Google Mobile App will increase your mobile efficiency

I never cease to marvel at the Google’s prolific development of new applications. The latest one to come to my attention is simply called Google Mobile App. It is a plugin that can be placed on your Today Screen for easy access or invoked from an icon in your Programs menu. Alternatively, you can program it to run from a hardware button.

Not surprisingly, it has a text input box for Google searches as well as two icons on the main panel bar. I suspect a larger screen or landscape screen would reveal more icons on the panel, but this is how it appears on my Treo Pro square screen. The two icons are for Gmail and Google Maps. Tapping on the plus symbol brings up a new screen with more icons.

The popup screen has an array of 12 icons that will give you access to many of Google’s popular applications such as Gmail, Maps, YouTube, News, Picassa, Calendar, Reader, 411, SMS, Orkut, Docs, and Blogger.

In case you are not familiar with all of these great services, let’s review them briefly so you will appreciate the usefulness of this nifty little application making them so easily accessible.

Google Search: the most popular search engine on the Internet. The nice thing about this search box is that you don’t have to wait to pull up a browser to initiate a query.

Google Maps: a great free mapping program that will find and call your favorite pizza parlor or give you turn by turn directions to it. If connected to GPS, it will track your progress on a map.

YouTube: Recently acquired by Google, YouTube is the most popular video posting service on the Web.

News: a nice news aggregator that compiles headlines from over 4500 English-language news sources worldwide and groups similar stories according to your interests and specifications—kinda like building your own customized newspaper

Picassa: This versatile photo application allows you to organize, edit, and turn your photos into movies (if you wish) and post them online.

Calendar: represents an online calendar most useful for collaborative synchronization of events and appointments that can be accessed and edited by specified others.

Reader: an application that lets you get and organize the latest news and updates from your favorite sites and share it with others via email or blog.

411: tired of paying up to two bucks for calling your phone company to get a phone listing? Use 411 for free.

Docs: Everyone who engages in collaborative writing projects should use this great application so that all participants are all on the same page at all times. It’s a great way to share documents or publish them online. It accepts Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files.

SMS: the greatest and quickest instant access to information from weather to sports scores, from measurements to definitions, from finding businesses to movies and theaters, from postal codes to stock quotes, from directions to flight schedules, from Q&A to area codes and more. Just text 466453 (GOOGLE) to a set of keywords found here: http://www.google.ca/mobile/sms/index.html

Orkut: yet another social networking site that has not really taken off in the U.S. but most popular in Brazil for some reason—named after a Google employee Orkut Byuykkokten

Blogger: allows you to post photos and text directly to your Blogger- built blog sites from your mobile phone.

Conclusion

Clearly, the functionality of this application is a boon to mobile efficiency, and you would be well advised to make it part of your toolkit. The good news is that it is totally free, as are all the applications it connects too. You must have a Google account in some cases to enjoy the bounty, but that’s free too.

Sign up for a Google account, if you don’t have one, here: http://www.google.com/accounts.

Download Google Mobile here: http://tinyurl.com/epfz3. There is a version for almost any mobile platform, even iPhone. You can get it on your phone over the air here: http://tinyurl.com/clmz64. Or, visit m.google.com on your phone’s browser.

I’m surprised that other popular Google applications such as Talk, iGoogle, and Notebook were not included. Perhaps they will be in future iterations. What would be really nice is if you could add or subtract your favorite applications.

New Mobile Shell 3.0

If there ever were an application that I would recommend above all others to install on your pocket pal first it would be SPB’s Mobile Shell. Apparently this is not just my opinion, for the program has received an abundance of accolades. However, with a program so brilliantly conceived that does so much for organizing and giving you access to the depths of your machine, it is a hard act to follow.

Yet, the SPB developers have managed to make meaningful changes, add features, and offer improvements in version 3.0. If you have gotten used to using 2.0, you may balk at first and wonder why bother with any improvements and having to learn a new and more robust system. While there may be a bit of a learning curve, I think you will find it worth the effort.

Frankly, I liked everything just the way it was, but I have to admit that after becoming familiar with 3.0 and its enhancements, I am delighted with it and amazed at its functionality.

New Features

There are so many new features, I hardly know where to begin. Perhaps it would be best to list the major ones and then discuss those that are not self-evident.

· The most noticeable new feature is widgets, which have become popular on most desktops these days. These are evident on the Lifestyle Home Screen and in Photo Contacts.

· 3.0 integrates with Facebook. This is largely so that you can grab pictures of your friends and put them into your favorites and contact folders.

· You can even edit contact photos with cropping and rotating

· There’s a new Media Player widget you can place on the home screen

· You can place a wireless manager widget on the Home Screen too

· There’s a new launcher format—I’m not sure this is an improvement however

· The program is extremely finger-friendly throughout with kinetic scrolling

· There is an inbound indicator for voice, email, and sms with a counter widget

· The task manager has definitely been improved

· A 3D screen carousel view rotates every available screen for quick access

· There is a similar carousel view of photo contacts

Remember the old Professional vs Classic layout in 2.0? Well, 3.0 has expanded the concept to Professional and Lifestyle layouts that you can switch between at will. The professional layout packs in more information in a constrained screen space, while the Lifestyle layout is more fun with widgets you can scatter around the screen to give you the information you wish.

Chances are, users may not even recognize the installation of Mobile Shell 3.0 from one machine to another because of the endless possibilities of customization of features, backgrounds, and wallpapers.

It The new version supports multiple email platforms and accounts. A powerful algorithm places the email account with the most unread mail first in line for convenience. If there is no unread mail, the last one to have email will be the first in line.

Version 3.0 pays a lot of attention to contact management. The innovative approach of Facebook integration allows users to drag and drop photos and even crop them. You can also drag and drop contacts into the Favorites panel and then move them around as you please with your finger. The 3D contact carousel is a fun feature too. MS allows you to set unique ringtones for your favorites if you wish.

When you select a favorite, a new screen appears giving you the choice of calling home/work/mobile or sending SMS or MMS messages. There’s a nice photo log of phone calls as well.

I’m not quite convinced that the new launcher and the SPB Menu are an improvement over the old system in which you had 12 of the most recently launched applications in small icon format above the six Menu folders. You could make any of the twelve items appear permanently for convenience, and you could edit the content of the Menu folders or create your own folder and content.

Now there is a Launcher with your three favorites at the top in simple mode and any number of recently used applications displayed in order of usage below. It appears that you could have the whole Program folder in here. In the advanced mode, you can easily add or remove programs to suite your purpose. The recently used function will still operate below the favorites panel.

Remember that SPB offers an integrated suite of applications along with Mobile Shell such as Traveler, Weather, Netflix Manager, and Plus. These all work more seamlessly with version 3.0.

Version 3.0’s developers created the application with Windows Mobile 6.5 in mind so that it will work flawlessly in that environment too when it is released.

Conclusion

While Mobile Shell 2.0 was a superbly conceived application that made using your pocket pal a dream, version 3.0 has managed to enhance it with many new features of functionality and navigation. Perhaps the most striking features are the carousels and widgets. Again, I have to rate Mobile Shell 3.0 as a must-have application.

It costs $29.95, but you can try it for free and upgrade it for 50% off the retail price. Please visit www.spbsoftwarehouse.com to check it out and get your own copy. I think you are going to be quite pleased with Mobile Shell 3.0.

Breaking-News: Facebook adds SMS capability

This is potentially huge news for brands that are using Facebook Pages. You can now promote your Page using text messaging – or rather, by simply asking people to text the name of your page (www.facebook.com/yourname) – to Facebook’s shortcode, 32665, to become fans.

For example, text “fan Mashable” to 32665 (which spells out ‘FBOOK’ on your phone) and you become a Mashable Facebook fan.

The feature appears to be very beta, and hasn’t been enabled for every Page admin yet. An additional caveat seems to be that for Fans to successfully opt-in, they need to have setup their mobile phone to receive texts from Facebook, which can be done from your Settings page. Unfortunately, T-Mobile isn’t on Facebook’s list of supported carriers, meaning I currently get an “access denied” error when trying to Fan stuff via text (most other major carriers are supported, however).

The blog Buzz Marketing Daily, who seems to have first noticed the new option, explains the possibilities: “Imagine the scenarios- you can ask 10 people in a Board room to take their phone out and become Fans, or 100 people at a rally to become political supporters, or 30,000 people at a concert or ballpark to become fans via mobile device.”

Likewise, you could also include that very simple prompt in all of your company’s marketing – brochures, commercials, print ads, websites, etc, as well as encourage your current Twitter followers to become Facebook fans, which, Facebook would surely love for you to do. Twitter already does the same thing on its service by letting you text “follow [username]” to their short code – 40404.

Assuming this feature eventually goes live for everyone, we think it will have a huge impact on increasing brands’ following on Facebook.
http://www.buzzmarketingdaily.com/2009/03/breaking-news-facebook-to-add-sms-text.html

Maestro doubled my money yesterday

Just for the heck of it, I opened a $500 account for one of my grandkids on Thursday. By the end of the trading day yesterday I had doubled my money using the Maestro automated Expert Forex trading advisor. This system is nothing short of phenomenal.

Now, finally, no matter your previous experience with investing you can trade Forex profitably — consistently and automatically.

Can you imagine getting insider information on Forex that will allow you to profit every single day?

Well, now it’s possible thanks to the world’s most advanced Forex trading robot.

You see, this ingenious invention uses complex mathematical algorithms and technical analysis to determine winning Forex trades, effortlessly and automatically.

By scrutinizing the miniscule movements in the markets… Forex Maestro becomes familiar… even intimate… with what is trading up or down…

Developing what professional traders call a “sixth sense”. A sort of “feel” for how the currencies will behave in any given situation.

This robot can now be YOUR weapon for generating staggering profit with Forex, as it has just been released to the general public at a mind blowing introductory price

(you’ll soon see what I mean)!

But you have to take action now, as I simply don’t know how long these folks will keep this offer alive:

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To Your Success,

Timothy S. Hillebrand, Ph.D.

Check out this automated, highly profitable, perfect home business

With economic doom and gloom surrounding us and the world’s economy going down the drain, let me share with you a surefire method of making serious money using your Windows Mobile device. Forex trading or the foreign exchange money market will make you money whether it goes up or down.

I have been playing around with it now for a couple of months. At first there can be a steep learning curve with some costly lessons if you make mistakes through manual placing of orders. You have to know when to get in and when to get out. You can lose your shirt very quickly if you don’t know what you’re doing.

However, it doesn’t have to be like that. Let me share with you an amazing little secret that you will thank me for the rest of your life. It involves what are called Expert Advisors or EAs. These are automated trading programs that do all the trading for you. They are little robots that make money for you while you sleep. They recognize profit opportunities, place orders, whether long or short, place stops for safety, and exit almost always with a profit.

The good news is that you can use your little pocket pal to place and track orders. Mostly all you have to do is check up on your robot to see how your profits are doing.

Note that the markets are open 24 hours a day Monday through Friday so you can relax on the weekends and enjoy your profits for the week.

This past week I made $1837.40 on a $5000 account in five days of trading. On another $5000 account, I cleared $1560.11. Friday I opened another $5000 account and made $351.51 for the day before the markets closed in just 8 hours of trading. Projected over 5 days, that would be $1757.55 for the five day week. So, the total profit would be over $5000 for the week or $20,000 for the month on a $15,000 investment. You can do the math for a year. Not bad in a sagging economy.

Let me tell you what you need to get started. First you must find a Forex trading brokerage to work with so you can open an account. There are oodles of them available. Just Google Forex. Firms I have used include I-Trade Forex, Forex.com, and lotusbrokerage.com.

Next you will need to sign up for an account. I strongly recommend that you sign up for a demo account first. Trade for at least a month before you go live or wait until you are confident and know what you are doing.

Then you must download the trading software. There may be several choices depending on the broker you select, but you should select MetaTrader 4. In my opinion, it is the most sophisticated yet easiest to use. Besides, it is the only one that offers a Windows Mobile version so you can conduct this business on your PDA.

Download and install both the desktop and handheld versions.

 

Now comes the magic. I strongly recommend that you download Maestro. This is an expert advisor that will completely automate your trading. Just plug it in, let it run on autopilot, and watch your profits soar. It will cost you $167, which is the best investment you’ll ever make. There is similar software out there that costs much more but is not nearly as effective. This EA really works like magic.

Another hugely important consideration in my opinion is not only that the software works, it is all set up and optimized for you right out of the box. You do not have to tweak the settings, which can be a continual bother. Just follow the simple installation instructions, and you will be making money in no time. It’s truly amazing.

You have nothing to lose because there is a 60 day money back guarantee. If you are not satisfied, and I can’t imagine why you wouldn’t be, you can ask for a full refund no questions asked.

To get your copy of Maestro, go to http://tshphd.forexace.hop.clickbank.net where you can pay, download, and be in business in a matter of minutes.

You can forget about the wimpy stock market, tanking real estate, and every other pathetic form of investment. If you’ve been wondering where to put your money that will give you a decent return and recover your losses, the Forex market with Maestro is the place. And what’s really great, is that you can do it with your little pocket pal from anywhere in the world. It doesn’t cost a fortune to get involved either. Start with a little as $300 and watch it grow to $3000 before your eyes, in your hand, on your Windows Mobile cachinger.

Don’t Buy FAPTurbo Forex Trading System: Giant Rip Off! Total Scam!

This is a warning. Be aware of a Forex Trading system called FAPTurbo that is being hyped all over the Internet, which is supposed to double your money every month. It doesn’t! I could never even get it to work. After tweaking and tweaking, I got a couple of trades out of it, never made a profit, and then it just quit working altogether. I religiously followed the instructions and set all the parameters perfectly as recommended in the manual.

In the sales hype, they tout the excellent customer support. Well, let me tell you, it’s non-existent. They do not respond, leave you high and dry, and keep your money.

There is supposed to be a 60 day guarantee no questions asked money back refund. Well fergetabout it. No one answers the phone. The voice mailbox on the answering machine is always full. No one ever returns calls. No one ever responds to email.
I have been trying to get a refund for weeks without any success. In desperation, I spent the money to send a registered refund demand letter to the New York City address listed in the Website. The post office returned my letter as undeliverable. Someone wrote on the envelope “The person and company have never been at this location.”

All I can conclude is that the entire operation is a flim flam Internet scam. Do not invest in this software. It did not work for me, and I doubt if it will work for you. There is no customer support. They do not honor their guarantees, and they do not exist at the address listed on the Website. Do not get involved as an affiliate either, for you will only be perpetuating the scam and will probably never see any compensation for your efforts.

Spread the word: FAPTurbo is a scam and a rip off. Steve, Mike, and Ulrich the supposed geniuses behind this fraud should all be in prison. Maybe the law will catch up with them, and you can help.

Find Friends Fast in MySpace with FriendBlasterPro

If you are into social networking for its powerful marketing potential, then the more friends you have, the greater your market reach. The trick is to attract a circle of followers who are kindred spirits who share interests similar to yours. Finding friends one by one could take a considerable amount of time before you have a decent group.

Enter FriendBlasterPro a brilliant friend-finding application to save the day. This program more or less automates the process and takes all the headaches out of it for you.

Here’s how it works. After installing, run the program, and log into your MySpace account from within FriendBlasterPro. Locate groups, forums, and classified ads that are related to your area of interest. Alternatively, conduct a search on the topic you wish. When the results page appears, click on the Gather ID’s [sic]. You can then instruct the program to collect just from the current page or all pages. Normally, you would want to harvest all the pages. By the way, you can gather friends from a Google search as well.

 

Depending on the size of the group, this operation could take a few minutes. The result will be a list of names displayed in the center panel of the FBP screen. You should save these data to a file for future reference. These files can be 10, 20, 30 thousand depending on the size of the interest group.

Next you will want to start requesting friends from this list of potentials you have just generated. Click on the Friend Requester tab. There are a couple of settings you will want to adjust. First is the Friends per day box. I recommend that you set it for 200 per day. Any more than this and you will risk having your account suspended by MySpace because they tend to frown on wholesale friend prospecting on a mass basis. This conservative setting will keep you well under the radar.

The second setting is important too, and that is the time delay. I recommend that you set it for 12 seconds so that it doesn’t appear as if you are blasting away like a machine gun. This will keep you under the radar as well.

There are many other powerful features in FriendBlasterPro. You can send out bulletins at a set time to a list. You can invite a list of friends to an event. You can accept friends automatically. You can send out comments and messages to a list. You can even filter your list for people, bands, comedy, film, gender, age range, last login, and location or multiple locations. The filters can be turned on or off for gathering or for sending. Are you beginning to see the power of this program? Just imagine what you can do with this amazing tool.

While this application is designed to be an autobot running happily along on its own steam, MySpace has thrown up some road blocks. Every once in a while the routine will halt and wait for you to input a Captcha code just to make sure you are a human and not a bot. There is no set number of records before this appears; you just have to live with it. If it weren’t for this minor annoyance, it would be a close to perfect program for putting your home business on autopilot.

I only wish that the developers would create a FriendBlasterPro for all the other social networks out there. We are fortunate to have it for MySpace at least, and you should be taking advantage of it to improve your marketing outreach.

Here’s the deal: You can download it and try it free for a limited time. You can purchase it for one MySpace account for $29.95. Unlimited MySpace accounts usage is $59.95. Upgrades from one to unlimited accounts is $30.00. To get your copy go to <a href=”http://tinyurl.com/b9fzol. “>FriendBlasterPro</a>.

How to forward text messages to your email inbox

When I was asked to review TxtForward, I had to stop and think about why I would want my text messages forwarded to my email inbox. Isn’t text messaging handy enough without cluttering up an already overburdened email inbox?

TxtForward is an application that will automatically forward your text messages to any email address you specify. You can determine if you want inbound, outbound or both forwarded.

Scratching my head, I began to ponder the possible benefits of forwarded text messages to an email address. The more I thought about it, the more benefits I conceived. Let me share with you the results and invite your comments if you see other uses.

First and foremost, I think the major benefit would be as a backup record to important texting exchanges as in the case of a legal transaction for business arrangements or travel plans. There is a log of text messages created in the Windows folder, but it can only be read in the client that created it. Having an email backup is more useful and makes more sense.

I’m playing around with the idea of creating a novel or a play based almost entirely on text message exchanges. I think it would be a hoot. Can you imagine a play that would have two people texting back and forth never saying an audible word to one another? The scenes would change from home to office to car to restaurant and so forth throughout the day, but texting would be the only interaction. The audience would be treated to two huge screens each representing the actors’ cell phones.

The problem my collaborator and I discovered was that some of the messages had been inadvertently erased. Some of the dates were screwed up and out of sequence when the machine was reset unwittingly and the date not adjusted. An email backup would have saved the day.

Besides backup, this utility could have a whole range of stealth applications. For instance, what about cheating spouses? The program could be surreptitiously installed in the unsuspecting suspected spouse’s phone and programmed to route an email to your lawyer, private eye, or perhaps to the other guilty party’s email. It’s also a way to make sure your kids are where they are supposed to be and with whom they’re supposed to be. When I was young, I used to go to the library a lot, or at least that’s what I told my parents. I wonder if kids still do that. Parents would probably just tell them to look it up online.

I must say that when I’m sitting in front of my computer working, it’s nice to have my text messages streamed in with my email so that I don’t have to deal with my phone. I use a program called True Connect from raspberry software.com the places a tool bar on your Outlook ribbon that allows you to create and answer SMS messages. This brings up a wish list item for TxtForward, and that is to be able to reply to messages from an email client.

Another nice feature of TxtForward concerns those of us who have a whole stable of phones. As a writer/reviewer, I am always juggling several phones at any given moment. Some people have a private phone and a work phone. Wouldn’t it be nice if all your SMS messages could be directed to one depository, your email. Of course, with TxtForward this is no problem.

Another plus is that if you change phone numbers or get a new phone or SIM card, with TxtForward, your SMS records remain intact.

Now let’s look at security issues. Unfortunately, email clients that I’m familiar with do not allow the encryption of folders, files, and messages, so if your communications are sensitive, you are at risk. About the best you can do is password protect your whole email program, but this is a bother and isn’t really all that secure. Another suggestion is to create an obscure email account that you can password protect and use that for your messages with security issues.

I have another approach. First you will need to get a copy of Resco Explorer, which is an amazing program in itself basically for Windows Mobile devices. It’s actually a whole suite of useful utilities. But of interest here is the fact that it places an item on your desktop right click menu button for encryption of files and folders. With this application installed on your desktop, you can then create a page in Word and simply drag your text message email over to the Word page taking care to keep them in order. You can annotate them and organize them. After you have saved the page you can encrypt it and password protect it. How’s that for a creative solution?

By the way, you have the choice of forward messages from the developer’s server or directly from you phone. Note that some services such as Gmail will not show messages sent to yourself. In this case, you would want to use Electric Pocket’s server or send them to another email account. Electric Pocket swears that you can have complete confidence and that they do not log, monitor or record messages on their server.

In conclusion, it seems that the usefulness of this application is only limited by your imagination. It should have a premium edition capable of sending to multiple email addresses. It would be nice if Electric Pocket addressed the issue of security too. TxtForward would be even more useful if you could respond to messages directly from the email program.

Take it for a trail run or make it yours for a mere $7.95. It’s available from www.electricpocket.com.

If you can think of any more helpful uses of this application, please share.

Texting with Tatango for fun and profit

Yesterday I published an article in which I maintained that text message or SMS marketing is the future of advertising. I even went so far as to declare that there has never been a more powerful marketing tool ever invented.

Today let me share with you a great way to get started in mobile marketing or just keeping in touch with a group through texting. Allow me to introduce you to Tatango.

Tatango was invented by some fraternity brothers who needed a way to keep the brethren apprised of meetings and activities which was always a daunting task. They came up with an application that allowed them to send out a text message to all the guys’ mobile phones simultaneously, and it worked like a charm.

Now, a few years later, the system has been funded by venture capitalists, and it is available for public consumption. The good news is that it is free, so it makes a great way to get started with the power of texting.

It can be used simply as a group communication tool for a soccer team or a church group. It can also be used my MLM junkies wanting to keep in touch with their downline. It can also be used as a recruiting tool by allowing people to text into the system requesting to be included on the distribution list.

There are two elements to SMS or short message service communication. First is a short code consisting usually of five digits instead of ten, making it easier for users. The second aspect is a keyword used for identifying the group and the appropriate response for the server to send back. Accordingly, suppose you were a realtor and you had a texting panel on your for sale sign. It would say something like “text mls12234 to 34567.” This instructs a prospective client to send a message to 34567 with the code mlm12234. This tells the computer to include this customer in the database and to return information about the particular property in question.
The beauty of SMS marketing is that that customer must request to be sent information on an opt-in basis. Recipients may opt-out at any time by merely texting the word STOP. They are automatically removed from the database. Ideally this is how it works and is mandated by the FCC. However, there have been instances of abuse by foreign servers over which the FCC has no authority. There will always be some people who abuse the system.

There are four ways for people to join your group. You can send an email invitation to an individual or list with instructions. You can send a text message to a mobile phone number with instructions. Tatango offers a widget that can be embedded in social networking sites such as MySpace, Twitter, Facebook, and Linkedin, a blog or Website that enables people to sign up for your group. This is a terrific tool for expanding your marketing list.

As I mentioned, this is a free service. However, the free service is supported by advertising. This means that each message contains a short ad from a sponsor. This may be tolerable for members of a team or a social group looking for an inexpensive but efficient means of communication. But it would hardly do for a professional association or for business marketing efforts.
Accordingly, Tatango has different levels of service ranging in price for varying numbers of ad free messages ranging from 200 for $9.95 to 3000 for $99.95.

You receive from one to 5 keywords depending on account level. Keywords may be used to identify different groups or different marketing campaigns. For instance, suppose you owned a pizza restaurant, and you wanted to identify vegetarians from meat lovers so that you could segment future marketing strategies. You could offer different specials with keywords identifying each group.
While Tatango is a great way to get started with texting for a group for free, I would not advise using the free service for a business. You will turn your customers off with the ads in the messages. If you want to use this service for your business, you would certainly use a paid plan that is ad free. The only ads you want in a message are yours.

Check out Tatango at http://www.tatango.com. Get a free account to see how it works. See if Tatango’s paid services will suit your needs. Keep in mind that there are other, more sophisticated service providers available that you may wish to investigate before making a commitment to a sustained mobile marketing effort.

If would like to learn more about mobile marketing, please visit my SMS Blog.

The most powerful marketing tool ever invented

Who doesn’t have a cell phone these days? Many people are eliminating their landlines and using a cell phone exclusively. People who pack cell phones are never without them wherever they go. That’s what makes text message marketing the most powerful advertising tool in the history of the universe. You can get your message to your targeted, opt-in audience instantly with a measured response through SMS.

SMS stands for Short Message Service. Perhaps you are more familiar with the term Text Messaging, which is the same thing. The teen crowd has embraced this technology as the preferred method of communication and considers email something that their grandparents use. However, texting has now caught on across the board as a super quick method of communication because it is unobtrusive and not cumbersome like email and ever-so-much more timely.

SMS marketing has been slow to take off in the United States mainly because of incompatible telephone technologies among competing companies. In the rest of the world, however, text message marketing is common, and you see it everywhere. Now it is positioned to become the most common, profitable, and effective means of advertising, especially in our beleaguered economy where every advertising penny must be pinched and counted.

Just think of the crisis that could have been averted if the University of Virginia had sent out an SMS alert to faculty and students instead of relying on email, which most people didn’t see until they got home that night after the tragedy was all over.

Not only can you reach your audience immediately with timely information, but you can also deliver coupons and direct them to a more informative Website link.

Suppose you are a restaurant owner who wants to run a special on a slow day. Send out a coupon an hour before lunch and watch the people flock in to your restaurant.

Suppose you are a realtor and you put your text message code on your for sale signs. People can text to that number and immediately receive a response with all the specs of the house including pictures of the interior.

If you are running a non-profit organization and you want to remind people to use your shopping mall or apprise them of specials, use SMS. Most savvy shoppers shop on their phones anyway.

Too bad more of the vendors are still in the Stone Age without .mobi sites optimized for small screen handheld devices. This is changing as vendors are beginning to realize their oversight.

Let’s face it, more people have and use mobile phones today than computers, and they always have their phones with them. Accordingly, which do you think is the better medium for reaching people and informing them of your program?

Are you beginning to appreciate the power of SMS marketing? Do you see why it is the most powerful marketing tool in the history of the universe? You should be using it too.

To use SMS marketing effectively, you need a good service that will issue you a short code, usually 5 numbers instead of the usual 10 digit cell phone number, which is easier for people to use and to remember. Then you will have keywords that not only designate each campaign or offer but also signal the computer what offer to respond with.

Upon receiving the return message almost instantaneously, the customer can then act on it. Typical responses may be visiting a Website for further information, redeeming a coupon, or voting in a poll.

By the way, President Obama may well have been elected through the medium of SMS marketing through which he kept his constituency informed and continually solicited contributions in a highly effective manner. However, I was disappointed to learn that in our time of economic woes, he choose a foreign company instead of a U.S. company to handle this business. Shame on him.

A reputable service that I highly recommend is the service offered by Synergetics SMS.

Note that there are special Websites now optimized for small screen viewing that usually have a .mobi extension. You may wish to consider constructing such a site for your business if you intend to engage the mobile market.

Just think what it would do for your business if you could notify your customers of a new offering of an ebook that they could instantly download, a new offer, a Webinar, or the announcement of a sale or any new product and get an immediate, measurable response. What if you could conduct a marketing poll and get spontaneous feedback? It’s a great way to conduct an affiliate marketing business as well. MLM junkies can use it to keep their downline motivated and to generate new leads. The applications are only limited by your imagination.

Ladies and gentlemen, there has never, ever before been a more powerful marketing tool in the history of the universe. If you are not taking advantage of the fact that almost every man, woman, and child carries a cell phone these days through which you can contact them no matter where they are or when, you need your head examined.

Let me stress that this is not SPAM. A person must request that you send the information. They may opt out at any time by merely texting the word STOP, and they are out of the system automatically.

Clearly, mobile marketing is the future of advertising. To learn more about SMS and mobile marketing, please visit The SMS Blog.