Joel Cheesman

Professional networking platform LinkedIn will integrate advertisements into its mobile applications. LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner announced the move Thursday during the company’s fourth-quarter earnings call; Weiner said LinkedIn has been working to implement an advertising infrastructure but offered few additional details on the effort, stating only that the firm will “start to introduce advertising in our mobile solutions.”

Weiner said mobile is now LinkedIn’s fastest-growing category, generating 15 percent of all unique member visits. “We’re seeing a sharp rise in activations across both iOS platform and Android,” he added. “We’re seeing more activations in iOS but both are growing very healthy rates.” Weiner also said LinkedIn plans to invest in improving and expanding its mobile services over the year ahead.

Facebook may be the last great company of the desktop age. It’s beaten back Friendster, MySpace and a half-dozen other pretenders, and — at least so far — is successfully holding off both Twitter and Google+. Its desktop display advertisements make the company billions of dollars in revenue. But that’s not nearly enough. Now, Zuckerberg has to further capitalize on the growth of mobile to extend its reach. And he knows it.

Every year I think, “This is it. This is the year we see a Super Bowl ad touting a short code.” And so far I’ve been disappointed.

This year will (probably) be no different.

GoDaddy will apparently have a QR code in their ad (good luck capturing it from your sofa), and I think Doritos will be touting a mobile site or an app.

The opportunity to lever text message marketing and promote a keyword and short code is huge. Imagine a Papa John’s commercial instructing 90 million viewers to ‘text PAPA to (PLUGIN SHORTCODE HERE), for example, in order to get a coupon code or whatever, then opting that person in for ongoing deals, updates, etc.

This isn’t some fringe technology. This is practically 100 percent of the Super Bowl watching audience, smarthphones and feature phones alike.

I’m truly baffled that no major advertiser has embraced this opportunity. I’m hoping to be surprised this year, but most likely my fingers will be crossed for 2013.

Why Apple’s #Siri will take over the world.

I’ve been blogging, tweeting, Facebooking and YouTubing for a long time. And one of the things that always bugs me is how challenging it is to get content in front of the very people who wanted to see it.

Email open rates are abysmal, studies show less than 30 percent of tweets are actually read, and even RSS readers get so packed with content, it’s easy to get lost in the clutter.

That’s why I’m working on a new project called Textvana: bit.ly/textvana

If you blog, tweet or publish content of any kind, I think you owe it to yourself to check it out. Getting our launch alert is FREE: bit.ly/textvana

Google’s “exceptional” mobile advertising and new data has prompted eMarketer to revise its 2012 estimate for mobile advertising spending upward, from $1.8 billion to $2.61 billion. Google has already come to dominate the field, capturing 51.7% of mobile revenue, far ahead of Apple’s 6.3% share. The competition is tighter in the area of mobile display, with Google at 24.8%, Apple at 18% and Millennial Media at 17.7%

mobsicle:

Big welcome to @atsbesttacos for joining the family. Fan of great tacos in Phoenix? Text ATS to HUNGRY (486474) now! (msg&data rates may apply).

MLK Day is one of those WTH holidays. That is, some retailers are open while others are not. Or at least there’s enough uncertainty to just screw the whole thing and not even go out at all.

Discovering the holiday hours of your favorite dry cleaner, restaurant or salon is a pain in the butt. And by “pain in the butt” I mean, search online, find the right one, hopefully click-to-call and wait for someone to (hopefully) answer. Don’t even get me started on Yellow Pages.

SMS, in contrast, is a great way to alert your customers about holiday hours. Closed Christmas, but open till 5 o’clock on Christmas Eve? Let ‘em know with a text message. Open on MLK Day but closing earlier than normal? Do it in 160 characters.

The indirect benefit of this is that it turns into a promotional opportunity. If you’re a restaurant, let fans know you’re open at 10:30 a.m. so they find out right before lunch. Remember, 90 percent of texts are opened within 14 minutes of receipt.

Or use it to push specials honoring the holiday. I remember once grabbing carryout on Father’s Day only to see a piece of paper on the door mentioning a Father’s Day special. If I had only known about it beforehand.

It’s possible thanks to that little miracle in your pocket.

Yet Another Reason to Choose SMS: Majority of College Students Still Using Feature Phones vs. Smartphones.

“Smartphones and tablets are much more mainstream now, and these devices are literally driving the Occupy movement and the revolutions in the Middle East,” noted Rob Enderle, an analyst for Enderle Group.

“The ways we connect to one another have changed quite a bit in the last couple of years. Candidates need a good social media campaign to win, and social media done right includes mobile, because mobile allows candidates to loop in supporters in the moment and stay in touch and respond in real time. Mobile makes social networking more important. “

#SMS is a global phenomenon with 75 percent of mobile phone owners across 21 countries saying they text, according to a new report from Pew Research.

Awesome “headphones” for my mobile. HT: @schmoozingDC

Marketers have a cruel streak. How else to explain the torments we inflict on consumers trying earnestly to connect with us on the mobile web? As smartphone penetration in the U.S. surges toward the 100 million mark, that’s 100 million cases of eyestrain, anxiety, and high blood pressure, not to mention countless injuries related to tripping over curbs and wandering into traffic while attempting to “pinch to zoom.”

Filed Under: “Why Didn’t I Think of That?”