This week, Paladin participated in the Heartland Mobile Council’s MobileU101 conference. As companies awake to “the year of mobile,” this event discussed strategic approaches to mobile marketing.  But is this really the time of mobile?

Motorola’s Dana Warszona, a panelist, said the mobile tipping point for Japan came about 4 years earlier compared to the US. She and her fellow panelists Andrew Koven, President, E-Commerce & Customer Experience, Steve Madden Shoes and Julie Krueger, Senior Vice President, eCommerce and Direct, OfficeMax felt that the US is just now at that point. They stressed that for retail companies, in particular, this is the time to pull the infrastructure together and to get smart on mobile and to do it quickly. Two-thirds of retailers are already doing mobile or in the midst of implementing it.

They advise moving away from simply the siloed campaign and to develop mobile as a part ongoing strategy and business operation. For consumers mCommerece is coming and it will mean that cash registers and credit cards will become obsolete. Krueger said that mobile will do away with kiosks and that the in-store experience will change radically. Warszona pointed to Best Buy as example of a company that was truly tying mobile into their business operations.

Koven said, “Mobile is the second coming and we’re [Steve Madden Shoes are] going to lead. We’re not going to wait and see.” 

How are these initiative being done? Krueger said that companies are not yet investing in additional human resources needed for mobile. Her current teams are adding it to their work load. But as the tide turns and mobile heats up, we will see companies ramp up the internal resources needed to manage this growth.

Staff, roles and ownership for mobile were reoccurring discussions during the conference. Which departments should own the mobile marketing strategy or execution? Will marketing generalist take mobile marketing on as an additional tool in their tool belt or is mobile best developed and managed by specialists? As Mobile Marketing emerges, we look forward to following this debate and the trends.  We would like your input on the topic. To weigh in, please take our poll - http://tinyurl.com/2bfolsr . We will be happy to share the results with you.

Here are a few recent articles and links related to mobile marketing:

 Mobile Marketers: Just Do Something

Chicago mobile event highlights opportunities of mobile marketing

Heartland Mobile Council

What Apple’s Acquisition of Siri Means for the Future of Mobile Search

Twitter Stream from the event

Whether you are a frequent Twitter user or not, you most likely caught wind of the new Twitter trend known as “Twitter Lists.” It recently launched and I’ve already found it useful for personal use as well as for Paladin. A Twitter List is a new way of categorizing the people you follow and their tweets by your own preference.

Over the past few months, I have helped oversee the social media networks for Paladin with most of my focus on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. I find Twitter to be useful as a quick, interactive site to connect with our candidates and clients. The Twitter Lists now help us organize tweets from candidates, clients, marketing/creative/communiations associations, publications, news, events, etc.

Are you ready to create a Twitter List? Well, do you follow someone, but they are often overwhelming your home page and keep you from noticing other updates? Do you follow a variety of tweeters, such as celebrities, news, and job search firms? Are you ready for more organization within Twitter? If so, it’s time to get started! So…how do you create a Twitter List? I’ve listed a simple version, but if you are a visual learner, like me, the website below will give you detailed version: http://tinyurl.com/yjkle2n

1. Click “create a list,” a dialog box should pop up on your screen
2. Name the list to a category you want your followers to fall under
3. Search and start following tweeters under your list
4. Another way to search is to go through your followers’ profiles and click the button on the right labeled “manage lists” and add to your specific list (this option also allows to create a list in case you think of something on the spot!)

Twitter will give you the option of making the Lists private or public. If a List is public, you can follow other tweeters’ Lists and groupings.

Will this make Twitter more confusing? We don’t think so, in fact it makes Twitter more friendly and organized. The guys behind Twitter are predicting it will increase the number of new users. Twitter also promises the the roll out of List descriptions within the next week so public lists are easier to understand and, in turn, create more followers.

Let us know if you have created a Twitter List. Why did you decide to create a list and has it been helpful? @PaladinStaff has already been added on others’ Lists under the labels such as career, HR recruiting, work, etc. We also have started our own Twitter Lists to help us categorize marketing, creative and communication news/updates. Follow our Lists and let us know what you think.

@PaladinStaff/marketing

@PaladinStaff/creative

@PaladinStaff/communications

I have been using LinkedIn as a business development, personal brand management, and recruiting and research tool for years. But I have to admit it has taken a lot of time to put the pieces together. The process can be overwhelming trying to navigate the many options available. In fact, at times it has felt more like performing magic than actually getting any tangible, traceable results.  The following pertains to a quick success story covering business development, research, and branding through a LinkedIn Poll, an incredibly user friendly tool.

LinkedIn Poll Success!!

This is actually a two fold success. I had lunch with a Chicago Tribune reporter several weeks ago and she mentioned a story that she was working on regarding social media policy within organizations. When I returned to my office I created a very easy to use LinkedIn Poll.

I circulated the poll out via Twitter, Facebook (Paladin Fanpage), LinkedIn Groups as well as my individual contacts. In addition, several of my colleagues here at Paladin sent the poll out to their clients and prospects. We had over 180 responses in a week along with two fantastic outcomes.

1) Paladin was able to get their client an interview for the Chicago Tribune article and, in turn, Paladin received a job order from the client the very next day.

2) Desert Rose Design, an agency that participated and left a comment in the poll, was contacted by the Tribune and made an appearance in the article as well.

The challenge: I conducted an experiment to see exactly what effect I could produce with one  blog and thirty minutes of time spent posting on social media tools. Here is what happened:

The Blog: I wrote a blog regarding helpful marketing and alumni association events that I attend on a weekly basis to help build Paladin’s business through face to face networking:

Mike’s Paladin Blog

Vehicles: I dusted off my black social media Ninja robe and my marketing throwing stars and seeded my blog through my 1^st and 2^nd connections on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and Digg in exactly 30 minutes.

Target Outcome: At Paladin, my role is to bring business in the door and recruit on some of the positions with a focus on marketing communications and social media. We are a marketing and creative staffing firm with over 20 years experience in 6 major markets including Chicago. My target clients are senior level marketing and creative executives in addition to HR professionals within fortune 1000 companies. Ideal outcomes equate to finding new highly qualified candidates and inquires by potential new clients.

Here is What Happened - Blog outreach initiative by the #’s: LinkedIn: My LinkedIn “News” section – I sent my blog out to my 20 LinkedIn groups via the news section.

· “What are you working on now?” update – I post a link via my update which reaches my 700+ contacts (those that read the updates)

Twitter:  My Twitter

· 500 Twitter followers (I had several Tweeters “Re-tweet” my blog post)

Facebook: My Facebook Page

·200 Facebook friends (Posted my blog in my profile)

Results: Tracking – Google Analytics – spiked my blog page hit by 200 readers for the week (a significant increase to our brand new blog). Time spent on the page was significantly higher as well. – over 5 minutes.

Comments on blog: We’ve received multiple comments on the blog and several inquiries for interest in our business.

Shared by Others: Still working for me: While the initial results the first week were positive, the blog post and social network outreach continues to pull comments and interest two weeks later.

Why it worked: As a recruiter, a marketer and a Social Media junkie – I have a large network. The larger and the more targeted the network the better. I am very active on Social Media groups that are directly related to the topic. I have created buzz prior and have a sizable footprint in the space. Therefore, I had some momentum out of the box. But anyone can start building the momentum – with a blog, some useful content and thirty minutes of posting.

Stay tuned for part two of our series “Paladin’s Marketing Ninja Guide to Blogging on a Shoestring Budget”, when we feature the results of our associate Elizabeth Stiles blog regarding Lent and 40 days without Facebook and her beloved 1200 Facebook-Friends. Find out if she becomes addicted to Twitter or not and runs back to a always forgiving Facebook in our next installment…