10 Reasons in 2 minutes on why you need to be there.
For any business owners who still think Twitter and Facebook are frivolous ventures, this video will make you think twice. Reason #6 on the video is what mobiEnthusiast readers have suspected for some time:
“Reason #6: Because the next 3 Billion people will access the internet from a mobile device.”
Social Media is mobile, and that’s why you’ll be reading a lot more about it on mobiEnthusiast. This is a YouTube video (also a Social Media site) that explains Social Media in 2 minutes.
My apologies to those on unsupported phones that can’t see it. There are two versions of the YouTube video below, and hopefully one will work for you.
If you are interested at all in making websites, social media, analytics, trends, WordPress, or just interesting tech reading in general, then do yourself a favor and become a regular reader of Mark Fulton‘s work.
Mark runs Dotsauce Magazine, an industry website for people who invest in domain names. That’s a good website. However, the real value Mark brings to the table for people who are interested in the more mainstream aspects of internet and business marketing come from his @dotsauce Twitter posts (he has over 13.5K followers) and his Facebook account, where he has over 726 friends.
Mark is one of the most generous people on the internet today, sharing all the resources he finds along the way. This post is my way of saying “thank you” to him, and share this most valuable resource with readers of this blog.
Go friend or follow him now. You’ll be glad you did.
Business owners and developers who are serious about making money on the mobile web need a product to sell and a way to collect payments. Paypal has an entire section in their Paypal Developer Network devoted to answering questions about adding the famous “pay now” button to mobile sites and apps.
There’s also documentation for Paypal mobile, which includes:
Security on the Mobile Web
How Mobile Checkout Works
Customer Activation for Mobile Checkout
Mobile Checkout Processing Flow
Merchant Integration Points
Documentation
If you are viewing this post from a phone or computer that can access youtube, here is a video featuring Osama Bedier of Paypal demonstrating mobile payment integration:
Back when I was dating, the cardinal rule was to never phone after the first date until at least three days had passed. The phone was too personal for such a quick contact and you could be seen as too aggressive or worse, too desperate.
Times have changed. Now it is OK to use your phone for contact immediately after the first date, provided you don’t speak into it. Texting something pithy or witty that night, or the following day, can often be viewed as a positive addition to the dating experience.
Now let’s move to the end of the relationship. Breaking up over the phone is not as good as breaking up in person, but not nearly as bad as – OMG! – breaking up via text. Same phone. Same message. Completely different level of cultural acceptability.
We respond to text messages faster than emails, and BBMs faster than texts. Same Phone. Same message. Same textual appearance. Different accepted practice.
It is OK to whip out the phone (among some dining parties) at a restaurant to perform certain tasks – like looking up a sticking point in the conversation – but not others, like answering an email or playing a game. Same phone. Same amount of time “away” from the conversation. Different effect on your friends.
The list goes on and on. What is it about the mobile phone that generates this long list of rules and practices that is not present on our other media?
The mobile phone is not “the third screen.” It is a very personal, interactive, communication ecosystem of which the screen is just one visual component. The mobile phone has developed, and is continually developing, behavioral mores and cultural norms that have very serious implications for marketers. Violate one of those norms, and the consequences can be severe.
Marketers who continue to treat the mobile phone as yet another screen to “repurpose content” or as a quick campaign add-on to “target a hard to reach audience”, do so at their peril. It will be the brands that actively leverage the behavioral use patterns of the mobile phone and their attendant cultural norms that will succeed.
Marshall McLuhan said “The medium is the message” and he couldn’t be more right as it pertains to the mobile phone. The emerging customs, lifestyle behaviors and prevailing standards associated with the use of the mobile phone are unique, real and significant.
When mobile-specific behavior and culture is taken into account, the mobile phone shines as a brilliant addition to a well crafted overall brand marketing strategy – witness AT&T and American Idol.
When ignored, it can have the potential to undo the hard earned trust of the very same brand. AT&T found that out when it violated customer privacy expectations by using the American Idol list. And worst of all, most of the customers who chose to break up with the AT&T brand as a result, didn’t even bother to inform them by sending a text.
This post is one of the ten reasons why mobile advertising has not reached its potential. You can access the other nine at www.mobilemandala.com
DUBLIN, Ireland and WASHINGTON, Oct. 29 /PRNewswire/ — dotMobi, the company behind the .mobi Internet domain designed to help consumers find content that works on mobile phones, today announced that more than one million .mobi domains have been registered since its launch two years ago.
From October 2006, dotMobi has seen continued growth in the amount of registrants as companies pursue the increased visibility and targeted marketing the mobile Web offers. Mobile content consumption is steadily growing while the lack of consistency and navigation issues that previously hampered mass consumer adoption are lessening.
In June 2008, dotMobi issued joint research with AKQA, a global creative agency. dotMobi found that 90 percent of respondents were interested in learning about the mobile Web. Brands and companies far and wide have turned to dotMobi for information on building and marketing mobile Web sites for consumers looking to access content while on the go.
Sites such as Nokia.mobi, Mercedes-Benz.mobi, Zagat.mobi and Bank of America’s BofA.mobi have been successfully promoted as custom, intuitive experiences for their users. These brands represent a small handful of the thousands of businesses who are embracing the mobile Web with sites across dozens of categories, including travel, automotive, consumer packaged goods, publishing and financial services.
The entertainment industry is also moving onto the mobile Web. Country music star Tim McGraw engages his audience via http://McGraw2go.mobi, where fans can download music samples, watch videos and keep tabs on the latest tour while followers of the Wu-Tang Clan can get the latest information about the group at http://wumusicgroup.mobi. Recent hit film Eagle Eye featured a special promotional “tie-in” site with US electronics retail giant Circuit City at http://ee.mydas.mobi as does the upcoming blockbuster James Bond film, Quantum of Solace, with Sony Australia at http://quantumcode.mobi.
Along with the .mobi domain, dotMobi as a company has continued to grow. To aid the expansion of the mobile Web, the company has created a wealth of free tools for developers, available at the mobiForge.com mobile web developer forum, which now boasts more than 20,000 members. Free resources such as the ready.mobi report and award-winning DeviceAtlas device database show business owners what they need to do to make their site successful with their customers on virtually every Web-enabled cell phone on the planet.
“dotMobi has established relevance, order – and now success – in what two years ago was a muddled, confusing mobile Web world,” said Trey Harvin, CEO of dotMobi. “With the mobile Web gaining speed, and .mobi paving the way, we are excited to soon unveil the next generation of mobile Web tools and resources that will assist small-to-medium businesses in utilizing the mobile Web to reach a new audience: the mobile consumer.”
Amy Mischler, dotMobi’s Vice President of Brand and Identity Service, added, “To help continue the phenomenal growth of the mobile Web, dotMobi is making 200 highly desired ‘premium’ .mobi domain names available via a special online auction with Sedo (computer link) beginning Nov. 5 and running through Nov. 12, 2008. These .mobi names include actors.mobi, bands.mobi, blackjack.mobi, boys.mobi, cellphones.mobi, dvd.mobi, dvr.mobi, games.mobi, model.mobi, racing.mobi, stamps.mobi, vip.mobi and xxx.mobi.”
About dotMobi
dotMobi (the informal name of mTLD Top Level Domain Ltd.), headquartered in Dublin, Ireland, is leading the growth of Internet use from mobile phones with the .mobi domain name. Unique among domain name providers, dotMobi ensures that services and sites developed around .mobi are optimized for use by mobile devices, so that on-the-go consumers can have confidence that a Web site will work on their mobile phones when using a .mobi address.
dotMobi is backed by leading mobile operators, network & device manufacturers, and Internet content providers, including Ericsson, GSM Association, Hutchison 3, Microsoft, Nokia, Orascom Telecom, Samsung Electronics, Syniverse, T-Mobile, Telefonica Moviles, TIM, Visa and Vodafone.
For more information on dotMobi domains and registration information, visit http://dotmobi.mobi. Visit the dotMobi blog at http://blog.mobi.
Click to call links (below) are enabled for mobile phones only, not computers.
For more information, please contact:
Vance Hedderel
dotMobi +1-703-485-5563
vhedderel@mtld.mobi
Danielle Siemon
Edelman for dotMobi (U.S.) +1-650-762-2947
danielle.siemon@edelman.com
Sasha Manners
Edelman for dotMobi (Europe) +44-(0)20-7344-1200
sasha.manners@edelman.com
MobiEnthusiast mobi would like to point our developer and domainer audience to a recent post by Jamie Parks of DomainerDeveloper.com. He asks: “What are you going to do when the mobile masses show up at your domain?”
“Smart people from all over the world with mobile devices are starting to poke around. They’re looking out across the vast universe of mobile content in an attempt to find something unique and worth while (other than porn and parked pages) to interact with. Will your domain/site be a special enough destination that the mobimasses will digg it? Only time and your mobile development strategy can answers those questions.”
To read the rest of his blog post on a mobile phone, use this link to DomainerDeveloper.com via mURL.mobi Mobile Browser (You may need to click a link when it appears to load the page. Warning: it is very graphics-heavy.) To read the rest on a computer, use this link to DomainerDeveloper.com.
Congratulations to Benetton, an Italian fashion clothing company, for fully understanding and harnessing the power of .mobi domain names. The company now has one for investor relations at www.BenettonIR.mobi* and another for the media at BenettonPress.mobi. Here is their media release detailing what they hope to achieve from their newly-redesigned dot com site with the addition of the most pressing information available on their dot mobi. We are hoping other companies take note and do the same.Ponzano, 3 April 2008 – h. 3:45 p.m. CET. The Benetton Group Investor Relations website renews its design, structure and content, becoming an even more innovative, direct and user-friendly tool for managing the flow of financial information between the Benetton Group and the financial market. With an ever wider range of information, downloadable in various formats and constantly updated, and a completely renewed section devoted to Corporate Governance, the website provides maximum accessibility to the Group’s most important content.The site has been made unique by the introduction of the interactive Value Chain, in an innovative and user-friendly version. With this tool, the user can navigate through the activities of the organization that add value, from production to distribution and logistics, through to marketing and sales. The various themes devoted to Brands, Product, Operations, Commercial and Communication are developed in detail and are enhanced by financial charts, as well as by slideshows, videos and audio files. In particular, they provide in-depth information on identity, style, store concepts and product campaigns (Brands), new projects, innovations, structure of collections and licenses (Product), industrial organisation, production facilities and logistics (Operations), as well as the network and international partnerships (Commercial).The interactive Value Chain keeps the user constantly updated on the latest innovations by means of specific areas devoted to Recent Developments.Dates and details of every event are always in the foreground via the calendar which can be downloaded directly to your email mailbox or through the RSS and Alert service by email/SMS. The version for mobile devices www.benettonir.mobi provides key content optimized for small screens, to give fast and easy access to share movements and the main news and financial events, creating a further level of interactivity.In this way the web is promoted by the Benetton Group as its principal method of communicating financial news. A complete service, providing ample scope for transparent and immediate information, due above all to the multimedia content. Available in Italian and English, the site meets all the most important accessibility standards, increasing the functions which meet the user’s demand for speed and efficiency, and developed in parallel with the “Share Your Thoughts” section and the possibility of giving feedback on every page in the site.Further functions like “Podcasting”, for automatic downloading of audio and video resources and a “Central Archive” to further aid searching by subject, will be added soon.
A note to the Benetton.mobi developer: this site needs to be able to load without a www.
