I just read an interesting white paper on mobile strategy development. (Get it here) While it is targeted to enterprise level businesses, there are some things that smaller businesses should start thinking about now, and there are other trends that are good to watch as they trickle down and become more affordable and accessible.

1. Mobile Cycle Mimicking Web - Exploration, Acceleration, and Innovation.

Mobile markt development is matching web market development. On the web, Exploration was the time of personal web pages and corporate brochureware sites. The Acceleration phase added interactivity to the web experience, allowing users to do things like access their bank account balance or view a map online. Innovation is where we are now - taking something like mapping and incorporating it into dynamic tools, like a running route mapping tool or a map of nearby restaurants with reviews.

Mobile in the small business segment is still in the Exploration stage, but aggressive organizations who feel they can capitalize by being first to market are jumping into the Acceleration phase with their investment.

Take-away - Think about it now. When is the best time for your business to jump in? Exploration stage, Acceleration stage, or Innovation stage?

2. Platform Diversity Hampers Scalability, but This is Changing

If you want to develop a mobile app, it can be daunting today. It is possible to launch with one platform with a reasonable investment, and most select the iPhone platform first, but then adding platforms like Android and Blackberry means new development cycles and large budgets for a fraction of the immediate ROI of a website.

This is changing, as businesses are creating app-like experiences via the mobile web and others are creating development platforms that create apps that have high cross compatibility.

As this platform diversity problem is solved and the cost to do so goes down, be ready to see a lot of smaller businesses to jump into the fray.

Take-away - Keep a close watch on cross platform development trends, or your competitors may gain an advantage.

3. If You Invest Now - Prioritize Your Platforms

Developing and app for iPhones, Android phones, and Blackberries is still pretty expensive. If you decide to invest, prioritize. Most start with the iPhone unless they operate in a heavy enterprise environment where Blackberry is king. To decide on the next platform, determine who you want to target - for a large expansion of unit penetration, go for Android. To hit that enterprise market, consider Blackberry.

Take-away- Mobile strategy follows business strategy, not the "shiny new object" strategy.

My two cents. What are your thoughts? Do you feel an app strategy makes sense in the current market, or is a mobile site a better option? Or, do you feel it is best for your business to wait for the industry to shake out? let us know!

About a year has passed since Facebook “Like” button started appearing all over the web. Now Google is rivaling it with the +1 button – the latest feature of Google’s Social Search. +1 was released about a month ago for a small percentage of U.S. search users, but a wide release is coming soon.

How it works. The +1 button will appear next to all Google search results. You can click on the button to recommend the site. Google will display the aggregate +1’s a website has received as part of the search listing, and also show +1 recommendations from your friends and contacts. You just need a Google profile to participate.

Social Search has already personalized the Google experience in that results can vary from person to person and include content created or shared by people in your social network (Twitter, Facebook, etc.). +1 will take it a step further by calling out sites recommended by people you know if they are part of your Google Network (Google Talk friends, Gmail contacts, anyone you are following in Google Reader and Google Buzz).

It’s still too early to tell how this will catch on, but here are a few important things marketers should know about +1:

• Although your personalized results may vary, it is not clear that +1 recommendations will impact rankings in general. That said, anything that increases click-through rate (CTR) seems like a prime candidate in this regard.
• The +1 button will also appear next to Google PPC ads. Advertisers will not be charged for clicks on the +1 button, but stats will be available so you know which ads are getting the most +1s.
• The Google +1 button will also be available to all sites, making it easy for your visitors to +1 your web pages.

To participate in the experiment and see the +1 button in action, go to http://www.google.com/experimental/index.html

I was at a travel conference recently where the speaker disparaged TripAdvisor, saying that it was untrustworthy because of review manipulation. We also recently came across this article by Caitlin McDevitt that also echoes the trust issues with crowdsourcing sites.

What is a travel business to think? We hear of the impact of TripAdvisor all the time and client businesses see both the benefits of traffic from good reviews and the damage control necessary for bad reviews.

Are this article's or travel industry specialist's implications that a travel business doesn't need to worry about TripAdvisor because travel businesses are manipulating reviews correct?

We have counseled clients that TripAdvisor is a great opportunity, and we stick to this idea. Is there review manipulation and some outright fraud? Yes. Is TripAdvisor having problems effectively combating it? Yes. Do these things make TripAdvisor useless to consumers? No.

As some who commented on the article state, those who have used TripAdvisor state that yes, it is possible to manipulate, but it is also very easy to read through the garbage and make an educated decision.

I think it is important for travel businesses who are managing their reputation on TripAdvisor to speak to the educated consumer.

There are always going to be abuses on crowdsourcing sites like TripAdvisor or Yelp, but they are too effective on the whole and valuable to the consumer to go away, in my opinion.

Have you used TripAdvisor to plan travel? Did your resulting experience match the impressions you got on TripAdvisor? Share your experiences!

I ran across this unusually helpful post from Facebook outlining how to post to your fan page with your mobile phone. Enjoy!

Here are several easy options for publishing to your fans via your mobile phone:

1) Email

Click "Edit Page" under your Page’s profile picture. Go to the Mobile settings module, click “Edit” and you will see the email address for your Page. Tip: save this email address to your phone’s address book as your Page’s name.

To update your status, send an email with your status update as the email subject line. To upload a photo or video, email the photo or video and use the email subject line as the caption.

Anyone emailing this address will be able to post to your fans, so please only share this address with other Page admins.


2) iPhone Application

To find your Page, click "Friends," then "Pages" in the bottom right. You'll see the Pages you are an admin of under "My Pages."

We suggest you click on your Page, click the top-right arrow icon, and click "Add Favorite" so you can get easily navigate back to the Page.

To publish to your fans, simply use the publisher (the "What’s on your mind" field) or click the photo icon.


3) Mobile Browser

The easiest way to find your Page is to type in the URL for your Page. To obtain a personalized Facebook URL for your Page, visit facebook.com/username.

If you are using a touch phone, you can also navigate by touching "Friends," then "Pages" on the top right.

Use the composer (the "Write something…" field) to update your fans.


4) Text Message (SMS)

Click "Edit Page" under your Page’s profile picture. Go to the Mobile settings module, click “Edit” you will see the link for “Sign up for Facebook Text Messages to post status updates to your Page”

You can associate multiple phone numbers for a single Page. However, you can only associate one Page or profile to each mobile number. If you associate a mobile number to your Page, that number cannot be associated to your profile or another Page.

Please note that if your carrier is not listed in the drop-down menu, they are not currently supported for Facebook Text Message. Please contact your mobile operator for more information.

If you are a tourism business, then it is likely that you pay a lot of attention to what people write about you on TripAdvisor. Reviews can have a tremendous impact on a business, both good and bad.

I heard from TripAdvisor today a nifty tip -  they have a new tool for businesses to share with customers - basically, you can download a flyer that urges your customers to review you.

You can easily grab this on your owner's page,  print it out, and distribute to guests at whatever point you feel it is appropriate. Or, grab it here.

Have you used this flyer to help promote review for your business? Let us know!

I just came across a cool new application for Twitter - TwitCam provides a simple means to distribute a videocast on your Twitter feed.

TwitPic, another interactive tool for Twitter, allows you to post pictures into your feed, and many people can view it right within your Twitter feed.

These tools allow you to add significant interactivity to your Twitter conversation, and it is a nice distribution method if photo and video are already a part of your web content strategy.

Do you use Twitter? Have you found TwitPic to be a valuable tool? How do you see TwitCam applying to your web business? Please share!

A colleague shared a great article recently about QR Codes. I know some of you are wondering what the heck these are. Well, these are two dimensional bar code that are starting to sprout up in interesting places.

These bar codes are designed to be photographed by mobile devices and, as the technology evolves, passed to a variety of systems that can process the information contained in the bar code.

Note - for those of you who are not sure what a bar code does, traditional ones contain a variety of information than can be processed when scanned. A most typical example of these are the product SKU data, price, etc. contained in bar code on grocery items.

QR codes are not scanned, but when sent by a mobile device to a computer system these codes can be processed just as if they were scanned.

Why should you care? Well, consider the following examples of use, which at this point are not far off:

1. (Not quite there yet but potentially possible) QR Codes as as typical Bar Codes - Use your mobile phone and QR codes to purchase something at a store.
2. Used as a means for a consumer to redeem a coupon instantly
3. (In the linked article above) Used as a link to a YouTube video providing expanded info on a piece of art
4. A walking tour in your community with audio descriptions of highlighted locations around town. (Guide by Cell)
5. Develop promotional items with QR codes on them with your company's info in the QR code.
6. Automated event registration.

Needless to say, if this system can be incorporated into automated e-commerce capability, there are some amazing things that can start happening spontaneously and immediately using a mobile phone with a camera and web access. The technology to capture these is still a fringe technology and not built into mobile devices, but keep an eye out.

Have you heard of QR codes before? Used them? Share your comments and stories!