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Added the Google tracking code to the Landing page for the ads you are running? What about the Facebook landing tabs that you are running for a contest/sweepstakes/announcement or any other promotion. The insights are great and much more in depth than what Facebook provides. Do this now!Another great piece of code is the Google remarketing code. With the same added onto your Facebook page it makes for a great spread for your Google Adwords run ads. With a captive fan base account being pulled into the target range it makes for specific targeting.So you are running a contest on Facebook & Twitter at the same time? Ensure you talk about it on both platforms. Those with accounts on either will get involved. Sounds irrational? Now think where all your Twitter widget features and so does your Facebook News stream. Get it? Think social. Also remember they a lot of people stumble onto social media links via Google search and brows Twitter without logging in.Using a hashtag? Keep it small and precise. Do not add two words together that make puns or cannot be understood. Also, remember to keep the possibility of its use extremely narrow. You don't want negative publicity or feedback via the same.If you are using an application ensure you promote it using a Bit.ly link. No not for tracking the rate of the clicks alone but also the branding bit. A shot URL always saves space on Twitter and looks good too.

An auto reply for new followers does not always work on Twitter. Sometimes they follow you to DM you to make a complaint. Be careful. Keep it neutral if you have one. Who said the future can’t be predicted. On a content calendar plot dates of important holidays, days and celebrations. Include important soccer games, death and birth anniversaries of the celebrated personalities. Trust me. These trend on Twitter and do they go mighty!Keep a 5 time a day tab on your Twitter account. Twice a day checks are passé. Trends emerge and die within hours. Capitalize with these plugging in announcements, product launches or even new recruitment's. Trust me they work.The Youtube option of featured video makes for an excellent way to announce information to first time visitors. Simply set the same on auto play and have not only your videos plays increase but also your on channel engagement.So you have a welcome page as well as a thank you page that follows after the viewer has gone through the application/lead form etc. Does the thank you form have a tweet this/like this button? Build to scale when adding widgets to an interface and do so where the viewer is able to pause and dedicate time on the same.So people registered on your landing page and you forgot to add the Facebook widget there? Don't fret a simple mailer to the leads generated will ensure that at least some of them do follow you back on Facebook. In personal instances the mailers have generated as much as 400 likes when marketed to a database of 2000 leads. Unbelievable? Try it.

Google Adwords seems to be very generous with its marketing solutions coupons. Do you receive countless coupons for trial campaigns? Do you use them? Don't lie. The best way to use them is run ads targeting them to your page. This is an efficient way to use the trial versions and create some super cool traction on your page.Loaded a nice picture for the Facebook page? No not the cover, the profile we mean. Check how it appears on the news feeds of fans for a better perspective. Is it exciting to look at? Is it too cluttered? Note that most pages and updates pull traffic due to the nature of their visibility. Everyone looks at someone attractive right? Make a note.Wondering whom to follow on Twitter. Don’t worry, it’s ok. There are a million faces there. Heard about Twitter lists? These public/private database goldmines are a brilliant index of people according to the nature of their interests and hobbies. Another way of selecting whom to follow is by registering on wefollow.com – a twitter index on people and their influences. Wish to go more specific then there is klout and Peerindex. Both tools excellent on rating people on their merits in multiple aspects.Twitter makes for excellent ways to reach out to those who matter. Make lists according to the people who enquire and complain with you. Adding them to a special guess list will help in damage control as well as testing plans, products and packages in the future.

"We just started using them," explained Abby Suiter, practice manager for Daniel Island Animal Hospital. "…It’s all about clicking a link, so you don’t have to type in an address. You just scan it."

"We are using QR codes to try to get information out to potential patients and anyone who is interested in orthodontics as efficiently as possible," added Dr. Michael Zetz of Daniel Island-based Crescent Moon Orthodontics. "QR codes give you a way to give somebody information or access to information really easily."

Both Suiter and Zetz say they have added QR codes in their practice exam rooms, so patient families can literally tap into additional, relevant information while waiting.

Many experts recommend that your company have a social media crisis plan, but few companies actually take the time to think it through.

Consider some of the ways that a social media crisis plan could go wrong:   Two people from the company issue apologies through different mediums without talking with one another. This could cause miscommunication and one may promise something that the other did not. Worse yet, the two parties could promote conflicting ideas.The crisis plan may have been set into motion too late. If a member of a company is not very active on social media, he/she could potentially not hear of the crisis until a few days later.The crisis plan may be set for something less serious. If the crisis is serious to the company, yet it not treated that way, people could get very upset.

Step #1: Communicate with everyone in the company about who is going to be the spokesperson for both mishaps.

Did you know that the U.S. now has more wireless customer connections than people? There are currently estimated to be 327.6 million active wireless customer connections in the U.S. The nation’s population is estimated by the U.S. Census Bureau to be roughly 312 million. This means that today there are now more active broadband tablets, cell phones, and mobile devices than people in this country.

If you represent a big brand or even a medium size business, you should take this as a strong signal that if you don’t have a mobile strategy now is the time to figure one out. Right now, you are potentially missing out on a consumer base that is accessing the mobile Web in masses and is growing rapidly.

Google Android: 38.1% Apple: 26.6% RIM: 24.7% Microsoft: 5.8% Symbian: 2.1%

despite the rapid increase in smartphone usage, only around 25 percent of companies have bothered to create a mobile smartphone version of their sites and only 13 percent have created sites specifically for tablets.

Currently, over 90 percent of people in the U.S. have mobile phones and estimates of smartphone users generally run between 70 and 80 million people in the U.S. It's even more important if you're trying to reach those oh-so-valuable 18 to 34 year olds: 42 percent of smartphone owners fit this age bracket. Looking at it another way, fully 62 percent of mobile users aged 25 to 34 own a smartphone. And, as I reported in my last column, 40 percent of smartphone and tablet users break them out when they're watching TV.

Mark Donovan, senior vice president of mobile and senior analyst with comScore, believes that the popularity of QR codes is ramping up because of the increasing popularity of smartphones. “I think that we’re seeing things like QR codes just start to reach critical mass,” said Donovan. “Today, one in three people in the U.S. owns a smartphone. It’s a good and fairly ubiquitous way to reach those people and there’s still some novelty to it, which can be interesting to consumers.”

The main benefit of QR codes is that they make it easy to direct the consumer wherever you want to lead them. Anything businesses can do to engage potential customers will enhance the “stickiness” of that company in a person’s mind. With enough compelling engagement on your part, potential customers just may become lifelong customers.

Is your website mobile ready?Have you tested it on a mobile device?  If you don’t have an iPhone, iPad, or other smart phone device – find one!  You might be surprised to check your Google Analytics or other website traffic and learn how many people are viewing your website on these devices.

Have you claimed your business page on sites like Foursquare, Yelp, Google Places, etc.?Whether your customers have reviewed you on these sites already or not, these services may already have claimed your presence on these sites. By claiming your sites, you improve your search rankings and have some control over special offers and responses.

QR Codes are key to directing traffic in your sitePeople don’t remember or don’t have patience to type in long addresses into their mobile devices.  In addition, you want to direct people to take specific actions like see a specific page for mobile users, opt in to email or sms marketing, check in on your social media sites, and many other options.

Of course, there is a lot more to this and the mix and meeting point of resizing of images, while also ensuring they keep an air of quality can take plenty of skill. Aside from images and resizing there are other considerations at hand. To jump to the point; sometimes you don’t need to fit all the information from the big screen onto the small screen – the essentials are what matter. Responsive design cuts out all the needless stuff and gives people a web version of the site that is easy to navigate, without them having to zoom in and also provides them with what they want to see. It eliminates the noise and makes the whole mobile browsing experience a pleasure.

Mobile phone usage and internet traffic are growing at a staggering rate, causing powerful changes in consumer behaviour and in the way people socialise and work together.

Most company websites are not easy to use on mobile devices, meaning they are increasingly irrelevant to the average consumer. If you want to attract new customers, build rapport with existing clients or offer new services or other value online, then mobile is on the must-do list.

A new approach to mobile-friendly web design is to create a website which will detect and adjust to the size of the device it is viewed on. Mobile responsive website design means a single site works well on all devices, future-proofing your website as new devices become popular.

1. Provide instructions near the QR Code

2. Give people an incentive

3. Educate your audience ahead of time

Giving them something to tweet about to their readershipFostering good will within your nicheBecoming a desirable destination for people to gain exposure

64 percent of American consumers can remember seeing television ads that included social media and QR code symbols such as those for “likes” on Facebook.

33 percent of consumers in the United States have gone on to interact with the social media that was shown on television after having seen it.

This survey included 1,000 respondents. Most of those participants said that they had noticed the use of social media on television and were aware of the ways in which they could interact with those various social networks, including the “Like” symbol for Facebook (42 percent), QR codes (28 percent), the Hashtags for Twitter (18 percent), and Shazam symbols (9 percent).

Social media helps make it happen by offering the opportunity to create one-to-one relationships. Showing people that you value them helps keep them loyal.

A community filled with happy customers attracts prospects

Using good keywords and links in social media posts improves search results.

Stories take us away from what we’re doing, and bring us somewhere else. Stories are humanities currency.The better the stories you tell, the more interesting you become.

here’s a basic structure that works perfectly for telling almost any story.1. Exposition: scene and setting2. Conflict: The problem on which the story is based3. Rising Action: The journey from conflict to resolution4. Resolution: The solution to the problem (not always something everyone will be happy about)5. Denouement: What happens after the resolution

Determine the kind of value you aim to derive for yourself and your followers from using the hashtag. Do you intend to crowdsource information? Do you aim to create buzz? Are you looking to provoke conversation? Make sure your intentions and purpose for employing the hashtag are clear and focused. Formulate a hashtag that is relevant to your purpose and the subject you intend to tweet about.  Check to see if the hashtag you have in mind already exists and is in use. It is also very important to check if your desired hashtag has not taken on some other meaning. Twitter Search, Hashtags.org and Tagalus are some tools you can use to do a quick hashtag check.  Start tweeting your hashtag. It helps to set the context of your hashtag by briefly explaining what it means. Tweet with moderation. The last thing you want is to be seen as a spammer. Always ask what value you and your followers can get from the tweet you are putting out.  If it does not exist yet, add your hashtag definition to online tools such as Tagalus.  Set up an automatic alert tool that sends you an email alert when someone tweets your hashtag. Twilert is one such tool.

The concept itself is deceptively simple; just add the “#” symbol in front of a word or a group of words with the spaces between them taken out.

By including a relevant hashtag in your tweet, it becomes visible to people searching for that specific topic, adding your voice to the general discussion. Conversely, hashtags automatically narrow down your audience, allowing your tweets to reach and engage only those interested in the same subject matter.

1. Use Technology Tools To Listen And Learn

2. Be Prepared And Set Expectations You Can Live Up To

3. Decide Who You're Going To Respond To--And Who You Can Ignore

The earthquake that devastated Haiti nearly two years ago was followed by a massive relief effort that was supported in part by millions of dollars in donations by people who used mobile phones to text $5 or $10 to disaster aid groups.

Mobile giving has also gotten religion -- literally. Some churches in Los Angeles and parts of Arizona have recently tested systems that allow their members use cellphones to make their Sunday-morning offerings virtually, instead of dropping coins, bills or envelopes in a plate passed down the pew.

Many disaster aid campaigns have relied on contributions of fixed amounts, such as $5 or $10, via texting, with wireless carriers dropping the texting fees and collecting the donations to distribute to charities. But new tools make it possible to make more generous donations via an SMS message or a smartphone app linked to a credit card or other account, Plank said.

The QR code program works in conjunction with Wildfire’s new mobile site. The codes are used for a variety of purposes and are located in an assortment of locations throughout Wildfires many restaurants in Chicago and it’s surrounding suburbs. Wildfire has placed the QR codes on everything from posters, to tabletops, to windows. The QR codes help Wildfire to endorse any upcoming events and promotions in order to keep customers “in the know” with the ultimate goal of increased customer participation in store events and promotions. The program gives Wildfire an opportunity to to interact with their guests all the while generating buzz for the restaurant and creating a unique experience for the diner.

"As the number of people with smartphones continues to escalate, marketing to the mobile customer is becoming increasingly more critical to the marketing mix.

Use of NeoMedia's NeoReader barcode scanning app jumped more than 240% on Black Friday compared to last year, according to a recent press release from the firm.

"Retail is going mobile. People are not only using their phones to get more information on goods and services, both in-store and on-the-go, but also to purchase," said Laura Marriott, Chief Executive Officer of NeoMedia Technologies, Inc.

20.1 million mobile phone owners in the U.S. used their devices to scan a QR code in the three-month average period ending October 2011. In the big scheme of things, this isn’t a large number. However, the number of people using QR codes is expected to grow.

1. Reinventing the Shopping Experience

2. Enhancing the User Experience