said dapple.

When A Presidential Opt-In Turns Into A Bother

Like everything else, the presidential election process has been changed forever with mobile devices in the hands of voters.

The early use of mobile to engage contributed to Barack Obama’s victory in 2008. The president has since maintained its large opt-in database, giving him an advantage over Mitt Romney.

But the permission that Americans have given the Obama campaign is not open-ended.

As I told Target Marketing magazine, too many knocks on the door are unwise.

"Within a matter of 35 days starting July 24, I received 11 text messages. And in my view, that is way too many, especially three months before the election. Just because you have someone's permission to come into their house, doesn't mean you should overstay your welcome.

“I would rather get periodic updates that are relevant to me, and they need to provide news to me, rather than be repetitive."

The article is here http://www.targetmarketingmag.com/article/election-2012-barack-obama-mitt-rom...

Will There Be One Mobile Channel Leading Winning Holiday Programs?

Mobile Marketer asked me which mobile channel will reign this holiday season.

Rather than pick one, I told the publication that the successful marketers will give consumers choice.

"If the recent CMO Council survey is to be believed, you can ask whether marketers are looking at the holiday season differently this year. Only 16 percent had a mobile strategy. Contrast that with mobile users who are way ahead when it comes to mobile and the holidays – 56 percent of mobile shoppers will showroom and 27 percent will buy via their devices, according to Accenture.

"This creates excellent opportunities for mobile-savvy marketers to differentiate and satisfy the needs of the mobile subscriber and sell more stuff.

"Marketers should think of inclusive mobile strategies rather than ones that exclude users who have neither the technology nor the interest in interacting in just one way dictated by a brand.

“My wife has adapted her buying experience to include mobile, but the next time she scans a QR code will be the first time. However, if you give her an optimized mobile site, convince her the experience is secure and provide a winning price and convenience, the deal is done.”

The article is here: http://www.mobilemarketer.com/cms/news/content/14092.html

Notes From A Mobilized Marketer - The "Donate To Elect A President" Edition

One in 10 has donated via mobile, the Pew organization says. As for just donating to presidential campaigns, only 1 in 100. Makes sense. Disasters push more people to act. Likely, some would view the state of America as a disaster.

Saying no one is succeeding with mobile is in the same category as saying everyone is. It’s flat out wrong.

Holiday messaging is all over brick and mortar retail before Halloween. Shoppers can limit exposure by not going in. But what about holiday ads on mobile? Will consumers welcome them or be turned off?

HTC’s sales problems in one statement? More BlackBerry devices are being sold.

Among Americans who read e-books, those under 30 are more likely to read e-books on mobile or PC than on an e-book reader, including Kindles and tablets, according to Pew.

What's your preference? I can point you to a story on Apple having no chance versus Pandora or one that says the battle will be easy. Each has an element of linkbait.

27 percent of showrooming shoppers will likely make a holiday purchase using a smartphone or tablet while out shopping, according to Accenture.

Samsung shipped more smartphones in Q3 than any company in history with profit up 91 percent year over year. No supply issues here.

Last I looked, there were over 638,000 Facebook likes to an AT&T customer's complaint about her inability to use Facetime over the carrier network with "unlimited" data plan. She was being forced to change to a family plan.

The Windows Store officially opened with more than 7,873 apps, a story said. Give or take, eh?

Here’s a headline on supposed unintentional clicks on mobile ads - Your Fingers Are Fatter in the Morning. That’s dumb with no backup proof.

The biggest non-story around the iPad Mini? Don't buy now because the price will come down and you'll feel burned. Nah, that’s the nature of all tech.

Lessons From One Who Has Waded Into the Mobile Waters

By now, you likely have seen the statistic from the Chief Marketing Officer Council http://mrmstrategies.org/about/press-releases/3 that only 16 percent of companies have a strategy for using mobile as a meaningful means of customer engagement.

This post could be about the slow-to-adapt, but that wouldn’t provide much learning.

Instead, let me point to one in the 16 percent, namely Sarah Ortman, Senior Group Manager, Consumer & Shopper Promotions, The Clorox Co. In a recent stunningly smart presentation at the Shopper Marketing Expo, Sarah articulated the case for mobile, first defining mobile shopping as activities that a consumer does on a mobile device to enhance or facilitate their shopping experience all along the path to purchase.

She says that users perform eight main tasks that comprise mobile shopping – search, list making, store locating, rating and review, coupons and incentives, buying and m-commerce, social shopping/sharing, as well as product and price comparison.

As with every marketing initiative, Sarah starts with objectives that will lead to sales and brand loyalty.

As objectives, she pointed to:

-       audience insights, asking, What is your target audience’s mobile usage/aperture insights? To get that information, Sarah suggested agency audience profiles, internal research, Web and/or mobile site data, and third party research and trending.

-       Infrastructure, asking, What level of digital infrastructure or assets do you have OR are you willing to invest? For that, Sarah points to CRM, Web and/or mobile site, mobile app, shortcode, and video assets

Further, she asks whether the exclusivity of mobile brings what she calls unique value.

Sarah points to immediacy, utility, relevance, location, and convenience as the value only mobile can bring. Concentrating on these four benefits will optimize the shopper experience, she said.

When it comes to immediacy, mobile provides the opportunity for consumers to act now.

Utility enable an audience to be a “hunter”, not a “surfer”. An example is a shopper using an app to map out the weekly grocery list according to deals and coupons.

Relevance needs to be highly contextual, personal, and reflect lifestyle. Examples here are grocery apps leveraging loyalty card data to provide customized deals and recommendations.

Precise location data allows for highly effective targeting and the ability to receive specialized promotions and product education while in-store.

As far as convenience, she views mobile as an “always accessible channel” that enables shoppers to access information “from anywhere at anytime throughout the purchase journey”.

Clorox employs this thinking on behalf of many of its brands, including Burt's Bees, Pine-Sol and Glad, among others.

Speaking of glad, many who heard Sarah uttered that word in describing some solid thinking that shed light on mobile’s role and promise.

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(article first appeared on imediaconnection.com http://blogs.imediaconnection.com/blog/2012/10/24/lessons-from-one-who-has-wa...

When It Comes To Free Mobile Websites, Do You Get What You Deserve?

Are free mobile websites good for small to medium sized businesses or is there a cost to going that route?

Like most things, that depends on many factors, including the complexity of the business offering as well as the expectations of the customer.

Remember, marketers I interviewed in Mobilized Marketing told me that they are seeing brands punished by consumers who are put through a poor or even non-existent mobile experience. 

What brings this to mind is the news that OpenTable, a leading provider of free, real-time online restaurant reservations for diners and reservation and guest management solutions for restaurants, introduced a free service that makes it easy for its restaurant customers to optimize their websites for mobile devices. 

The service, powered by vendor DudaMobile, is being promoted as “quick and easy to use and the before and after results are dramatic without sacrificing the branding and elegance of the restaurant's desktop website.”

If only it were that easy. In a post last week, I wrote about the myths of so-called responsive design. The biggest point I made was that there is no magic method to building once and providing optimal experiences on the web, mobile device, and tablet.

The same is true for DIY mobile web tools.

There is great variation in the quality of small to medium sized business websites, as well as the amount of content created and freshened as needed.

Clearly some businesses have gone the “free” route for their online presences. We know from talking to business owners that results are mixed, with many realizing that you get what you pay for.

Taking a bad web experience to mobile only compounds the problem.

It behooves small to medium sized businesses businesses to look further than price to satisfy its needs.

For more thinking about small business and digital, I recommend last Sunday’s “It’s A Digital World” segment Your Business show on MSNBC. About a dozen were interviewed, including me. I spoke about the passive activity of shopping becoming interactive – and of the large implications.

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This post was written as part of the IBM for Midsize Business http://goo.gl/S6P7m program, which provides midsize businesses with the tools, expertise and solutions they need to become engines of a smarter planet.

The Passive Has Become Interactive - Video Interview on MSNBC

Asked about the impact of mobile on small business, I told the show "Your Business" on MSNBC that consumers have turned passive activities into interactive ones.

Here's the video:

Notes From A Mobilized Marketer - The "We Have To Talk Louder" Edition

"Mobile snuck up and bit us," said a speaker at the Direct Marketing Association’s national conference. Really? We've been anything but reticent.

There are "large numbers of opt-ins" for AccuWeather's government-issued severe weather alerts. The company includes no ads because “it's about life and property”.

An impressive 31 million mobile users access AccuWeather. The biggest growth is through preloaded apps on handsets. Some drive folks to the mobile web.

Microsoft Surface tablet preorders for the base model sold out in under 24 hours. Without numbers, that doesn't tell us much.

More on Facebook's reach strategy: news that it is offering free talk time for new mobile signups in India.

Also, 1 million of Facebook's billion members access only on mobile.

I listened to tips for email marketers - build trust, be relevant, transparent, don't reach out too often. Even more important on mobile.

OpenTable is giving restaurants a DIY free mobile web building service http: Do it yourself here? Is that really a service for customers?

When budgeting, does one need to figure in $99 for replacement rear panel for dinged/scratched iPhone 5?

Meanwhile, in a standout quarter, Verizon sold 3.1 million iPhones - but only 650,000 of supply-depleted iPhone 5. People couldn't or wouldn't wait.

Lots of stories, hype around security and mobile devices. If you are protected, you are in a small minority.

20 ISIS-ready handsets available by year's end? First step is mobile wallet education. Then will come slow adoption.

100 million downloads of eBay mobile apps - and that's before the holiday shopping season.

More resolution on smartphone screen equals better picture, right? Not necessarily, according to expert.

I enjoyed talking to students at the DMA2012 career panel - until a guy I chatted with afterward told me he was born in 1990. So were my socks.

If I had to hear snoring, it was better on my flight home from Vegas than during the DMA2012 mobile workshop I led.

Does Responsive Design Process Deliver As Advertised?

Marketers and designers have been told repeatedly of the benefits of responsive design. I, however, believe these benefits are mostly myths, since the theory hasn’t lived up to all that it’s promised.

Some claim that responsive design automatically fits all devices: It is a simple design build that extends across many browsers and devices. In actuality, if a site is not designed for mobile first, users will encounter problems fast. Designers are mistaken in assuming responsive design is one-size-fits-all, because desktop-specific images on a website are larger in file size than those used on a mobile site and can, therefore, jam users’ precious bandwidth and patience. Users are forced to endure slow access times, only increasing frustration and the general likelihood that they will abandon the site due to an unsatisfactory experience.

Even if responsive design promises one build to start, a designer still must test it on each device and on every generation. What appears to be a cheaper and more efficient method of creating Web and mobile properties ends up being extremely time- and resource-dependent. There are long-term technical and maintenance issues for developers who don’t consider that responsive design requires constant monitoring of changes and upgrades to all devices and OS versions required. The quality-assurance time and costs alone will negate any perceived upfront savings.

If you create a desktop site via responsive design, smartphones still must download the entire site design, not just the contents for the mobile version. Changes made to the design must be processed by the phone, further affecting data transfers and load times. If a user is on a slow network, forget about it; the usability and overall experience is severely impacted.

Perhaps my biggest problem with responsive design is that it doesn’t consider the user experience by remaining focused on the most importance user concern: content. The creative must be well represented in the design of a mobile site. Designing for each platform and screen size is critical, but since Web consumption is quickly moving to mobile, designers should consider context and mobile format first and foremost. Focusing on one screen size without considering how the content will translate in other formats and sizes will only complicate the build later on. Timelines and testing cycles are doubled, increasing ongoing maintenance and total cost of ownership.

Responsive design is only a piece of the puzzle, and certainly not the comprehensive solution that some marketers believe it is. I urge designers to question whether responsive design is right for their properties and to look closely at the cost and time commitments, as well as the ability to render effectively from a device/context/content perspective. In this day and age, designing for mobile first is smart and logical. A user is highly likely to search for your business on his or her smartphone, and the first impression will be derived from that experience.

(first appeared on digiday.com - http://www.digiday.com/brands/why-responsive-design-is-not-built-for-the-user/)

Notes From A Mobilized Marketer - The Irrelevant Offers Edition

No eyelash enhancement deals delivered this week through mobile or online, but my sewing class offer arrived. I saw it when I put down my knitting.

Of course, the course to take instead of matching prices is to deliver value-add customer service. That’s delivering at the Moments of Trust.

How long before Samsung does another iPhone 5 spot saying that you can't even buy one if you are dumb enough to want one? Deja deja deja déjà vu.

But how many changed plans to buy an iPhone 5 because of maps inferiority? None, according to a study. It’s annoying, but not deal breaker

Minutes of talks, plus texts sent and received each increased 3 percent year over year, CTIA says. So much for talk, SMS withering.

More CTIA figures? Americans used more than 1.1 trillion megabytes of wireless data in 2011. The number means nothing to us. What does? It doubled year over year.

Amazon says that it sells Kindles at cost. Of course, money is made on what is sold through the hardware.

On a possible ownership change for Sprint - consumers don't give a hoot. It won't influence purchases. Name one who can tell you who owns Sprint now.

A Coca Cola executive gave Digiday a reason why brands are behind in mobile: 'It's hard as shit,” she said. Harder than brain surgery or rocket science?

A survey says that the iPad mini is the least-desired Apple product launching in 2012. Time will tell – I completely disagree.

I saw a story on "what you need to know about mobile malware". Here’s what I know having worked extensively in the online security category - consumers don't care and won't for awhile, even after a major outbreak.

27 percent of registered-voter cell owners have used their phone in this campaign to keep up with election news or politics, according to Pew. Seems high considering most know whom they are voting for in November.

If you could turn back the clock and go to an unconnected world, would you? Is the answer as simple as "no way"? I don't think so.

For a while, industry folks said that mobile users look at texts within four minutes. A new report says the average response time is 90 seconds. I’m not sure either is accurate.

Mobile and Small Business - Stats Cut Both Ways

There was something for the naysayers and for the optimists in an important survey of small and medium size business and their use of mobile.

On the positive side, SMBs understand the value of building a database of prospects, according to a new survey by well-respected Borrell Associates. http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/184139/smbs-increase-or-maintai...

SMBs prefer paying for signups as opposed to paying for mobile advertising clicks or impressions (27% versus to 19% for clicks and 6% for banners), according to the polling of over 1,300 SMBs. But 52% are unsure, which isn’t a big surprise in what are still the early days of wireless.

But proving that those of us in mobile marketing still have convincing to do to drive more mobile adoption, 45% of small business plan to maintain their level of spending, while 27% of medium-sized businesses plan to increase their level of spending on mobile media in the next year, compared to 4% who expect a decrease in mobile spend.

SMBs say that they are not satisfied with the ROI on mobile advertising, but 49% that have bought mobile ads say that they would spend more if a higher ROI could be garnered.

My take?

Big brands say that they will accelerate their mobile spends at higher rates than what businesses told Borrell.

In each case, there is plenty of proof that mobile can work if done smartly.

As an example that was detailed in my Mobilized Marketing book, Fox Chevrolet in Baltimore combined mobile and radio during the recession when it had not sod a car in more than a month pre-Cash For Clunkers.

The program worked like this: Fox Chevrolet bought two weeks of airtime on Hearst’s 98 Rock radio station to run 10- and 15-second promotions encouraging listeners to text in to enter to win the chance to purchase a car for $98.

In total, nearly 500 listeners texted the keyword Fox to the station’s short code. Each was entered to win and given details on how to attend the drawing at Fox.

On a Saturday morning, nearly 300 showed up on the lot and two were given the opportunity to purchase a car for $98.

Although the foot traffic was nice, it doesn’t begin to measure the success of the campaign. With prospective buyers enticed by shiny cars and competitive deals, Fox turned around its fortunes by selling 17 new cars and 17 used cars at full price on that one day.

Another example is the local maid service in Salt Lake City that had to hire more help to serve the demand produced through a text to win sponsorship that cost only hundreds of dollars. 

But as much as we want businesses to get mobile, the offering of proof will take more time.

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This post was written as part of the IBM for Midsize Business http://goo.gl/S6P7m program, which provides midsize businesses with the tools, expertise and solutions they need to become engines of a smarter planet.

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Mobile Driving News Consumption, Participation and "Reporting"

As a former journalist, I have more than casual interest in how news is gathered, delivered, and consumed in this mobile age. Regular readers will know my passion for the truth and I have loudly argued against the notion that a “witness” is a “reporter”, capturing this in several posts. In my view, reporters are trained and experienced, whether they are delivering “information” via mobile, social networks, or by other means.

That debate continues — and so do the developments that shed light on how mobile has impacted news consumption.

A new report from the Pew Internet and American Life Project validates our belief that mobile users in different geographies consume news in different ways.

The report reveals that residents of large cities (a segment that on the whole skews younger and are more mobile than other populations) are most likely to stay informed about local topics that interest them through a combination of online and traditional sources. They are particularly likely to get local news through Internet searches, Twitter, blogs, and websites of TV and newspapers.

In contrast, small city (31 percent) and rural (34 percent) residents are more likely than those in larger cities (21 percent) and suburbs (16 percent) to rely solely on “traditional” forms of media for their local news such as local print newspapers and broadcast television.

Suburban residents are distinct in their higher dependence on local radio (likely due to longer commutes to work), while small city and rural residents stand out in their reliance on word of mouth for some types of local information.

Meanwhile, the impact of mobile on news — and everything in our lives — is profound. I therefore applaud the decision by CNN to dedicate a month to examining all the ways mobile technology is changing our lives.

Readers of my Mobilized Marketing book know that I included many insights from Louis Gump, vice president of mobile for CNN. He is behind this initiative that tells us how “mobile technology has shifted from nicety to necessity.”

Appearing across all of CNN platforms, the month-long coverage looks at the impact of mobile devices on many aspects of our daily lives including personal relationships, work habits, cultural quirks, heath, finance, and etiquette.

The upshot of all this?

Because of my background and training (12 years working as a reporter for United Press International), I believe that consumption is driving how (and how fast) information is gathered, even by “credentialed” reporters. Just look at the many mistakes that have been hailed as breaking ‘news’. The false reports on the “death” of United States Congresswoman Gabby Giffords top of the list. Yes, we as mobile subscribers want our information in real-time. But it is up to the trained journalists to follow proven practices like double sourcing to make sure that what is reported is indeed fact. And it’s up to others on social networks to not cause confusion, hysteria or something worse simply because they have used the mobile medium to instantly distribute mere hearsay.

(a longer version of this column appears here http://www.mobilegroove.com/mobile-driving-news-consumption-participation-rep...