What will this year portend for mobile messaging?

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Pioneering technologist Alan Kay once said that “the best way to predict the future is to invent it.” Reflecting on another year gone by, this comment rings especially true.

For mobile, 2009 marked a year of outstanding innovation and growth; communication in 140 characters became all the rage as Twitter reached mainstream consciousness; Apple delivered its one billionth application download from the App Store; Orange and T-Mobile announced plans to merge their British business to become the Britain’s largest network provider, and O2 overtook BT in British revenues.

After so much development in 2009, where will 2010 take us?

Revenues rising, profit margins tightening
The challenge for carriers in the coming months will be to begin to prepare customers to pay premiums for high usage or optimal quality of service.

SMS revenues
According to analysts, SMS revenues will continue to grow rapidly, breaking the $100 billion-mark next year.

Location-based services
The industry is realizing that location alone is not a revenue-generating service in its own right – but is recognizing that it can provide valuable enhancements to existing services that will greatly stimulate services such as mobile search, mobile advertising and social networking, making these services more relevant, actionable and personal.

Mobile payments
In developed markets, the challenge had been about building consumer trust. Now, issues such as security, regulation and quality of service are dominating peoples’ minds.

Mobile social networking will come of age
Until now, the flood of unbillable Mobile Terminated messages from social networks were an issue for using SMS and MMS to address the mass market. But now enhancements such as MT charging, anti spam, location, ad insertion and hash-tagging will enable the carrier to engage in new business models for two-way social networking traffic.

Android – iPhone
We will see more Android-based phones entering the market this year, so it will be interesting to see if the semi-monopolistic iPhone hype will be reduced to normal proportions as the open model for Android provides a good alternative to the relatively closed iPhone.

Carrier app stores versus handset app
Carrier app stores have the ability to reach the mass market and can be enhanced with a range of capabilities including messaging, security, location, charging and user profiling. The stakes will only get higher this year as the battle rages on.

Proliferation of mobile security
The increased opening of networks and handsets release myriad new threats, will lead to increased customer care, higher infrastructure costs and more churn and brand damage. It will also hinder the uptake of services such as mobile financial services and mobile advertising.

Wait and see, but be prepared
As we did with SMS and MMS, we need to focus on how we can use IMS and RCS to add value to enhance third-party applications and services.

Network sharing
The sharing of radio networks is the most obvious cost-saving opportunity. But for service delivery infrastructures it is also important to be as flexible as possible.

Read the original article here.

The Maturation of Social Media ROI

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Brain Solis is a principal at new media agency Future Works, and author of the upcoming book, Engage. You can connect with him on Twitter or Facebook.

Lack of ROI standards

The debate over measuring social media investment inspired many brands to cannonball into popular social networks and join the proverbial conversation without a plan or strategic objectives defined. At the same time, the lack of ROI standards unnerved many executives, preventing any form of experimentation until their questions and concerns were addressed.

In 2010, we’re entering a new era of social media marketing — one based on information, rationalization, and resolve.

The Need for New Scrutiny

Business leaders simply need clarity in a time of abundant options and scarcity of experience. As many of us can attest, we report to executives who have no desire to measure intangible credos rooted in transparency and authenticity. In the end, they simply want to calculate the return on investment and associate social media programs with real-world business performance metrics.

Over the years, our exploration and experience has redefined the traditional metrics and created hybrid models that will prove critical to modern business practices and help companies effectively compete for the future.

Where the “I” in ROI represents investment, marketers have also explored ancillary elements to address the socialization of media, marketing, and the resulting dynamics of engagement.

In 2010, social media endeavors are often still thought of as “pilot programs,” launched to steer a brand toward perceived relevance. Budgets, for the most part, are borrowed from other divisions to fund the largely experimental programs. Where that money goes and comes from depends largely on the social media champions who push for this experimentation from the inside.

The business of social media

MarketingProfs recently published a study by Bazaarvoice and the CMO Club that revealed the true expectation of chief marketing officers. The bottom line: they want measurable results from social media.

The outcome of the study is more in-depth in the original article.

“I believe this is the direct result of a disconnection between social media activity and a clearly defined end game. We must establish what we want to measure before we engage. By doing so, we can answer the questions, “what is it that we want to change, improve, accomplish, incite, etc?” Brian Solis

However, 2010 is the year that social media graduates from experimentation to strategic implementation, with direct ties to specific measurable performance indicators.

Defining the “R” in ROI is where we need to focus, as it relates to our business goals and performance indicators specifically. Even though much of social media is free, we do know the cost of engagement as it relates to employees, time, equipment, and opportunity cost (what they’re not focusing on or accomplishing while engaging in social media). Tying those costs to the results will reveal a formula for assessing the “I” as investment.

When we truly grasp the ability to define action and measure it, we can expand the impact of new media beyond the profit and loss. We can adapt business processes, inspire ingenuity, and more effectively compete for the future.

Read the original article here.

What lies ahead – the Mobile Market 2010

It’s December, and that means we are already hearing that next year is the year of mobile. Which was the same for 2009, 2008, 2007 . . .

In part, this is being fuelled by recent announcements such as Google’s $750m acquisition of AdMob, not to mention the plethora of new entrants into the mobile market in the last year, such as Dell and Acer with their handset offerings, to name but a few.

However, after a decade or more of unfulfilled expectations, it goes without saying that (Google or no Google) mobile marketing is not going to ‘explode’ next year, or even the year after. Instead, mobile will continue to grow incrementally as a viable marketing channel as more brands and agencies fold it into their marketing mix. Coupled with a significant growth in both mobile internet usage and more advanced behaviours such as video, mobile search, and UGC, the continued evolution of mobile will require the industry to proactively provide consumers with services that are easy to access, relevant, and entertaining.

Mobile has made some big steps in 2009, but let’s build on that momentum, as there’s still plenty of work to be done. With much on the agenda, we’ll say developments right across the industry in the next 12 months, so it’s safe to say that 2010 promises to be yet another exciting year for mobile.

Find the original article on the Diffusion PR Blog.