| Beginner's Guide to Mobile and Local Mobile Marketing |
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If you think you are too small for mobile marketing, you are going to get left behind. While this emerging marketing strategy is still evolving you need to take it seriously, particularly if you have a store or office location and you are B2C. People love to play with their phones. As frightening as all this technology is to some small businesses, you need to at least be familiar with their growing consumer uses. And, when a thought leader with a smart phone finds a great use they tell other friends with smart phones. Sound familiar? WOMM Defined for 2010 - This funny acronym is no longer Word-of-Mouth-Marketing. It should be Word-of-Mobile-Marketing. Unless you have been under a rock (or in China) in the past month, you have heard of Twitter Location-sharing. With social media making people more comfortable with sharing their every thought, why not share where you are (while eating that bagel)? If yours is the bagel shop in the Tweet, it would be great for all those Tweeple to know where you are located, your hours and your lunchtime special today, right? Do You Display a QR Code? Or even know what it is? If you have a local business with potential walk-in business QR codes are important for you to understand. Google brands them a "Favorite Place". Japan uses them widely as their population has been tethered to cell phones long before the rest of us. QR is the abbreviation for Quick Response. It's used to transfer information onto your cell phone. More and more local businesses are displaying these as current or potential marketing vehicles. Their use is still being explored, but you'd be wise to learn how it could help your business.
There are so many more applications and sites that reign supreme in the local and mobile business and you should take time to download and play with all of them on your phone. Foursquare, Gowalla, Loopt, Brightkite, and Google Latitude are current favs. You should also identify what your cyber competitors are doing on these sites: coupons, contests, driving business at certain times of the day, etc. Just keep your eyes open and as opportunities emerge - jump in. None are expensive financially, but like other marketing tactics they require a strategy, planning, time and tracking.
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Mobile Research in The Palm of Your Hand - PositionApp is an iPhone app that shows the most downloaded applications for the iPhone. 














