The mobile industry has nearly doubled since 2011 with Smartphone ownership, and consumers increasing use of mobile social content. According to comScore’s December 2011 annual mobile report, about 28.1% of US mobile subscribers own a smartphone, which is a 27% increase since 2010. According to the below statistics, US and Canadian mobile users are more prone to access social networking sites and blogs through their mobile phones with a 35.3% and 31.2% respectively.[1] Americans are also more liked to use maps and search the news on their phones. Hence, the mobile advertising and marketing was claimed to be the fastest growing sector in 2011, compared to mobile content and access, and online social media, increasing by 53.7% within one year to $3.39 billion. Mobile marketing is also predictied to grow faster than advertising, between 2012-2016, due to location based coupons and marketing apps revenue streams[2].

One interesting case to look at is how Redbobx a movie and game rental business, with their 27,000 point of sale kiosks, have discovered solution to their challenge that drove 1.5 million texts and add 200,000 mobile subscribers to their Redbox’s “Text Club” in only 10 days!

With no employees on site to attract customers or offer extraordinary service, Redbox decided to use the mobile marketing channel in order to build and create relationships between the brand and their customers, in addition to improve and strengthen their customer service.

“Engaging with a customer through the mobile channel offers access, connectivity and engagement with that customer,” Gibby, Vice President Marketing, Redbox[3].

The Mobile Phone Strategy:

•  To connect with and serve customers: finding the closest kiosk that offers their DVD of choice
• To get new customers at the point-of-retail: discount promotion at the Redbox kiosk, through a mobile marketing effort, “pulling” new customers in

In order to move away from the email “push marketing” strategy, Redbox implemented a “10 Days of Deals” campaign through mobile marketing creating a pulling effect. This campaign allowed new and existing customers to send a text and quickly receive a promotional code providing them with a discount between 10 cents - $1.5 off their rental.

Their call-to-action stickers were placed on their 27,000 kiosks, on their facebook page with 3 million fans, and emailed to more than 30 million addresses. Redbox also released a traditional media press release, as well as reached out to moms and deal blogs.

By limiting the duration of the campaign and offer, they were able to create a sense of urgency and scarcity amongst their customers which encouraged them to rent more frequently. By giving customers a random discount, with the amount unknown until the return text is received, this created a sense of fun for the participant.

Outcomes:

• Redbox was featured in around 1000 traditional and online media outlets
•  Received 7 million impressions from organic media exposure
• Generated 1.5 million text messages
• Included 400,000 unique customers
•  Created 200,000 new SMS subscribers
•  Redbox’s most valueable customers were a part of the SMS program

Conclusion: This mobile marketing strategy has proved to be very successful, as Redbox was able to increase their most valuable customer base at a huge scale.

While social media has given companies easier access to their customers to build relationships, better understand their client base, and provide more economical and new marketing strategies, the developing world though falling behind in implementing such tactics, has taken social media to a whole new level. Social media has finally given local citizens deprived of their political power and freedom, the power and control they have longed for to be heard and make a difference. Social media was the spark that ignited the start of the Arab Spring, and the catalyst that lead to the domino effect across Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Syria, Yemen and Jordan. Pictures, video’s, opinions and protests organized through Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and blogs placed pressure on local governments which lead to their crackdown. “Social media became a critical part of the toolkit for greater freedom.”[1]

The power of social media and its ability to:

1.       Organize local groups and protests quickly

2.       Challenge a regimes legitimacy

3.       Expose a corrupted regime at the national and international level

4.       Give protestors information to counteract security controls

5.       Decrease the risk of being arrested

6.       Connect with other developing countries experiencing the same situation to gain support, encouragement and create a community

 The high level of media censorship, internet restrictions and surveillance by governments of these Arab countries has pushed citizens to distrust National media and information and therefore rely on self-generated news. As one protester put it, “We use Facebook to schedule the protests, Twitter to coordinate and YouTube to tell the world”[2]. Many international news stations such as BBC and Al Jazeera relied on these videos, pictures and information passed on by citizens to portray the real unbiased violent events. “Evidence suggests that social media carried a cascade of messages about freedom and democracy across North Africa and the Middle East, and helped raise expectations for the success of political uprising,” says Philip Howard, an associate professor in communication at the University of Washington[3]. The number of tweets per day after Mubarak’s resignation totaled about 2,400 from neighboring countries and 2,200 after Ben Ali’s resignation in Tunisia.

This in return has prompted governments of these countries to block social media sites in order to maintain control and cut communications. This however backfired, as citizens fled to the streets protesting their frustrations for their lack of freedom of speech and information access which in return had both the Egyptian and Tunisian governments apologizing and re-establishing communications.

However some activists disagree that social media can take full credit for the Middle Eastern revolution, and claim that it was merely a tool that assisted rather than caused it. That it was the decision of the people to go out and protest, and social media only helped in bringing support.

So while it may be hard to truly determine whether the relationship between the occurrence of a revolution and social media is directly related, there are definitely some lessons to be learned as to the importance of social media and its potential benefits.  As Ghannam (2011)states “Social networking has changed expectations of freedom of expression and association to the degree that individual and collective capacities to communicate, mobilize and gain technical knowledge are expected to lead even greater voice, political influence and participation over the next 10 to 20 years.”

The world internet usage between 2000-2011 has grown by 528% according to internetworldstats.com. Within the last 4 years, 150 million new websites were created (Netcraft, Dec 2010), and 88% of US companies with over 100 employees will use social media for marketing by 2012. Around 57% of people talk more online then they do in real life[1] and by 2015 there will be 79.1 million US mobile social network users, more than a 60% increase from 2011[2]. It is therefore evident that the new generations of internet users have revolutionized the web with their increasing access to the internet hence extended hours of online usage. The changing needs, wants, interests and patience of the widespread internet audience has created new marketing concepts and strategies in order to reach consumers more effectively.

As a heavy internet user myself and a business professional, I’m well aware of these changing needs and strategies from the perspective of the consumer and the marketer. However after reading the assigned course readings, and doing some more background research, certain aspects of web usability were truly insightful, where I was able to connect my online experiences to new digital marketing approaches and fully understand how current successful businesses are able to develop and maintain an effective web presence.

Current internet users are impatient, and want to find what they’re looking for as quickly as they can while thinking the least amount possible. One glance at the page should be enough to decide if they’ve found what they’re looking for. Therefore the homepage web design is the most crucial part to a website which determines its user reach. Billboard designs therefore have to be clear, brief, logical layout, accessible information, short, and attractive. And while an increasing number of clicks could imply increasing interest in the webpage, a company should be careful as it can also be interpreted as a complicated webpage (Krug, 2006).

With the homepage being of the most important part to a website, as therefore has to appeal to all audiences and convey the sites identity and mission effectively. The homepage should reflect what’s available on the site, tease the user to lure them in further, ensure updated web content, allocate advertising space, and crease shortcuts for the most viewed content. Of the most important elements of a webpage include the homepage button and the search box which. Therefore ensuring they are located on every page and at the right place is important for the user (Krug, 2006).

Making sure you test your homepage several times before launching, with people outside of the organization is important to get a new perspective, discover problems, and resolve them. Usability testing needs to be done more often, once a month, in addition to focus groups to discover opinions and reactions and learn what works and doesn’t work in order to improve (Krug, 2006). One thing to look out for which a lot of sites tend to do is constantly adding things which eventually confuse the user. However there are sites like Pinterest.com that use that this as their main strategy and it is what attracts users to the site. Hiding information such as prices, shipping rates and product description, as I personally experienced on Target.com, leaves the user feeling frustrated, impatient and cheated on, which leads to losing customers (Krug, 2006).

Social media is also a rapidly growing medium that marketers have been trying to fully utilize in order to reach their consumers more effectively without pushing ads and information at them. Over 700 YouTube videos are shared on Twitter each minute and over 3 billion hours of video are watched each month on YouTube[3]. In February 2012, Pinterest had 10.4 million users, Twitter had 500 million registered users (approx 200m active), Facebook had 850 million users, and LinkedIn had 135 million users. Twitter users send 175 million tweets each day, there are 2 million companies on LinkedIn, and more iPhones are sold than people are born[4]. These increasing social media trends and mobile users, have altered the old marketing techniques, pushing marketers to shift their current mainstream marketing thinking, into a more mass oriented strategy reaching a wider audience[5]. About 39% of surveyed customers through Mckinsey have reported using social media as their main digital tool to reach customers. This figure is expected to rise to 47% in the following 4 years.[6] The use of blogs, online video’s, and other social media allows marketers to effectively reach, communicate and build relationships with their customers in ways they appreciate and can connect with. Rather than the traditional means of push marketing through advertisements, pull marketing using social media to build relationships with customers, in return makes customers advertise and advocate for the company.

Hence, monitoring what is being said about your company and making sure to respond and resolve any issues is important for the company’s reputation, maintaining customers and increasing sales (Scott, 2010).  Social media can be used to create buzz as seem with Ford when they created a broad marketing campaign called the Fiesta Movement using 100 social media influencers to use their new car model and report their experiences on various social channels. This campaign generated 6.5 million views on YouTube, and Ford received over 50,000 information requests about the car following the campaign, and sold about 10,000 cars within the first week (McKinney quarterly). Companies can also learn from customers using social media to collect new information as PepsiCo did with its DEWmocracy promotions that ended up selling more than 36 million cases in 2008. And finally, to target customers, social media influences word of mouth as seen in Levi Strauss’s successful attempt where direct interactions with 400 consumers attracted 1600 buyers (McKinney quarterly).