Marketers and advertisers agree, 2010 will be the year of the mobile web. In a few short months mobile will have more audience reach than television, radio, or the internet. Two thirds of the world’s population, roughly 4 billion people currently have a mobile device of which 20% are currently web enabled smart phones. In 2010, mobile advertising is forecast to grow 45 percent to $3.8 billion, which will be spent on SMS, mobile display, and mobile search.

Carriers opening up data plans to flat rates rather than per kb consumption (between December 2008 and December 2009, the percentage of US mobile phone subscribers with unlimited data plans increased from 16% to 21%), new more powerful devices, and a publisher surge in generating mobile wap and app content have created the perfect storm for marketers and consumers to meet on the mobile web. Consumer media consumption patterns are changing. There is a significant rise in both production and consumption of “snackable content” which is consumed during the commute, at a stoplight, or in the waiting room. This opens up the new mobile venue over which advertisers can broadcast and target. Facebook and Twitter for example saw a 112% and 347% uptick in users consuming and creating content via the mobile web from January 2009 to January 2010. Not only are there more users on the mobile web, they are more engaged. According to facebook, mobile users currently average two times the pageviews, production, interaction, and consumption events that they do on the traditional display web.

Mobile advertising added to your marketing mix will connect you to consumers who are closer to the point of purchase. Think targeting a consumer who is in the mall parking lot walking in to buy a pair of jeans rather than one on the traditional web browsing jeans styles on their couch. Mobile ad placements offer a commanding presence of the consumer experience, think one banner per page rather than the traditional 4 plus average that we are seeing today in traditional display. As an advertiser is makes sense to employ the tactics below to target your consumers via mobile:

• SMS / MMS – Communications protocol that allow exchange of short text messages between mobile devices. Reach over 2.4 billion active users, 74% of all global mobile phone subscribers.
• Mobile Display – Banner inventory within smartphone application and mobile Wireless Access Protocol (WAP) versions of html publisher pages. Reach over 405 million global users according to emarketer .
• Mobile Applications – Banner inventory on applications for specific mobile devices like iphone, blackberry, and android. According to GetJar mobile application inventory will jump from 7 billion apps downloaded in 2009 to almost 50 billion in 2012.
• Mobile Search – Search traffic through mobile search engines, directories, navigation, or discovery services., about 15% of the total mobile advertising market.

Mobile is a force multiplier to any of your current campaigns. Get on the small screen, take advantage of the big opportunity in 2010. Want to learn more? Contact Nalu Media to learn more about how to harness the power of the mobile web.

Facebook helps you connect and share with the people in your life. It also helps the community coordinate a response to potential disasters like the recent Station Fire in Los Angeles. Over the past 72 hours the Station Fire Facebook Group has been helping the Angeles National Forest communicate evacuations, status of the fire, relief center locations, and points of contact for emergency information. The number of fans, links posted, and photos generated is a clear illustration that the community is looking beyond the airwaves and to the web for real time information and emergency response.

The Los Angeles wildfires have burned 105,000 acres with no end in site. Social Media is emerging as an incredible resource for aggregating and pushing information to the residents of Los Angeles affected by this tragedy. Updates from todays social web:

The #station #stationfire #lafire #socalfire tags continue to pop with observations on the ground. New users @latimescitydesk @passtarnews @angelesnf and @socalincidents are climbing the ranks and seeing much more activity. Quick analysis of one of the top users @latimesfires, currently has 2,900 followers, sending out about 2 tweets per hour which are being retweeted at 76%.  Looking at @latimesfires tweetstats gives a quick piucture of the influencers on twitter involved in the fires: @lanow, @socalincidents, @latimeslocal, @lafd, @ktla, @abc7 to name a few.

There is a Flick Stream of photos tagged with the Station Fire as well as youtube footage of Mt Wilson. The UCLA Mt Wilson webcam which updates every two minutes url has been picked up by major media outlets like the New York Times, the traffic spike is overloading their servers.

There is also a Facebook Group for the Station Fire. The group currently has 415 Fans, 2 Albums containing user submitted photos annd maps, 19 Links toVolunteer Opportunities, Photos, and Donations, along with 3 Notes Showing Evacuation updates, Angeles National Forest Evacuation Updates, Line of Duty Injuries.

The blogosphere is using the post format to ahre information and aggregate links. ThisisBrandX is following the fires from the blogosphere and compiled links to the top local sites. IndieSocal has a list of resources for the Station Fire.

Youtube is full of user generated footage, coverage replays, timelapse, and action videos. There are 267 new videos averaging about 200 views per video today.

Twitter, facebook, and the hundreds of other social media platforms offer an open portal for you to broadcast your message to millions. The point to many communication architecture takes away the need to “look” at who you are speaking to. With this comes an alarming lack of security for your personal information.

Case and point. An insurance company in Sydney recently sent out a warning to their clients of the potential risk of broadcasting your vacation plans, recent high value purchases, and daily schedules. In a survey of 2,000 plus social media users conducted by British company Legal & General 38% of users posted details of their holiday plans through their profiles. 33% of users broadcast schedules, and information about their weekend away. Combine those numbers with their findings that out of 100 blind friend / follow requests 13% were accepted on facebook and 92% on twitter. That makes for some easy targets and readily available data for people with bad intentions.

Case and point. Ran a quick search on twitter for a keyword telling me someone would be away from home. Found their name off their Twitter profile. Googled them. Went to their myspace profile and saw their address and pictures of their house.

Bottom line, social media is a powerful tool. Information discipline must be top of mind when broadcasting any information about both your brand and more importantly your personal life. Remember that your digital exhaust leaves a trail for all to see.

According to numbers just released by eMarketer  the percentage of worldwide internet users who have created a profile on a social network is up to 62.5%. That means that there are currently just under 1 billion profiles living on facebook, myspace, hi5, friendster, orkut, etc…  There are still  5,778,439,159 billion people on the globe who are not part of the global internet population. If the billion who are already here aren’t reason enough to be on board, the potential should be.

So what are people doing with these profiles on the social web?  Top activities include, messaging friends, uploading photos, connecting with old and new friends, joining groups, and finding music. That’s billions of opportunities a day where people are creating valuable data for marketers, and potentially building a relationship with your brand. Now more than ever it is time to define, implement, and measure the effectiveness of your social media marketing strategy.