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Follow the plan, but remember what they say about the best-laid plans

Mobile advertising and commerce, growing upwards of 30 percent annually, are the new growth arenas where marketers must play.

You don’t have to build an app. “For many apps, you can instead build a sophisticated ad that can accomplish the same goals as an app but would be delivered with the targeting and immediacy of an ad server, thereby avoiding the challenges of driving adoption of our app,” says Eric Litman, CEO of Medialets.

Mobile browsing and search will grow as more consumers adopt advanced phones – iPhone, Android, BlackBerry – that take advantage of faster data networks. “So, marketers will have more reasons to consider display and search ads, in addition to mobile apps, which will continue to be hot in 2010,” says Forrester mobile analyst Neil Strother.

Don’t plunge into an Augmented Reality project or a social media application without taking the initial step of creating a basic mobile presence. “Your mobile site will grow, increase its traffic and register users, and will soon be the spine of your forthcoming ‘m-dot’ strategy,” says Alexandre Mars, CEO of Phonevalley, the mobile marketing arm of Publicis Groupe.

In a February 2009 survey that Constant Contact conducted, only 10 percent of those polled said they used Twitter frequently to market or interact with their customers, while 20 percent said they frequently used Facebook to bolster customer interactions. In October 2009, Twitter users rose to 21 percent while Facebook increased to 30 percent. Moreover, 54 percent of those polled in the October 2009 survey said they’d use social media networks to market their business during this holiday season.

All of that social media adoption in many companies has been siloed, with departments being created for social media. Social needs to be better integrated into corporate marketing efforts. Companies will also apply the tactics they used in email marketing over the past ten years to social efforts, says Reggie Bradofrd, ceo of social media marketing firm Vitrue. “They have learned about messaging their customer base from years of trial, and now will be using much of the same process and policy.”

Facebook next year will release the “Open Graph API,” allowing any site to become, in effect, a Facebook brand page. Users could become “fans” of sites registered through the program and publishers would have access to their News Feeds and other communication channels on Facebook.

Make sure you’re following Facebook’s promotion and sweepstakes guidelines on your Facebook Page. The social network has started requiring all promotions to get approval before launch, so contact your account rep before giving away more coupons.

No one yet realizes the full potential of Twitter, not even its founders. “By the end of 2010, it’ll become clear how this platform fits into the marketing communications mix. And it’ll spawn an entire category of service providers looking to cash in, “says Aaron Goldman, managing partner at Connectual. “The same way there’s now an SEM on every corner, and in every basement, Twitter management shops will spring up left and right.”

Marketers shouldn’t overuse, under-use or ignore Twitter, but rather use it to discover what people are saying about them and their companies behind their back says Paul Verna, senior analyst at eMarketer. Max Kalehoff, vice president of marketing at Clickable says further, “Understanding where your brand fits into the real-time social Web as search evolves will become critical to staying competitive and relevant.”

Counting clicks and impressions don’t give an accurate, um, impression of the performance of your social media campaigns. “With social media, it’s not so much about that instant ROI, it’s about a longer-term relationship with the consumer,” according to Chris Cunningham, CEO of Appssavvy, a company that matches application developers with brands and agencies. Instead, measure your campaign against the action that’s most important, whether that’s redeeming a coupon or reading a blog post.

The most successful marketers will leverage sophisticated tracking and analysis to maximize the link between creating and capturing demand, Max Kalehoff, vice president of marketing at Clickable says. “They will think about building brand reputation and customer demand before connecting all the investments to acquisition and profitability.”

Zephrin Lasker, CEO & cofounderounder, Pontiflex says we’ll see a renaissance of email marketing as more brand marketers use it as a gateway into social marketing. A recent Harris Interactive survey found consumers are not willing to provide their social networking information to brands, but an overwhelming majority of them are willing to provide their email addresses. “The implications are clear,” says Lasker, “Brands first
have to build trust with consumers through transparent, permission-based email communications and then extend those relationships to social media. Acquiring and engaging consumers in an open and relevant way is the first step toward social networking success.”

Facebook will make it easier for developers to collect email address within third-party applications, allowing them to communicate more directly with users. For brands with Facebook applications, new opt-in email opportunities await.