But regulatory and best practice expertise from your online marketing partner is going to be even more critical in the near future. The United States is in the midst of one of the biggest political years in decades, and it is not just following the presidential race that has online marketers paying attention to Washington D.C.

It’s no news that there is a growing anti-Starbucks constituency who feel as though the company may have made a few wrong turns along the way to Mega Brand Stardom. In 2007, the company’s stock dropped 42.8%, and is already down another 14.7% since the beginning of this year. Contributing factors? Independent music supporter turned corporate label sellout? Maybe a little… A decline in customer service and quality products? Probably a little more… Packing in stores across the street from one another? Maybe even more… Perhaps the strategy behind that idea was to have a convenient place to go for coffee – while you’re waiting in line for your coffee. One of the most astounding disenchantments is that in addition to paying close to $10 for a cup of coffee and a little breakfast nosh, if you’d like to stay and relax for a bit, you can plan to pay even more for the luxury of WiFi access.

The return of CEO Howard Schultz has brought blissful hope of a return to the “good ‘ol days” when, sure, coffee was still $4 a cup, but at least it had some character. The CEO himself was quoted recently as suggesting, “You have to balance creativity and entrepreneurship with process and strategy”.

Perhaps harkening back to its whimsical beginnings will somewhat ease the media beating the brand has already endured this year, but alas, there is more. Starbucks is the industry’s whipping boy once again with their latest online marketing effort, MyStarbucksIdea.com. In the company’s own press release, it touts the site as “Starbucks first online community that takes the Starbucks Experience outside the store and enables customers to play a role in shaping the company's future.” It sounds social enough. The only problem? That exact site already exists. It’s called StarbucksGossip.com. Only it’s not a Starbucks-owned domain.

Of course, StarbucksGossip.com, the legitimate social community, was quick to give MyStarbucksIdea.com a very enthusiastic thumbs down. Sparky, a blog contributor and savvy consumer, even went as far as to make the observation, “It's a dud -- a suggestion box with voting. True social networking would have connected customers with EACH OTHER on many topics -- including those that are not coffee related. Instead, we get separate partner and customer sites. And the customer site is led by partners!”

StarbucksGossip.com, which has actually been around since 2004, gained substantial media attention and a huge spike in traffic towards the end of last year. A Starbucks corporate memo was leaked and posted on the site, written by recently reinstated CEO Howard Schultz, and addressing top executives regarding his fears about the company losing its soul. The site’s owner, journalist Jim Romenesko, holds a full-time job with the Poynter Institute, a nonprofit media-training center in Florida. When The Seattle Times interviewed Romenesko about his opinion of Schultz’s statement, he agreed. “Yes,” says Romenesko. “[I think he got it right.] Particularly this line: ‘One of the results has been stores that no longer have the soul of the past and reflect a chain of stores vs. the warm feeling of a neighborhood store.’ I laugh because Starbucks doesn't let employees use perfume or cologne while on duty because it will get in the way of the smell of coffee in the stores. That's laughable, because when I walk into a Starbucks now, I smell egg and bacon from the breakfast sandwiches and think for a second that I'm in a McDonald's.”

To lock in the brand’s new designation as a social marketing outcast, the same day the Starbuck’s press release around MyStarbucksIdea.com was publicized, New York Magazine smugly countered the announcement with this comment, “What’s truly astounding is that many of the ‘suggestions’ posted there yesterday were announced as new initiatives by the company today. Talk about being heard!” This was an obvious jab to the staged nature of the site and the impossibility that consumers were really playing an integral role.

Now may be the appropriate time for an interlude around the vast benefits of creating a thriving social community around your brand – as well as a few positive examples. Social marketing can be a significant contributor to positive recall and increased conversions, when properly integrated.

In a recent study on consumers’ use of Social Media from the Society for New Communication Research, Dell and Amazon were the two brands cited most often when asked which companies have done the best job in using social media to respond to customer care issues. Dell also utilizes Dell IdeaStorm.com, which allows consumers to make suggestions for products. The site keeps a running tally of the number of ideas contributed. It gives consumers a voice, while also providing an inside perspective of what other ideas may already be in development by the company itself.

MySpace announced recently the launch of MySpace Music, expected to roll out over the next several months. The music industry’s woes around a failing revenue model could receive some relief with the help of this social marketing behemoth. According to Nielson SoundScan data for 2007, all album sales, including digital, dropped 9.5% last year – while still taking into consideration the 45% increase from digital sales. What MySpace Music proposes is the idea that not only can you listen to and purchase music online, but share opinions, read reviews, download the ringtones, and more. The possibility to increase revenue is substantial when you consider that these items can span the artists’ pages, fan pages, as well as the music site itself. On the other end of the spectrum, since its inception in 2003, iTunes has done little to build a community around the music.

And now, for my final, and current social marketing favorite – the Honda Element. In December of last year, DogCars.com, a dog lover’s online community, named the Honda Element “DogCar of the Year.” Honda’s agency, RPA, took that idea and turned it into their latest television ad, “Pointer,” which relays the features of the car through a dog’s perspective. The creative was also carried over into banner ads and online videos.

68% of online marketers surveyed by iMedia Connection in February of this year believe that traditional media will lose dollars to user-generated content. Brands that successfully partner with their consumers online will experience collaboration throughout all of the stages of the marketing process, from inception, to creation, to sales and post sale support. By targeting influentials online, brands can effectively connect with their target audience in a positive way, as well as monitor potential problems much more efficiently, before significant damage can be done.

Critical to the decision process is the economic conditions of mobile from the consumer side. In the end, it doesn't matter how beefed up the mobile agency is or how glitzy the product if there is not a current -- and expanding -- marketplace to exploit.

When you put an ad in a magazine, more people see it. It’s vivid and directed… but it has a similar type of limitation.

Regardless of format, print ads can only cover so much space.

These ads serve a purpose within a certain scope… but they’re limited by access. Billboards can only be seen by people passing a precise location. Magazines can only be seen by people with subscriptions or single issues, often within a certain area. When it comes to physical media space, there are strict physical limitations.

Step One: Know your technology.

The birth of Apple’s iPhone in June of last year sent the technology-savvy population spinning into a buying frenzy comparable to the Tickle Me Elmo shortage of 1996 (another technology-driven device, I might point out). In the last six months, Apple has sold more than four million units. Google disclosed to The New York Times this month that even though the iPhone currently constitutes only two percent of smart-phones worldwide, it received more mobile web traffic from iPhones this Christmas than from any other mobile device. Apple achieved this remarkable success with its iPhone, not through the device alone, but by offering an easy to use mobile web component with Wi-Fi for the convenience of its consumers.

Step Two: Determine your message.

Technology drives media. The challenge is to not get so caught up in the functionality as to let it outshine your messaging. A campaign is only as cool as its recall. Mobile marketing is focused around the consumer’s immediate satisfaction. Make it too complicated and you’ve lost a potential sale. Make it turnkey, and you can engage your audience, outrun your competition, and make yourself a brand champion.

When good ideas go bad…

Great ideas through traditional advertising venues can sometimes come up flat through a mobile initiative. Cross-platform campaigns are not out of the question when incorporating mobile marketing, but keep in mind the format of the technology. As Papa John’s learned below, not everyone has web connectivity via their cell phone. Be prepared to problem-solve, be creative, and remember your audience.

Step Three: Effectively incorporate mobile marketing into your brand efforts.

Many of the national pizza chains have adopted online & mobile web ordering in an attempt gain a larger piece of the pie. The measured success of these marketing efforts was quickly pinned against the hurdle of outdated cell phones lacking web browsers. Papa John’s was the first chain to try to minimize this fallout through the adoption of text message ordering for all of its 2,700 U.S. locations in November, 2007. The chain was also the first to offer online ordering in 2001, which now accounts for 20% of their overall sales. In the mobile marketing pizza world, Papa John’s is what I would call “The Big Cheese”.

And this past September, Orbitz launched the latest version of their Orbitz TLC service with “Traveler Update” via PDA or cell phone. This online resource allows a community of travelers to share up-to-the-minute insights on travel conditions. Fellow travelers can alert one another to long check-in lines at the airport, traffic delays, security wait time, etc. Orbitz combines this new service with the real-time information it already offers from the FAA and other respected sources, ensuring that each of their travelers has everything they need to help their travels go smoothly.

So let’s recap. Your consumer gains convenience and immediate satisfaction. You gain brand loyalty and an increased bottom line. If you’re ready to take the next step in securing the lion’s share of your target audience, I would suggest taking a serious look at how mobile marketing can help you towards your business goals. And remember, this is only the beginning…

Google, with potential eyes on launching the "GPhone", has been moving forward with the release of "Android", yet another mobile operating system to enter the mobile marketplace.

But Google might finally be able to clean up the clutter. To date, Symbian, Windows, Linux, Palm, and Nokia have all been actively used in the mobile arena as operating systems. Symbian, originally conceived as an alliance among cellphone makers to produce a standardized operating system, dominates the European marketplace but has failed to gain traction in the United States due mainly to the departure of key players in the alliance and strategic moves by other operating systems to carve out and defend market share.

By the way, I lead with the online tactics for good reason.