Emergence of mobile technologies and prevalence of smartphones have created a whole new opportunity of marketers. Because mobile allows customers to connect more frequently and provides more variety of features, marketers are able to gather more information to measure and analyze the behavior of the customers. This opportunity is giving a lot of companies to start-up.

How mobile social can help brands

Here in the U.S. alone, 85 percent of consumers are leveraging mobile devices to access social sites. One expert offers insight into how brands can better connect.

by Kristina Knight

Kristina: How do mobile-focused social insights impact brands?

Richard Pasewark, CEO, Visible Technologies: Whether it's locally or abroad, brands can better understand how consumers respond to a product, launch, or campaign based on specific regions or markets from mobile-focused social insights. They can also better understand the consumer experience for discrete target segments. For example, if a brand wanted to decipher if consumers in Kansas City are happy about the grand opening of 3 new stores. Mobile-focused social insights and data can give them a better idea of what local sentiments around the openings were, allowing them to gain an understanding of what worked well and what they can improve for future store launches.

Kristina: How can retailers better use mobile-focused social data insights to engage shoppers?

Richard: With the ability to target social posts originating in specific locations, retailers can use mobile-focused social insights to engage with shoppers in two key ways. One being to leverage data insights to determine customers to engage with directly, responding to specific questions or issues they may be experiencing. The second way is to leverage the data over the longer-term, using it to entice shoppers with timely, exclusive offers specific to their location and preferences - helping to encourage them to return as frequently as possible.

Kristina: What trends are you seeing in digital marketing now? And what do you expect as we move into the busy holiday season?

Richard: One of the top trends in digital marketing we are seeing is marketers increasingly wanting and needing to know if their programs or messages are effective to (1) change course in midstream if something is not working and (2) influence additional further spend, channeling funds to what will capture the best results.

As we move towards the hectic holiday season, we expect retail brands to focus more on the customer experience, which means added targeted messages & engagement to encourage consumers to spend additional dollars with these brands during the busiest shopping period of the year.