When is the last time that you left your house or office without your cell phone? Or went throughout the entire day – leaving your cell phone behind on purpose? For me -my cell is my personal and business lifeline all wrapped up into one. It houses my contact list – the days of remembering a phone number are long gone, my calendar, my email, texts and the internet are all at my finger tips  – should I need to search something. My social media feeds are there too so I can Tweet and update Facbook as I move throughout my day. My alarm for the morning resides on the phone as well and yes it stays by my bed at night when I am asleep!

As your business navigates through the decision to engage in social media – you should be thinking about the ways that your customers will best engage. What are the tools that they use, where are they likely to best utilize your information to connect – not only with you – but to take the types of actions you want them to make. With so many people as connected to their cell phones as I am – it is vital for every business to be thinking about how they can best leverage mobile.

This post and video from Retails Big Blog by Ellen Davis VP and NRF spokesperson is brilliant. It focuses on one of social media’s most important tools – and substantiating the opening to this post – that this tool is becoming- not just for me – but for everyone  a conduit to engage your customers – in ways that have not yet been leveraged. Best Buy – is leading the way by – acknowledging through this video that they realize and see this as a tremendous business opportunity.

If mobile is not on your company’s radar – this video is sure to change your mind!
Best Nicole

Benson, senior director of interactive marketing at Best Buy, began her presentation at the Retail Innovation & Marketing Conference by asking people to swap cell phones with the person sitting next to them. There was a lot (and, I mean, a LOT) of hesitation, but most people followed directions. Then we were asked to trade phones with another person close by. More hesitation ensued, but most people obliged.

At my table, I ended up holding the BlackBerry of a guy I’d never met and he (gasp!) was cradling my iPhone. It made me cringe. This short exercise was a powerful reminder to me – and, likely, many other attendees – of the personal value we place on our mobile devices.

What does mobile mean to Best Buy? A tremendous business opportunity. Best Buy debuted a video during Benson’s presentation about the value of mobile – not only on Best Buy’s employees, but also on the company. Take four minutes to watch this and you’ll realize, this is a company that gets it.

It is social media week in Toronto as well as New York City. Two of the cities for which I have spent half of my life thus far. Yesterday I spent the day in a all day seminar of speakers called Case Camp. Thank you to Eli Singer for putting together such a great event. I met some wonderful new friends and learned alot about what some very interesting companies – are doing in the world of social media.
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Well we are now in full swing with social media and the world has caught up with us! Hurray. Social media is now a prominent tool for many retailers. Most who are using these tools are jumping in with Facebook and Twitter—to get a leg up this holiday season. The new economy is definitely dictating that businesses adapt a new channel to market products and services.
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As the holiday season is now on its way, most businesses are certainly planning and thinking about how they will provide a memorable and positive shopping experience. With social media providing new ways for your customers to engage with one another and share everything under the sun—including their experiences—it has also become a touch point and, in many cases, a deciding factor for the choices that they make in all aspects of their lives.
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This is the mega million dollar question. We don’t need to mention the stats. All businesses are now re-analyzing their marketing mixes and plans to find out who really is their target market. I think marketing to women is truly key for all businesses. The problem is (as mentioned in a meeting earlier this week) what happens if we market to women and we find out—through our research and analysis—that our target market is really men or a higher percentage of men? What do we do then?
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Share says on it’s home page that women are unique; we have have many voices and we want you to listen to us. Our goal and mission as a business is to engage everyone. And to make others realize the importance of focusing on, and incorporating into their marketing plans and strategy, ways to connect and engage one of the most important and lucrative target markets in this current economy. Women.
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If you’ve been following my posts, you may have begun to recognize a familiar pattern. One that involves me wading daily through all sorts of trend reports, ezines, e-mails and blogs from every industry you can imagine. In my world, meetings never begin before noon (that’s if I have anything to say about it) and my morning kicks off with a potent cup of joe and a mountain of mail overflowing in my inbox.
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