As online marketing accelerates at a break-neck pace, is it worth it to constantly blog, tweet, and post to your company Facebook page?  Especially if there is no intial improvement in sales or website traffic?  Ann Handley, CCO at marketingprofs.com, helps explain why it is important to understand the needs of your business and that a Twitter account or Facebook page might not be as important as all the current hype suggests.  But on the other hand, it just might be the best thing for your business...

According to a recent article on emarketer.com, workers aged 47 and younger prefer to Facebook over TV as their mass medium of choice.

As more shoppers avoid "brick and mortar holiday shopping torture"  by using the internet, the convenience factor of shopping online is pointing to an increase in self-gifting and overall spending.  (see chart below)

Although there is a slight decrease predicted in spending this year ($705 vs $720 last year), there should be an increase in online shopping and overall internet purchases. For merchants, it is more important than ever to have an online presence to find those customers online who are becoming more comfortable using an online shopping cart and making pu

With the rapid growth of mobile devices, the need to "mobilize a website" is more important than ever.  However, only 1.25% of all the websites currently out there are mobile friendly, according to a recent article by BIA Kelsey.
I'm sure there are lots  of times when you find a great site on your mobile device only to go through the 'squeeze and spread' of the site on your tiny mobile screen.  In the past, there were ways to try and duplicate you main site in mobile-friendly pages and redirect your site to those pages with a script embedded in the header section of your home page. There were many problems faced by early pioneers in the mobile internet experience.  The most common problem was compatibility. Early "smarphones" had their own unique OS and did not convert full-size web pages well.  When you did find mobile compatible web pages, great!  But not many people took the time to have both full size mobile pages for their web sites   Adroid and IPhone operating systems changed the game by allowing users to squeeze and spread their way on various web pages.  This is still a slow and tedious process.  New technology and ideas have been developed that now make it very easy and affordable to convert existing websites, without changing anything on the site, into mobile pages optimized for the smartphone platform.

111 people were arrested and over $13 million lost according to an article on bankinfosecurity.com.  Thieves targeted restaurants, bars and retail stores to gain credit card info by using handheld skimming devices .  They would then make counterfeit cards, buy high-end electronics and resell the purchases on the internet.  Please be careful out there with your credit cards!  Also think about purchasing fraud protection from a service like:Identity Guard  or LifeLock

With an increase in confidence by advertisers in the mobile platform,  nearly double the amount spent on mobile advertising over last year, (1.23B vs 743mil), will more than likely occur this year, according to an article by PaidContent.org.  As we approach the Holidays, brace for more creative advertising on your smartphones and smartpads... Especially on the "free sites" like Facebook, Google and Yahoo!

In an article by Chloe Albanesius, of PC Magazine,  the Reader Privacy Act of 2011 will require government agencies to obtain a court order before they access customer records from book stores or online retailers. It will officially become law on January 1.

Consumers are finding and purchasing products/services online but the trust or relevance in the ad sometimes hinders the click-through.
In a report from Emarketer, online advertising has become more influential and consumers aren't bypassing relevant ads.  They are actually clicking on them.