Softpedia wrote an article that says that 9.5 billion text messages were sent between Jan. 1, 2008 to Jun. 30, 2008, setting daily and hourly records. Johnny Makkar at Love for Biz also wrote a post saying 94% of all text messages get read.  Why? Its simple, its fast, you can immediately digest the information and not skip a beat.

Text messaging is huge and continuing to grow but no one is bothing talking about it. Instead the new big thing is Mobile Marketing. In the first 3 months of 2008 over 11.7 million smartphones were sold (that's before the iphone 3G released its 1 million units in 3 days) and Digital Home says smartphones have increased in sales by 84% compared to last year. I admit I didn't understand all the hype until I got my own Smartphone this past summer. Suddenly, I do everything on my phone.

But even before I got a smartphone, I followed the trends. A debate has begun about the future of mobile marketing. So far I have heard two arguments:

1. All websites should have a mobile version because more and more people are surfing from their phones right now.
2. Mobile marketing will be obsolete in a few years because smartphones will have screens that can handle a complete website.

I just want to know what you think. Where is mobile marketing going? What should web designers be telling their clients about mobile accessibility for their sites?  Is mobile marketing just for "big" companies? Texting is simple and everyone can use it but mobile marketing is still a brand new feature to most businessmen. Please share your thoughts on the Mobile Marketing Debate!

Step back Linked-In, there's a new kid on the block. If you have not yet heard of N10, you should try it.

N10 is more than just another site to list people you know. Here are some features that make this site unique:

• Track Referrals: Ever meet someone and want to send them a referral but forget? This site allows you to link two people together in your network and then tracks how many referrals you've given them.
• Categorize Your Associations: There are lots of different reasons for networking. This site allows you to categorize people based on how they network and why you network with them. They even have a cute little quiz you can take.
• Find Out Who Your Most Powerful Assets are: Not only does N10 track the referrals you give but also the referrals you receive.
• Tips and Training: Need help on your one-on-one or think your 30 second intro needs some work? N10 has beautiful presentations that can help you be a better networker.
• Post Proof: One thing Linked-In doesn't allow you to do is post examples of your work. N10 lets you post articles, video, images and audio.

Why am I excited about N10? I don't think N10 is here to compete with Linked-in. Like all social media, both sites have their value. But the ability to instantly connect two people I know in a simple way is something that Linked-in doesn't really provide. That alone makes N10 worth my time. Of course, the opportunity to actually post my work is awesome too. That and I like to keep my network organized, so the category function is incredible.

I had the opportunity to meet with Jim Penny, N10's creator. He created the site based on his book: Networking Genius. Jim Penny has years of experience in networking and wants to make what he's learned available to everyone else. He's excited about the potential his system has.

The site is still in beta but I can only imagine that it will continue to grow and change into an invaluable tool for any serious networker. If you are in my personal circle expect to be receiving and invite from me so that we can send each other referrals more simply online!

Do you know your market?

Recently a client asked me about the Hispanic-American statistics online. I was impressed by this question and decided to do some research. In Texas, this is a growing demographic. Many companies in the Southwest offer services in Spanish to try and tap into this market. It turns out internet is making this particular client simpler to reach.

In May, I looked into a breakdown of the Hispanic-American market in regards to media. eMarketer offers a very comprehensive article with multiple graphs on the subject. Over all, it shows that Hispanic-Americans use more media than other Americans, even though they often have more limited access to the internet.

eMarketer predicts that the US Hispanic population will grow to 30 million by 2012. We are at 23 million currently. That's 7 million in the next four years.

In business terms, what does this mean? Its always smart to be aware of your audience; what their needs and wants are. If you already market to Hispanic-Americans, it might be time to focus a little harder on your online efforts. The rest of us should make sure we are open and accessible to all races and cultures. The internet truly cuts race out of the picture for many businesses (and it is truly a blessing that we can be colorblind). Yet, we should still stay vigilant to the market and where it is heading.

The Hispanic market is expanding online. Your business might not be targeting this demographic but if you are interested in finding out more about your niche I highly suggest using eMarketer to track down your perfect client and their internet habits.

Let's start the week with a simple little survey. What do you think the most important part of an online marketing strategy is? It is a good website? Great content? SEO (links, keywords), paid advertisement, social media, a brand name recognized offline? Let's talk about what you think the heart of an online marketing campaign is, or what it should be.

I'm very curious about what the "key" is. I want to know what Veribatim as a company should focus on to make our clients happier. I want to discover what people feel is important so I can spend more time blogging about those things.

Just back from vacation so I'm start my week with discussion. You hear from me all the time, now I want to hear from you!

Today I want to chat a little bit about why "non-techie" people should blog more. As my example I want to spotlight a new client of ours, Sharon Jones who owns Guardian Pet Sitters and has just started her own blog for pet lovers.

I chose this blog because it has nothing to do with programming, technology or the internet. Right now its hard to tell how many tech blogs are out there but the percentages are high. Personal blogs, news blogs and tech seem to take up the largest chunk of the 78,703,197 blogs identified by statistical websites (source from blogpulse).

In the past two months here are the percentage of posts that Blogpulse has tracked with the keyword "Internet" compared to the keyword "Pets".

But let's compare that to the number of people in America who own pets. The National Pet Owners Survey 2007-2008 cites 63% of U. S. Households own pets (source: APPMA). So the number of people who might be interested in tips on pet care far out weighs the number of blogs marketed towards them.

Many businesses have something unique to offer the blogging community. They offer a service or information about something that not many other people are blogging about. Even less cuddly businesses like lawyers, technicians, or CPAs have plenty of worthwhile information and very little competition. In fact I would subscribe to an interesting blog on any of the above topics because they meet a need in my life. Check out Sharon's blog and consider what unique perspective your business could bring to the table.

I've reviewed almost a dozen social media sites for you. I've listed all their pros and cons, but why bother with social media?

Social media is not traditional media and many business have trouble figuring out exactly what to do with it because they can't label it. Mack Collier talks about this in his article Why is Social Media so Hard for Businesses?

"The problem that I think many businesses have, is how they view
social media. I believe many businesses (of all sizes) see social
media sites and tools as new channels to publishmarketing channels.

Nothing could be further from the truth."

Its true. Social media is its own unique genre of marketing. It is a new way to interact with customers and clients. It is an invaluable tool for feedback, polling and reviews. Did you know even the Pope uses social media to get his message across?

So why aren't more businesses taking advantage of this free marketing tool?

Time: Businesses think social media is a waste of time. They don't see an instant result so they aren't willing to pursue it (despite the fact that many forms of advertising have a time lapse). Or they are unwilling to devote the time. I'm of the opinion you either make time or you hire someone to do it for you, internally or externally because the return on investment is huge.

Fear: We fear what we don't understand. Many business, even mainstream ones don't feel like they are up-to-date with technology. Smaller companies are worried about the time and energy it will take to get involved.

Knowledge: Too many business just don't know these avenues exist or--worse!--they don't think their clients aren't using them.

Pride: I read a study on SEO once that said that in 2006 NIKE had not optimized their website and when you searched for NIKE tennis shoes, they weren't even in the first page of links. I'm not sure if that is the case now, but imagine not even bothering because "you don't need more business" or "your brand is built offline". Social media is a way to gain more SEO and if you think your company just doesn't need it, you should really evaluate your marketing stategy and see what else is out of date.

So why do it? Check out this article about how Firefox used social media to break a world record. And if that doesn't hit you, go to a site like eMarkerter and start researching your target audience. Then decide how useful social media can be.

Get Started: It doesn't matter where you start, just do it. Read some of my recent reviews, find a media that matches your style and go for it. Social media will only grow your traffic, so what can it hurt?

The past few posts I've been focusing my research and attention on the phenomenon of social media. I have to admit it fascinates me, but the goal of course is to make it work, from a business stand point. How can online social networking help your business? And how do you choose from the hundreds of sites that make this available?

I'm going to deal with a number of well-known sites, each one I have reviewed in the last few weeks. Now I'm going to list out each service's pros and cons so they can all be compared.

Pros:

• Networking Intensive
• Open and chatty community
• real time answers.

Cons:

• Time intensive
• Navigation not intuitive
• Leans towards the internet savvy

Pros:

• Great way to "poll"
• Close to Real Time but simple to use
• Ability to automatically feed blog posts

Cons:

• Too much down time
• Often Tweeple are more interested in getting follower than networking
• Superfluous information

Pros:

• Community Opportunity
• Clean Profile look - user friendly
• Ability to create applications, events and blog posts

Cons:

• Audience not "marketing" friendly
• Networking more social
• Ability to be tagged in notes and images that may not be work appropriate

Pros:

• Massive Audience
• Forum opportunity
• Widely-Accepting to advertising

Cons:

• Spammy
• "Bathroom wall of the internet" - reputation isn't great
• Friend Collectors instead of clients

Pros:

• Simple, Clean, Business-friendly
• Opportunity to get business feedback
• Chance to get reviewed by clients

Cons:

• People may "reject" your link because they don't remember you
• Many users don't check-up on their profile regularly
• Not all people network with others they actually know

Pros:

• Viral effect for blogs
• Simple way to get noticed
• Easy to use

Cons:

• Many people "digg" things because their friends do, not because they like it
• Hitting the front page of Digg has been known to crash websites from too much traffic
• Millions of submission to compete with

Pros:

• Easy for any website
• Allows for site indexing
• Allows for reviews and keywords

Cons:

• Takes a little more time
• Can be bad for niche sites with advertising
• Allows the opportunity for people to rate you negatively

Pros:

• One of the longest standing Social Bookmarking sites
• Allows you to import bookmarks
• Ability to share of keep private based on user needs

Cons:

• Usefulness is merely just an extra link without good user connections
• A hassle without a toolbar extension
• Format is not instinctive

Are there any other social media sites you'd like to see reviewed and added to this list? Let me know what business tools you use.

Facebook Profile.

There's no question that more and more people are using social media. Facebook has become the next big thing; the cleaner, sparkly version of MySpace.

I originally started using Facebook back in college, mostly to keep track of my friends from high school. Facebook grew and started to allow high school students to participate as well and finally opened to the general public. As a social tool, to keep up with friends I have found Facebook to be invaluable, especially on the "college scene". However, as a business tool, I must admit I have my doubts. Some people find Facebook to work really well. But it seems that Facebook is a "viral" effect. Its like posting a youtube video, it hard to know what's going to suddenly take off and be the next big thing, and what is going to flop.

Facebook has a business section that you can explore which has more in-depth information. They talk about advertising and also applications. Applications are an interesting concept. They allow you to create a game or some other hook, which brings you users that you can then give your information to. There are plenty of website about how to "create a viral app" or the "best app design" but here's something to consider: The majority of people I know on facebook, who are average Gen Y users, think of application requests as spam. The majority of applications require you to invite friends before you can use it and so it maintains a vicious cycle. My senior year of college, these applications gained a nickname: FACEBOOK AIDS. That's right, we thought of applications like STDs; they spread quickly, everyone you touch gets it and it clutters up your entire profile.

However, there are way to make creative and useful applications. I use friendfeed's application on my profile, as well as a "free gift" one so I can send cute images to my friends to brighten their day.

You can also create a group or just a profile specifically about your business. This gives you a chance to link up with people you work with, went to school with or have been your clients. Of course then you have to figure out where to draw the line on personal information: do you post crazy pictures? What if someone else does and tags you in them? Do you list your birthday, phone number and religious affiliation? You have to decided how much you want to give.

I admit, I've not really used Facebook for business. I use it mostly social and list my business information. What do you think? Here is a blog that talks about business leverage in more detail and here is one that talks about the cons. Feel free to share your experience or other data. The debate rages on.

So, I've been following the rabbit hole of online social networking (which they should just shorten to OSN already) for a while now. It took me awhile to get on board with twitter but once I did, I loved the potential. When twitter started having the "fail whale" appear lots of people began to look for a new playground.

That's when I started to hear about Plurk.

Potential:

I'm still trying out its potential for business owners. It is far more lucrative than twitter, but the ability to have conversations in real time is an awesome power. I'm hearing a lot about Plurk "replacing" Twitter but I have to disagree. Twitter allows you to search for people in your industry and follow them through microblogging. Plurk lets you start conversations, meet other people in your friend's network through mutual interests as well as answer the eternal question: what are you doing?

What Plurk is like:

Plurk is not a linear format like Twitter which threw me off at first. Instead it is more of a web type design. You can click on plurks you want to read and then reply. Other people can reply too, so you can have a huge meeting of mind in a 5 minute span of time just to answer one question. While on Twitter you can have an instant response, watching it all be threaded in one box is pretty exhilarating.

I will admit, my first day on Plurk, I wasn't impressed. The colors bothered me, the timeline confused me and I thought the random plurk creatures were creepy.

[Caption] Is that a headless dog? Who designed this?

Plurk vs. Twitter:

But, like any new experience, it took me a few hours to get used it and soon I felt compulsively drawn to Plurk. The great thing about instant interaction is that after a few days with Plurk I felt like I knew my friends better than with 3 weeks of twitter. Both will have their ups and downs, but both can be important tools.

Personally, I hope someone makes a site or application that combines them. They should call it pitter because it sounds like raindrops and that is the essence of both these sites: the little droplets of conversation and thought that make up a storm.

Contagious Media:

I saw someone comment on Plurk that the willingness of so many twitters to try this new site was interesting. I think so too. It took me months to give in and sign up for twitter but only a day or to to try Plurk.

This, I believe, is a trend that we are seeing and will continue to see, in regard to new interactive mediums. MySpace took a while to catch on, Facebook, much less. Perhaps this is an offshoot of Moore's law that the speed of technology acceptance grows exponentially. As Generation Y's influence grows and their desire to be immersed in the power of social internet has more power, more people outside of that generation will get involved as well. And as people as a whole discover that the "new" is nothing to be afraid of, they will more rapidly get involved with things that previously frightened them.

These are just my thoughts. Let me know what you think about the acceptance of new technology. Am I just becoming an early adopter or is this a trend? Will Plurk and Twitter go head-to-head? I'm sure there will be more on this as I continue to discover and learn.

I have heard my generation called any number of things, the "blinking 12:00's" after digital clocks when they reset, generation "Y" as a compliment (or not so complimentary) to generation "X", and Dan Tapscott in his book Growing up Digital (he also wrote Wikinomics) calls us the "Net" Generation or N-Geners for short. I gave up and just say "I grew up in the Information Age."

What's so important about the children of the Baby Boomers? Well, we are changing the face of the world, which may not sound that huge, every up-and-coming generation does. However, marketing strategies, technology and even communication will have to change to accommodate these tech-savvy young adults and kids. Already we are untouched by TV and radio ads because we've been flooded with advertisement our entire lives. We multi-task through two and three kinds of media at once. We are making newspapers obsolete.

So how should this change your marketing strategy? What is the most important thing for your company to do? If you don't know, find out.