Mobile Marketing in a Social Media World

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We’ll let the figures speak for themselves.
According to ABI Research, mobile marketing is poised to become a $1.5 billion industry by 2016; and the mobile marketing and advertising revenue increased by 2.5% in a six-month period in 2010.
Entrepreneur.com reported mobile marketing as one of the Top Ten Marketing Trends for 2010. In other words, “mobile marketing” and “ubiquity” are going to become synonymous terms and essential components of marketing campaigns everywhere.
Which really doesn’t come as a surprise, considering the explosion of social media and mobile apps since the iPhone revolutionized – again – the way we communicate with each other. Mobile apps and websites are cleaner, faster and, well, mobile. We love our laptops and MacBooks, but we love our smart phones even more.
Why Mobile Marketing?
1. One-Stop Shop
Between, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, WordPress and every other social media portal, mobile marketing is a pivotal point of convergence for multiple venues of advertising.
2. Minimalism is Effective
The best part about mobile marketing is not having to worry about intricate web design.
In fact, it’s the easiest way to eliminate any obstacles between your consumer and your content, because the simpler the website design and the shorter the text message, the more effective your marketing will be.
3. It’s Fast-er
According to Nitin Bhandari, chief product officer of mobile web browsing company,  Skyfire, mobile network bandwidths and browser capabilities are getting better and stronger. Stronger bandwidths equal faster message delivery; which means instant virtual communication is literally at our fingertips. And not too far away from the target audience.
4. Multichannel Retail is Obsolete
We didn’t say it. Forbes.com did. Marketing isn’t about traditional retail distribution channels anymore; it’s about integrated and interactive touch point channels that consumers can, literally, carry around in their pockets.
Brian Walker, Principal Analyst at Forrester Research writes:
Customers no longer interact with companies from a channel perspective; instead they interact through touch points. These touch points include channels such as stores, branches, call centers and websites, but also emerging interactions including apps, social media, mobile sites, SMS messages and interactive advertising across smartphones, tablets, cars and even appliances.
Increasingly, social media and mobile marketing are becoming inextricably intertwined with each other. And there’s no doubt about it – they’re here to stay.