I’ve said it before, and I’m sure I’ll say it many more times: Local, mobile and social are the future of advertising and marketing.

What does this mean? People search for local businesses all the time. Where’s a good thai restaurant nearby? Where’s the closest place to get my oil changed? These searches are being done at home, on laptops in coffee shops, from people’s iPhones. And as a business owner it’s important that you know what’s happening and adjust your marketing strategy accordingly.

Two companies in particular are seriously nailing this strategy: Yelp and Foursquare.

Yelp is a social networking site for reviews. You can do searches for local businesses, then see reviews that other members have posted for that business. And you can also post your own reviews. Restaurants with great Yelp reviews even get stickers like the Zagat ones to put on their front doors. It definitely means something to be highly reviewed by members of Yelp. Then came the Yelp iPhone app, so you can read and write reviews while you’re AT the business! And they didn’t stop there…

Foursquare is sort of derived from a couple different social networks for events: Upcoming.org, Meetup.com, etc. But originally specifically for iPhones. They’ve made a ton of updates and made the app available for other smartphones and the app is more fun and awesome than ever.

How does all of this relate to you as a business owner? Watch the clip and find out!

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Cheers!

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Here it is…the biggest change in advertising since the 90s.  No hype. This is huge. It’s based on several things that all occurred simultaneously.  And here’s all of it:

1. Last week Google released a service for mobile devices called Click to Call.  It enables the mobile device user to find the service or product they’re looking for using a Google search, then click on it directly to contact the business.

2. Google released Nexus One “the Google phone”.   And they have basically bypassed all the traditional routes and methods of cell phone distribution, and are doing the whole thing themselves.  It’s being released via T-Mobile, but you can go directly to Google and buy the phone, as well.

3. Google bought Admob, a mobile advertising platform company for $75 M.

4. Apple simultaneously purchased Quattro, Admob’s competitor company.

So two of the biggest corporations on earth have just spent many millions of dollars purchasing mobile advertising companies.  Add this to the fact that there are over 450 million mobile internet users, and you should clearly be able to see the future.  I suggest you get ready.

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I was just talking about this last week on the show, and it looks like today is a big day for mobile advertising!

Google’s really getting serious about mobile advertising.  In November they purchased AdMob, a mobile display ad technology provider, for $750 million.  If you’ve seen skinny horizontal ads at the top of an iPhone app or game, those have most likely been AdMob’s doing.  In the past, AdMob has concentrated on mobile display ads, while Google has focused on search ads.

The amount of money Google spent on this purchase shows how important Google feels the subject of mobile advertising really is.  It IS the future of advertising.  And to prove the seriousness of Google in this direction of advertising, here’s a bit of a letter that I received this morning:

“Dear AdWords Advertiser,

“We’re pleased to announce that beginning in January, your location-specific business phone number will display alongside your destination url in ads that appear on high-end mobile devices. Users will be able to click-to-call your business just as easily as they click to visit your website. You’ll be charged for clicks to call, same as you are for clicks to visit your website…”

Google is making it easier for mobile users to engage with your ads.  And this is just the beginning.  Google’s own phone, which uses Android software, called “Nexus One” is being unveiled at the Googleplex in Silicon Valley right NOW as I type this post.  It’s intended to be part of a new class of phones called “superphones”.

The other very interesting thing about this is Google moving forward with an implementation of click to call advertising.  I’ve seen other networks like Commission Junction roll out this kind of program and I’ve even seen Google dong experimental click to call tests, but this is the first time that I know of Google fully rolling out this type of advertising.

What’s everyone else doing about this?  Not sure, but at the moment iPhone users are still happy with their iPhones, and Blackberry users are still loyal Blackberry users.  But here’s something:  the rumor is that Apple is acquiring a company called “Quattro Wireless”, which is a mobile advertising company who rivals AdMob.  So it doesn’t look like everyone is sitting back on their haunches while Google takes over the mobile universe.  Which is something I find comforting.

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