Great article this week from Hubspot on how to get started with mobile marketing.

Since I’ve been dabbling in it myself, I can see that these 4 steps are the real deal:

1. Get Comfortable with Your Own Mobile Device
2. Set Up Your Mobile Website
3. Create a QR Code Promotion
4. Create a Mobile Display Ad

If you’ve used a QR code as a smartphone owner, more often than not if it’s a URL you click the link to go to the landing page. Then you realize too late that it’s just a standard web page on your mobile browser.

That is not good.

In fact, it’s actively annoying. The display is too small, and if you zoom to be able to read it, navigation is a beast.

Step #1 is a shortcut to understand the user experience, but #2 is the biggest key. Even if it’s just for the landing page, it is crucial to have a mobile-compatible version.

Now, this may be oversimplifying the process, but you have to start somewhere.

What’s your strategy for getting mobile to access those 271 million mobile subscribers?

Amy Taggart is the Marketing Manager for Interactive Financial Marketing Group

So being that 2011 is coming to a close, there are a lot of articles naming the top (insert number and item here) of 2011. I came across this one and thought it would be a great share! Check out this years most popular car commercials, according to Autonews.com, and share your own favorites!

- The Force: Volkswagen commercial. With 63 million views, this was definitely a favorite amongst all age groups! This kid was adorable.

- Fiat 500 with Jennifer Lopez. At 27 million views, it definitely shows J-Lo’s star power! Too bad it didn’t sell that many units!

- Chrysler: Imported from Detroit. Another great one with 22 million views. Eminem’s empowering music in the background definitely helped pay homage to the hard working Detroiter.

- Party Rock Anthem Kia Soul. Definitely one of my favorites! 13 million viewers fist pumped and did the running man to this commercial. Definitely a fun one.

- Bridgestone Carma commercial. 11 million animal lovers enjoyed this commercial. Goes to show that all good deeds are rewarded!

Excited for the great commercials 2012 and Superbowl will bring.

Rosa Luciano is the Marketing Coordinator and blogger extraordinaire for Interactive Financial Marketing Group. Follow her on Twitter @RozaLuciano

This past week we lost a great visionary and thought leader in Steve Jobs, co-founder and CEO of Apple. Below are some great blog posts about Mr. Jobs and how he changed the industry. Enjoy and have a great weekend!

Steve Jobs’ influence over mobile marketing and advertising: “Steve Jobs’ biggest influence on mobile marketing and advertising is in the way the iPhone and iPad changed behavior.”

4 Marketing lessons from Steve Jobs: “And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it.”

Steve Jobs influence on Hubspot: “The genius behind the iPod was not just that the device was simpler, but it was also how the device worked with the application (iTunes) and the content (music).”

What the world can learn from Steve Jobs: “They are a part of what Steve Jobs called “The Crazy Ones” who think differently, who are trouble makers, who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world… and quite frankly, they do.”

RIP Mr. Jobs

How has Steve Jobs changed your view on technology or your companies outlook on marketing? Share your stories below.

Rosa Luciano is the Marketing Coordinator and blogger extraordinaire for Interactive Financial Marketing Group. Follow her on Twitter @RozaLuciano

TGIF! It’s a rainy and dark day but hey, it’s Friday! I wanted to keep today’s blog light so am going to touch briefly on the Facebook madness (literally mad) going on this past week.

Facebook is making some changes and people, surprise surprise, don’t like it. The outcome of this will be that like most other changes Facebook has made- most complain, eventually get over it, and ultimately learn to love it. But than again, Google+ wasn’t around in the past, and now it’s open to everyone. So now ‘Facebookers’ have the option to go elsewhere. But will they?

Quite frankly if they are not accepting of changes within a channel they are very familiar with, such as Facebook, it will be harder to adapt to something completely new like Google + so my take on it is that most will stick to Facebook for now, but perhaps acquire a Google+ account, just in case.

Why the fight against change? Well most users are students and/or in the 18-35 age range and use it for leisure. They want it to be as simple as possible and more options means something new they have to learn. They didn’t sign up for this! They prefer the experience remain simple.

Why not Google+? Well Google+ is more technical and right now a large percentage of it’s users are engineers or developers. Having a large group of people who do not like change, even one as simple as changing a news feed, transfer to an entirely new way of socializing is not going to happen overnight.

So for now my dear ‘Facebookers’ you have two options: Get with it or get something else.

Are you excited or upset about these changes? Share your thoughts below.

Rosa Luciano is the Marketing Coordinator and blogger extraordinaire for Interactive Financial Marketing Group. Follow her on Twitter @RozaLuciano

As most of you already know this past weekend Hurricane Irene came to visit us on the East Coast and we are definitely glad that she did not overstay her welcome! She was here and gone within 24 hours. A large percentage of us here in Richmond VA lost our power at some point and then the million dollar question kicked in: What are we going to do?

Maybe we can… nah that requires electricity… or we can… no, that too requires electricity… how about if we… eeek that ALSO requires electricity! It was definitely a challenge seeing how creative I could get with keeping myself entertained and occupied for an entire day without access to television, the fridge, a vehicle (I mean really, who was going to drive in that!), video games, or even my laptop. I felt lost…

The whole experience reminded me of my article from last week , Is Social Media is Socially Killing Us?, in that when we don’t have access to our everyday “luxuries” we reach out for human companionship. There was no way I was staying in my dark apartment all by myself so I went to a friends house where, although they didn’t have electricity themselves, I could still be in the presence of of an actual person during a scary time.

Now had it been a normal storm I may have been content staying home alone and watching movies all day until it passed, but because it was a hurricane, a natural disaster, I felt the need to be around other humans and not my Facebook or Twitter page. It goes to show that although we are in a world obsessed with anything social, from time to time we still desire some good ol’ fashioned human contact!

So what were your “stormed in” activities? I fortunately had a few flashlights, a ton of candles (thanks mom for making me a collector), good company, and Scrabble!

Rosa Luciano is the Marketing Coordinator and blogger extraordinaire for Interactive Financial Marketing Group. Follow her on Twitter @RozaLuciano