We are in the two-way conversation era. That time in which communication was broadcasted on just one direction by just a few fortunate people is now in the past. In this new age, we all are able to communicate with millions of people just with one click and we don’t hesitate about actively participating on conversations where we share our opinions with unknown people.

Nevertheless, that has a drawback: saturation. So here are 5 tips and recommendations to succeed when broadcasting and encouraging the creation of interesting content for the user:

1.    Carefully select the contents. You will need to choose interesting and relevant topics for your user. Find out which are the hottest trends. To do that, you can use some tools such as Google Insights.

2.    Transform your message into different sorts of content, so that youhave a different tool for each different case scenario or situation.

3.    Don’t forget to encourage your users to actively take part in your contents. Ask them their opinions; invite them to interact with you content and to share comments and suggestions. That’s easier if you have a motivation for them to participate and interact. Such as a useful application, a game or a promotion.

4.    Link your off-line activities with your on-line marketing strategy, so that your users or customers are aware of them. For example, if you participate in events or you organize events of any kind, you could let your followers know in real time on Twitter.

5.    Have fun. Provide your user some funny content. Of course there are businesses that seem to be more serious than others; but funny content, as far as is related with you activities, will be almost always well received by your audience.

These days the World Mobile Congress is being celebrated in Barcelona, Spain. The mobile phone and smartphone industry is one of the most dynamic and profitable. According to many experts, 2012 is going to be a key year concerning this industry development, so it’s possible to identify some trends as far as mobile marketing and advertising are concerned.

Firstly, there’s been a tablet boom during the last year. iPad has been the most popular present of the last Christmas campaign and Kindle Fire has open the door to more affordable devices. It is expected that by end 2012 the number of tablets worldwide increases by more than 100%.

Another important issue is the fact that rich media (or interactive content) has gone massive, offering the consumer a more attractive experience and better branding opportunities for the advertisers.

On the other hand, traditional advertising is being switched to mobile advertising. Due to the high penetration rate of smartphones, mobile phone use will continue growing and expanding to new moments of consumption throughout the day, as for instance, during TV show breaks. That could mean that tablets and smartphones are steadily being used instead of PC’s or laptops.

The gradual obsolescence of feature phones is also a major issue. Smartphones are more and more affordable to any consumer, and as a result, advertising agencies are focusing their strategies on both smartphones and tablets.

Whether Smartphone applications are going to beat mobile web is also being highly discussed currently. There are a great number of analysts claiming that applications are the preferred way for consumers to use internet on their mobile phone. It is likely that this debate continues in 2012 and that we can see players making important decisions concerning this issue.

Geo-location services popularity is also increasing. It is likely that advertising dealing with geo-location increases in 2012. This trend is basically influence by the United States, where most of the supply of those services is focused right now. Advertising agencies will see an increasing demand for more campaigns with the objective to make consumers go to specific stores, restaurants or other locations.

Finally, Facebook has been procrastinating the launching of its mobile phone advertising services. Nevertheless, with about 1000 million users online and 300 checking out their profiles on their phones, Facebook ismeant to be a key player in the smartphone advertising industry.

Social media’s incredible potential in terms of marketing makes this new platform very attractive for advertisers and companies willing to develop a community among its consumers both locally or globally.

 
It seems obvious that new possibilities are emerging every day, and that not everything has been done to seize the opportunities that social media offers as far as brand promotion is concerned. One example of this is lately being more and more discussed: the possibility of placing advertisements on user’s Facebook profile pages.

 
The new profile design seems perfect for this purpose. The main image occupies almost half of the screen space and it is situated in the best place in terms of usability and click actions.

 
Brands are part of people’s life, and there are a lot of people that right know have established a more or less intense relationship with brands in social networks. There are a lot of people that would not really mind to associate their personal brand with another one…

 
So why not taking advantage of it? Why not turning our profile page in an advertising space? Why not getting money for it? Why not getting bonuses for getting a minimum of “new fans” generating more views?

 
This is what Fan Marketing is about: getting brand awareness and seizing the huge potential that one fan with hundreds of friends can generate online.