When I downloaded the iOS 6.0 for my iPhone, I was pleasantly surprised with the passbook app. My favourite part was that it led me to Cineplex Odeon’s app, which makes it convenient to see what is playing near by, see previews and buy tickets. This apparently makes me special in no way at all. As noted in the emarketer article, “Moviegoers and Mobile: Better Together”, a growing number of consumers are finding out about movies through their mobile phone. From checking what is playing, what times, reading reviews and watching trailers, more people are using their phones.

So, while this shows that as a movie theatre, having an app or at least a mobile friendly website is a must, the article points out an opportunity for advertisers. More men than women are watching trailers for movies on their phones. emarketer found that 61% of smartphone users will watch an ad to completion in order to watch a trailer. So, if your target audience includes males who might enjoy a specific type of movie, you just found yourself a 30 second spot to promote your product.

Now that people are using their phones before the movies, maybe they’ll turn them off during.

The increased popularity of Pinterest is generating yet another marketing opportunity in social media that companies need to seriously consider. Pinterest will be attractive mostly to companies that appeal to consumers on the aesthetics of their products.

A new emarketer report ,“Pinterest Fosters Unique Shopping Behaviors”, suggests that Pinterest is especially influential amongst women and notes that the number of retailers followed on Pinterest is greater than that of Facebook and of Twitter. Women’s clothing brands would highly benefit from a strong following on Pintrests with consumers sharing images of their favourite items.

One way to create a following on Pinterest is to have it linked to your overall marketing plan. MarketingSherpa sites a specific example where UncommonGoods was able to increase its followers by 355 people, an increase of 200%. The company did this by effectively linking Pinterest to their e-mail marketing. The key was ensuring that the e-mails contained easy to view images and links to Pinterest. Also, in a day and age where a large amount of e-mails are read on a mobile phone, the images have to be compatible to this medium.

Nearly four years after Barack Obama won the American presidency, a feat some attribute to Obama’s ability to harness the power of social media and excite young people, we’re still unsure how much of an impact social media will have on future elections. According to an Emarketer article “Social Media Begins to Drive the Political Conversation” over a quarter of people acknowledge that social media influences their political opinions.

One of the biggest influences where I think social media already has and will continue to effect future elections, is regarding the debates. Through Twitter and Facebook, a conversation can take place while individuals watch these debates. During the debates, many numbers are thrown around, some of which have been inaccurate. It is impossible for the average person to identify what information should be taken with a grain of salt. Social media can help immediately identify information that should be double-checked.

In an environment with seemingly unlimited campaign budgets, presidential candidates will rejoice in having opportunities to spend money exploring the opportunities presented by social media.

In a continuing effort to monetize its large user base, Facebook is changing their gifts feature. Previously, Facebook only offered virtual gifts, but the new gifts feature now allows users to purchase gifts online. It starts by picking out a gift for a friend, then your friend is notified and they fill out their shipping information. Facebook then delivers your gift to them.

The gifts are intended mostly for birthdays and other big events. With people being reminded of their friends’ birthdays on Facebook, they will be making it easy for people to quickly buy friends gifts. Gift options range from cookies to t-shirts and posters – smaller items. The reason for smaller gift choices is probably because this purchasing decision is relatively quick and less in depth. These spur of the moment smaller gifts also help Facebook avoid competing directly with Amazon where someone might go to make more expensive, thought out purchases.

The problem I see is that most of the fun of gift giving is seeing the surprise and joy of a friend receiving a present. This fun would be lost with Facebook gifts.