MobileWeb2Go

the study confirmed that Twitter followers are more likely to buy from brands they follow (37% vs. 21%), and recommend brands to friends (33% vs. 21%).

Yet the Facebook advertising opportunity for brands is unparalleled. With 550 million members worldwide (165 million in the U.S. alone) Facebook is a powerhouse of connectivity where content can be shared among friends

While both social media channels are interactive, one important distinction is the "push" vs. "pull" marketing dynamic deployed on Facebook and Twitter.

There are two ways to access applications on a mobile device. The first is to simply fire up the mobile Web browser and load a Web application. Existing Web sites are designed for mouse interaction. Mobile interaction is with the finger, thus most Web sites need to be optimized for the mobile Web.

It is thought by many that mobile marketing may become mandatory for business success. As mobile web usage continues to explode, business owners must realize the advantages to mobile-friendly sites are many.

ScanLife’s Q3 Trend Report showed a 440 percent increase in scans year-over-year from the third quarter of 2010, indicating consumers are more willing to interact and engage with content delivered through QR codes.

reveals that more than 20 million scans have been recorded through the quarter. 

Recouping even the typically modest investment needed to deploy a QR code often depends on a few key steps. One is offering those who read the code something they can use. "The codes are a bridge," Strack says. "When the user crosses the bridge, there needs to be something of value." That might be useful information, a coupon or another promotion.

Similarly, the site to which the code leads should be developed specifically for mobile phones. A website designed for computer monitors usually is difficult to view on a phone, Pinto notes.

Finally, in order to reap the full benefits of a QR code, you want to find some way to gather information from the user, such as an email address, so that you can contact them again. The QR codes and the scanning applications don't capture this information.

According to a survey by DDB Worldwide, 27% of people who have liked a brand on Facebook say they often click that little thumbs-up button, and an additional 49% do it occasionally.

Consumers are more willing to interact with branded pages.

Interactions with branded pages will be a key metric to watch in 2011.

Make it easy to share.

Don't assume your name for something should remain its name.

Keep an eye on trends.

Some 5 percent of Americans — and 15 percent of smartphone owners — have scanned such a code in the last three months, according to new figures due to be released on Monday by Forrester. A year ago, only 1 percent of Americans had been willing or able to do so.

codes provide an efficient and cheap means to link the online and offline worlds.

Digimarc, are pushing methods for embedding the codes into the page so that they don’t disturb the visual layout. The challenge, though, is that it is harder for readers to know that there is more content available.

"A person standing at the curb can go through the photos and decide whether this is a home they'd like to see," says Nowicke.

She's one of 30 realtors in the Bay area using QR codes. She says the new technology is the perfect trend for the real estate industry.

The company will instead focus on HTML5 development, which enables web browsers including those on mobile phones to perform essentially the same task as flash but without relying Adobe's proprietary technologies.

There have been many attempts to create a WORA platform but none has really succeeded. WORA stands for Write Once Run Anywhere. Some progress was made in the pre iPhone era where platforms were getting developed which could support majority of the feature phones. It tackled the challenge of different screen size and varying user interaction standard reasonably well.

Here are 3 possibilities: 1)      Tablet usage expands to significantly eat into the desktop and laptop usage 2)      Voice technology becomes robust and usable enough to offer a new dimension to user interface design 3)      The Metro UI from Microsoft effectively manages to create a uniform container for application to run in smartphone, tablet and desktop

Eighty percent of web-enabled mobile device owners say they multitask while watching television, relying on smartphones and tablets to communicate with friends and family, look up content related to the program they're watching or access information totally unrelated to the broadcast at hand.

Ninety-four percent of multitaskers engage in some kind of mobile communication,

ext leads all channels, followed in descending order by talking, email, social networking and IM

, tablet users view more news than other online mobile audiences, and news content marketing can reach these consumers.

tablet sales will rise 300 percent in the fourth quarter of 2011 over the the third. While sales increase in many sectors during the holidays, the 300 percent predicted jump represents substantial growth.

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.

With 40 percent of smartphone owners browsing the Internet more frequently on their phones – using their devices to make holiday charity donations and buy gifts online – it only makes sense to ensure mobile purchases are available anywhere at any time.

The No. 1 thing is brand cohesiveness. Use the same URL on mobile as on your desktop site, as opposed to m. or .mobi. All it takes is a simple redirect script.

product reviews and testimonials, which could even be presented in the form of videos. Additionally, incentives like discounts for an opt-in for future communication and for taking a survey or participating in a poll.

62 percent of US mobile users between the ages of 25 and 34 own smartphones, compared to just 43 percent of all US mobile phone users, according to the latest mobile report from Nielsen.

Older folks rank low on smartphone adoption, but Nielsen points out that those between 55 and 64 are the second-fastest growing group, jumping 5 percentage points this quarter to reach 30 percent.

Mistake 1: Not Testing the Code

Mistake 2: Getting Too Fancy With Text

Mistake 3: Serving up Non-Mobile Pages