U.S. Small Businesses Will Spend $36 Billion on Marketing in 2012

Total marketing spending by U.S. small businesses (companies with fewer than 100 employees) will reach $36 billion in 2012, as an increased number of firms invests in advertising and promotional activities, according to Access Markets International Partners.

Spending is expected to be up four percent from 2010 levels.

AMI-Partners - News :: U.S. Small Businesses are projected to spend $36B on Marketing Activities in 2012

74% of Enterprises Use Cloud Computing, Survey Finds

Some 74 percent of 573 enterprise executives surveyed by Avenade are using cloud computing. Of organizations yet to adopt cloud services, three quarters say they will do so in the future.

About 60 percent of respondents say cloud computing is a top IT priority for next year. Among C-level executives, 75 percent report cloud computing as a top priority. Some 43 percent of companies surveyed use private cloud services.

The United States has seen steady cloud computing adoption rates with a 19 percent increase since 2009.

Survey Finds Cloud Computing Has Matured, But It Can Be a Pain | News & Opinion | PCMag.com

Social Network Musical Chairs

Some of us might say there is a game of musical chairs being played by private social networks that believe now is the time to go public. Valuations are debated, but for those of you who think there is a social media bubble going on, the issue is how long before the bubble bursts and one of the IPOs simply breaks the trend line.

The big social network that is the last to raise money may find it waited too long.

Which Social Network Will Be The Last IPO? - 24/7 Wall St.

LightSquared's LTE breaks GPS in New Mexico

LightSquared is going nowhere with its proposed Long Term Evolution unless it can fix the interference problems it seems to cause to GPS systems.

Deere & Co. has reported to the Federal Communications Commission the risk of "severe interference" on tractors using GPS systems from as far as 20 miles away from a LightSquared tower and "a complete loss of service" between four miles and 22 miles distant.

Separately, public safety officials near the testing area reported LightSquared's tower knocked out their GPS systems in some areas, according to Bill Range, New Mexico's E-911 program director.

The frequencies Lightsquare uses are located close to the frequencies used by satellite navigation systems, and GPS users—particularly the military and police—worry the company's plan to install 40,000 antennas around the country will overpower GPS signals.

In principle, frequency filters should work, but there also is the matter of signal strength. GPS signals are quite weak, compared to the cell tower transmissions. And filter performance will drift with temperature.

Unless LightSquared can conclusively prove it really has a durable fix, it will not get final permission to use its satellite frequencies on the ground, to support LTE service.

LightSquared's LTE breaks GPS in New Mexico trial, angers John Deere

Enterprises Match Support to End User Technology Choices

At least some enterprises in North America and Europe are trying to work with the growing trend of end users wanting to use their own applications and devices at work. Some information technology executives have created managed digital allowance (MDA) programs that match corporate support to the types of technology users prefer.

These are more closely managed variants of "Bring Your Own Technology" programs, where employees select and often fund the productivity tools they want.

MDA programs provide their workers with a portion of the funds they need to invest in applications and devices of their choice. Rather than dictate a limited range of company-provided mobile devices, this policy adjustment helps employees choose the tools that best suit their work styles, roles, and geographical location.

On the support side, the MDA model requires creation of a flexible service catalog, in which the IT organization matches the support services it provides to specific applications and devices. This increase in choice actually helps reduce service-delivery costs, because it eliminates the old, always-on-call help desk and relies instead on significant user self-service in support and IT service request management.

Empowering End Users Means Changing IT Support Models

33% of Brands are Running Mobile Campaigns

A third of companies surveyed by Kingfish Media currently have a mobile strategy in place, and among those who don’t, two thirds plan to have one within the next 12 months.  

Not a lot of investment is currently taking place, though. Only about 12 percent of brands’ marketing spend is on mobile. However, the vast majority of respondents (82 percent) plan to increase their spending on mobile over the next year, with 30 percent taking the budget from mainstream marketing and advertising.

Currently two thirds of companies use a mobile website, while 28 percent are using a native app. Some 27 percent are using both.

In 2012, respondents foresee an increase in native app development as 43 percent plan to have an app and 49 percent report they will be using an app and mobile site.

Most commonly, brands are using mobile initiatives to build or grow relationships, which explain why the most popular content types are currently social media, branded, email capabilities, geo-location or maps and general reference.
Original branded content, ads, expert content and videos are the types of content used most often in mobile format.
Commerce over mobile channels is slow to take hold among respondents. Less than 20 percent are currently conducting mobile commerce, mostly over a mobile web site. Interest does rise for 2012.

Nearly 60 percent are tracking visitors to their website from mobile devices, usually with Google Analytics. Among those tracking, companies are finding that a relatively small percentage of traffic is coming from a mobile device—on average 8%. And only about 10% of customer/prospects are using a mobile app developed by the company.

http://www.contentmarketinginstitute.com/2011/06/mobile-study-and-content-marketing/

Will Groupon Really Boost Your Local Business?

Groupon, the group shopping or social coupon business, might or might not increase near term profits for a business that uses it. Offers are designed to get people "in the door" who might not have shopped at a particular establishment before.

Groupon gets people into your shop, but it doesn’t keep them there, necessarily. Also, a retailer has to weigh the higher traffic with the reduced gross margins a discount implies. All of that means a Groupon campaign will boost revenue, but not profit, in the near term.

The best feature of a Groupon experience is the exposure. It will boost your website, blog and social media traffic, which will lead to more signups, likes and follows. This is what you’re paying for when you’re running a Groupon.

Will Groupon Really Boost Your Local Business? | Social Media Examiner

People Would Give Up Their TVs Before Their Mobile Phones

The Social Habit 2011 by Edison Research

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Twitter is a Mobile App

Though only 13 percent of online adults use Twitter, more than half of Twitter users access the service on a mobile phone, researchers at the Pew Internet & American Life Project report.

As of May 2011, 13 percent of online adults use the status update service Twitter. That represents a significant increase from the eight percent of online adults who identified themselves as Twitter users in November 2010.1

The study also found that 54 percent of Twitter users access the service from their mobiles.

Main Report | Pew Internet & American Life Project

Tech Bubble?

Some continue to insist there is no tech bubble. But some who used to think there was no bubble are starting to worry. Though most companies on public markets remain fairly valued, there is pent up demand for growth stories. Oddly enough, the sluggishness of the rest of the economy, and the lack of growth, is going to heighten interest in the coming wave of application-driven initial public offerings. See Let’s Not Get Too Cocky About The Blubble.

Still, it is worth noting that even bubbles are spurred by genuine change in the computing business. Bill Gates famuosly acknowledged that he "didn't get the Internet." Now former Google CEO Eric Schmidt candidly says he missed the social revolution, aside from writing memos that were not followed by vigorous action. See http://techcrunch.com/2011/06/01/eric-schmidt-is-a-surprisingly-worried-man/.

That's the sort of big miss by an industry leader that fuels a new wave of computing innovation, and typically is lead by new firms. But we tend to overshoot. Always. So expectations for most of the coming application IPOs will be excessive.

Google +1 Makes Web Pages More Social

Twitter CEO says 80 percent of advertisers renew | Reuters

More than 80 percent of the companies that advertise on Twitter renew their marketing efforts on the microblogging service, CEO Dick Costolo says.

The Twitter chief also says the company does not face immediate pressure to boost revenue as it seeks to grow its business.

Twitter CEO says 80 percent of advertisers renew | Reuters

"Move Up the Value Chain," Twitter Developers Told

LightSquared Considers AT&T Capacity Deal

LightSquared is considering a deal with AT&T to buy network capacity from the carrier, Bloomberg reports.

LightSquared would pay to use AT&T’s fourth generation network when it needs additional capacity. The move would be a little puzzling to the extent that LightSquared, which owns its own spectrum and is leasing tower and radio capacity from Sprint Nextel, would buy additional capacity wholesale, to sell wholesale, when it presumably has plenty of actual spectrum available.

Falcone Venture Is Said to Be Weighing Deal With AT&T for Network Capacity - Bloomberg

Hard to Measure Mobile Marketing ROI, Users Say

Mobile still doesn’t measure up as “important” to most marketers, according to an April 2011 survey by King Fish Media sponsored by HubSpot, Junta42 and Maxymiser.

But that could change as more marketers get on board with a mobile strategy. More than six in 10 North American marketers plan to have one within the next year, compared with just a third who already do.

When asked specifically about the ROI of their mobile advertising programs, a plurality of North American companies said they were doing about as well as expected.

A quarter of respondents said mobile advertising wasn’t meeting expectations, however, compared to just 13 percent who said results were better than they had hoped.

The State of Mobile ROI - eMarketer