A higher education in mobile marketing.

Here’s something to think about…

How many times a day do you use your phone to check your email? How about Facebook? Twitter?

Whether you realize it or not, the future of marketing is mobile.

Have you even considered how much mobile media you consume on a regular basis?

Internet marketing isn’t just happening on the computer.

Man could not grasp the vastness of the universe, so he created his own. It was called the internet.

The proliferation of Web-enabled mobile media platforms like smartphones and tablet computers has made this human created universe literally available, at your fingertips anywhere, and anytime you choose. Mobile media allows people to interact with virtually anything, anywhere.

Because this technology has become so readily available, this represents a massive paradigm shift in the way many businesses have chosen to market their business.

Already businesses have seen incredible results from the “Facebook Deals” platform as well as a number of other local platforms such as Foursquare, Gowalla and even to a certain extent, Twitter.

For those who aren’t familiar with Facebook Deals however, Deals allows businesses to reward people for “checking in”, offering a number of “reward” systems, such as a loyalty program that acts as a virtual punch card, leaving a punch every time a user “checks in” and issuing a reward (such as a coupon) by the company.

This sort of hyper local, mobile media experience can do some really incredible things for a business. Not only is the user getting rewarded for “checking in” but that checkin also gets published to their friends News Feed (or Tweet stream), offering that social proof that businesses are so desperately looking for in today’s online landscape.

If you’re a local business owner, you may be missing out on a significant share of social equity.

So if you’re running a brick and mortar business and you’re not rewarding people for “checking in” (doesn’t really matter what platform, Facebook, Twitter or Gowalla, pick your poison) you’re easily missing two critical pieces of your mobile media marketing, acquisition and retention.

The acquisition comes from the ever increasingly important “Social proof” element we talked about earlier. Your ‘s friends seeing “John Smith checked in at (insert your business here)” lets people know that your business is a cool place to spend money. That check in acts as a vote and shows others that your business has value and it is ok to spend money with you. Where people have become so acutely aware of their financial situations, that check in could mean the difference between gaining a new or experiencing another missed opportunity.

Likewise rewarding people for “checking in” gives people a reason to come back and ultimately continue to promoting your business. By saying “buy 5 crepes, get 1 half off” you’re giving a a reason to come back. You’re also further solidifying your chances of getting those 5 “check ins”, which should not be taken lightly.

The average user on Facebook has 180 friends, a good majority of them being people they went to high school with and other people whom they are locally connected. By rewarding that person to “check in” multiple times, you’re significantly increasing your chances of being seen by those 180 new people. And that’s only by encouraging only 1 person to check in.

With the amount of web enabled devices in the field (5 billion overall) Low figures make it safe to assume that 5% of your overall foot has the technology and capability to participate in a deal program. You’re simply just not taking advantage.

It’s not your fault, and yes, there is a solution.

With all of the innovations that have happened in the past 5 years no wait 2 years year, no one would blame you if you decided that keeping up was just impossible. Heck, the example I talked about above is only one opportunity, and is far from the extent of other mobile media technologies currently exist (such as geo-fencing, augmented reality and my personal favorite QR codes)

If you have been trying to keep up, but have been finding the lack of centralized information on the topic of mobile marketing a little frustrating, I have good news for you.

Rutgers University has started a Mini MBA program for Mobile Marketing

Full disclosure, I was contacted to blog about this, but I absolutely believe that a program like this can be extremely valuable for those who participate.

It’s a Mini MBA certificate program is designed for executives or teams of professionals who work in marketing, media,  and related fields.

According to the press release, the program “exposes participants to the full range of mobile tools, technologies, best practices, and marketing strategies – enabling them to track ROI and optimize content for mobile environments.”  Measurable ROI being the operative phrase.

The program is being taught by Christina “CK” Kerley, one of the top thought leaders in the field of Mobile Marketing. Rutgers will be holding an Open House on Thursday, Feb. 17, 2011,featuring Christina “CK” Kerley,  For more information and to register, check out this link

It has been said that by 2015 the computer will no longer be the primary device by which the internet is accessed.

With the accelerated rate of which mobile technology has been infiltrating our daily lives, mobile media is the future of which we are moving towards.

Just ask my friend Shane at Tc geeks, we’ve had many conversations about how mobile technology will soon change the way we interact not just with each other and businesses, but also with our physical environment in ways that were previously not possible.

I believe that 99% of marketers have only scratched the surface on just how powerful mobile media can be. In just a few years many within the online marketing community will be shaken to their core and without a doubt have to have some level of proficiency in mobile marketing in order to survive.

As people become liberated from their computers and more deeply connected, what do you think this means for business and where exactly is our future headed?