From the high street to the boardroom, smart mobile devices that connect consumers to content, communities, businesses and brands are everywhere. Half of new mobiles sold in Western Europe in 2011 are forecast to be smartphones -- the implications of the ‘mobilisation’of everyday life matter profoundly to anyone involved in the business of marketing and communications.

How many brands are taking advantage of mobile as a channel to engage directly with audiences 24/7 wherever they may be? Are marketing teams aware of the potential that mobile holds for personalised andinteractive communications? Do marketers and communications leaders know when a mobile strategy isappropriate, and are they aware of the pitfalls and how to avoid them?

Smart Marketing: Mobilising Your Brand

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33 and a Third -- Issue 7

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See the full gallery on Posterous

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Very clever stuff, even if it does need a bit of refinement.

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Below is an article I've written for the latest edition of Scotland's Executive Magazine. I'm hosting a Weber Shandwick Digital Academy with Inverness Chamber of Commerce on 1st September -- if you'd like to book a place then visit www.inverness-chamber.co.uk

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Over the past few years the concept of ‘digital’ has hit the business world with a vengeance. Marketers, communicators and brand managers have been inundated with information telling them they need to be busy on Facebook, Twitter and blogging in order to reach modern audiences. Trouble is these very same platforms are as much a part of the problem as they are the solution.

Many businesses are now actively involved in social media but their efforts are unfocused and inconsistent, with responsibilities split between departments or individuals. In some firms it’s the intern, ‘young trendy’ or simply the IT department who are charged with making digital a reality – despite the profound implications this might have. So when an organisation has worked hard to develop its business and marketing plans, surely it should be aligning these new digital channels with its existing communications strategy.

Increasingly, though, this is less of a social media problem and more of a wider brand challenge. When planning your communication you must work out how best to reach your audience. Be careful not to listen to the voices saying traditional media is dead.

Weber Shandwick surveyed over 1,000 UK adults as part of our INLINE Communications research into how people are truly influenced. We asked a representative sample of over 18s the question what the most influential factors were in helping them make a purchase decision.

The results challenge many of the myths surrounding media and influence. The first finding was that online advocacy – that’s to say user reviews and recommendations from strangers – was cited as being the most influential source of product/service information for UK consumers.

But while UK adults claimed that online channels were most influential on their purchase decisions, 43 percent also stated they often don’t believe what they read online until they have checked the facts in the traditional mainstream media. So, while ‘digital’ is clearly a critical channel for storytelling, you risk missing a huge opportunity unless you backup your online activities with traditional media coverage that validates your story.

Young consumers live on Facebook and don’t read traditional media, right? Wrong. Exactly half of UK consumers under the age of 35 believed magazines and newspapers to be influential. Of consumers over 45, only 29 percent made the same claim. In fact, young consumers are far more likely to find all sources of information influential. But the myth that the media isn’t the best way to reach young adults in the UK must be destroyed.

This research demonstrates that anyone seeking to influence consumers today can no longer afford to view online and offline separately, or just use online tools as a digital bolt-on to traditional communications campaigns. Businesses need to integrate all channels and communicate INLINE.

So, a Twitter account? A Facebook fan page? A “viral” video on YouTube? Creating all of this in isolation is not the answer to making sense of the digital world. You need to decide how best to reach your target audience and then take your brand, values and point of view out to it, using the most appropriate channels – some of which may be digital, some of which will likely not.

However large, however small, all businesses live or die based on successful communication and interaction with their customers. Social media means your business’s image and reputation can be defined by your audience. These days you need to build that image, build that reputation, with consistent messaging across a whole variety of touchpoints.

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Found this post by Alastair Campbell very interesting -- all about his experience of appearing on Top Gear and the bits they left out of his interview.

What particularly struck me were his comments that Twitter and other digital platforms enabled him to tell the story of what was edited out of the final TV show. In other words, the internet meant the full interview was still "broadcast" in a way that it wouldn't/couldn't have been a few years ago. What's more, people online are talking about this material that didn't make it onto the TV show.

It just goes to show that interviews aren't necessarily linear any more -- the bits they left out can be just as important.

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We've just published the latest edition of our regular Weber Shandwick newsletter 33 and a Third, which you can read below:

33 and a Third -- Issue 5

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