FoneGigs is a proud sponsor of mRecruitingcamp – a conference for HR and recruiting professionals. The conference will teach some of the latest methods on how to find talent utilizing mobile media. FoneGigs for instance, is the first company to reach job candidates via text message in the mobile marketing industry. (Had to throw my 2 cents in).

The conference will be held in San Francisco on September 30th, 2011. Michael Becker,  Managing Director for the Mobile Marketing Association, will be the keynote Speaker. Industry leaders like Microsoft, Hyatt, and Monster will be on hand to educate a select audience of HR and recruiting professionals. Here are a few of the topics that will be covered:

» Messaging for Talent Attraction & Engagement
» Mobile Web vs. Mobile App development
» Mobile Careers Site Optimization
» Next Gen Mobile Recruiting Apps
» Mobile & Diversity Recruiting
» Mobile Social & Recruiting
» Proximity Recruiting
» Augmented Reality (AR)
» Video in Mobile Recruitment
» QR Codes vs. Image Recognition
» The State of Mobile within North America
» Overcoming legal hurdles of mobile marketing
» Mobile workforce trends & what it means to recruiters

To learn more and register to attend, visit mRecruitingcamp.com.

Did Mobile Developer Jobs pick up or drop off in the 2nd quarter of 2011?

Looking at the 51 most populated cities and taking data from online job aggregator Indeed.com that I obtained three months ago, job postings for ‘Mobile Developer’ dropped an average of about 12%. Philadelphia, Fort Worth, and Milwaukee had the worst decline in the number of Mobile Developer job postings while Columbus and Omaha had the biggest increases.

Hear about the latest Mobile Developer Jobs at FoneGigs.com

San Francisco, Seattle, Atlanta, Boston and San Jose are still the easiest places to find a mobile app developer job in terms of number of job postings per 1,000 people. To read about the 2nd quarter results for ‘Web Developer’ jobs, click here.

Read about the toughest cities to find a Web and Mobile developer job here.

Do you think your iPhone is faster than your friend’s myTouch4G? Do you think T Mobile is faster than Rogers Wireless? Find out how fast your phone is by using the Mobile Speedtest.

The Speedtest will show you what other phones are faster on their network. That myTouch4G is leaving everyone else in the dirt! Come on iPhone and AT&T!

What is the average Mcommerce shopping cart abandonment rate?

Conducting transactions on a mobile phone is a fairly new concept. However, once it catches on, it will definitely be mainstream since users will be able to perform transactions while they are on-the-go, under time pressure and a laptop with internet access is not easily accessible.

Of course in order to ease the mobile checkout process, fewer steps to complete the conversion process are better for a user’s mobile experience along with making it easy for them to log in. So if you are allowing consumers to purchase products on your mobile site, what is considered the average mobile shopping cart abandonment rate?

Hear about the latest Mobile Marketing Jobs in your area at FoneGigs

Research from Econsultancy conducted in the UK in 2011 shows that out of those consumers who conducted some kind of mobile transaction, 83% experienced a problem. The problems that consumers faced were:

• Receiving error messages
• Problems logging in
• Credit card would not go through

How did the consumers react after the mobile transaction problem?

• 29% would abandon the mobile transaction and try later on a computer
• 16% would become more likely to buy from a competitor
• 17% would email or log a complaint with customer service
• 13% would abandon the transaction at the app/site and try a competitor instead

MeasureWorks recently published a study and found that the longer it took for a page to load, the higher the mobile abandonment rate increased.

It may be a bit too early to say that  somewhere between 17% and 22% is the average mobile abandonment rate, but rest assured, as more research and data is available, FoneGigs will continually inform its readers the latest in Mobile news and provide mobile marketing tips.

If 5% of your mobile subscribers respond to your mobile marketing text promotion, instead of looking to gather more subscribers, think about the 95% who did not respond. This is the course of action that Gary Bury, Managing Director at Mediaburst, recommends when testing your Mobile SMS Marketing campaign.

Lets use tennis rackets for an example. If you send 1,000 text messages saying you have a new line of tennis rackets, then get a 1% response rate which is equivalent to 10 sales, and given a tennis racket can cost $100, your 10 sales could be worth $1,000.  How can we increase that 1% to 2% and get another $1,000 from the same set of mobile subscribers?

First, stop sending your SMS promotion to all your contacts in one batch. If you have 1,000 mobile contacts, split your database into smaller units of 250.  It doesn’t matter which contacts you choose, but split it down into smaller chunks.  By using smaller chunks of data you can test more variables and see what has the best impact.

Now  that you have smaller chunks of data you can start testing.  One type of test is to send your message at different times while using the same message.  This depends a little on what you’re promoting but instead of sending 1,000 messages once a month, send 250 once a week.  Look at the results, do you get better results if you send on a particular day, or perhaps during a particular week of the month?  Maybe the best week is the first week of the month, just after most of us get paid, for example.

Hear about the latest Mobile Marketing gigs at FoneGigs

If you get really poor results at certain times, stop sending at those times.  If you’ve worked out the perfect week then start testing with the best day.  Have you already worked out the best day?  Test different times of the day.  It’s important to never stop testing.

Second test – tweak the copy.  Let’s assume the original copy is: “The new designer range of tennis rackets is now in stock, get down to Tennis world and check em out.”  Variants could include: “Check out our new Designer Rackets at Tennis World,” or  “Come to Tennis world this weekend and see our new Designer Tennis Rackets,” or even “Just in, New Designer Rackets at Tennis World, get em before the season ends!”

Your objective is not to keep the ones with the best response, it’s to drop the ones that get the worst response.  You should always be tweaking the best ones, trying to improve them again and again.  It’s an iterative process that doesn’t stop, just keep dropping the ones that do the worst.

Lastly, don’t stop tweaking.  Go back and test different times again, and try entirely new copy.  Things change, people change, and so should your SMS Marketing.

See the original article at MobileMarketingWatch

Have a desire to be well-versed in the mobile world?

Rutgers University is now offering a mini MBA Mobile Marketing program that can be completed in 10 sessions lasting approximately thirty-six hours. The program will be taught by executives who have experience in the mobile marketing realm.

Sign up to receive Mobile Marketing Job Alerts at FoneGigs

The course will address such questions as:

* How should marketers track their mobile programs, and what are the metrics and key performance indicators?

* What are the best practices and industry regulations of mobile marketing?

* How are companies succeeding through mobile marketing? What examples and case studies provide key lessons and direction for using mobile as a revenue-generating and communications channel?

To sign up to receive the latest job openings for mobile marketing gigs, register for free at FoneGigs. To read the original story from MobileMarketingWatch, click here.

Sure we all know that cities like San Francisco, New York, and Chicago are where the majority of web jobs are at, but that does not mean it is easy to get a web developer job in these cities. Surprisingly, it could be easier to find a web developer job in Boulder versus New York since there are 2.08 job listings per 1,000 residents in Boulder (making it the 18^th easiest place to find a web developer job) versus New York which only has 0.74 web developer job listings per 1,000 residents (66^th place).

Ten easiest cities to find web developer jobs:

Collecting data from the United States Census Bureau and online job aggregator Indeed.com, we compiled a list of America’s easiest and hardest cities for finding Web, Android and iPhone Developer jobs. Web developer, Android developer, and iPhone developer job listings for cities with a population of 100,000 or more (276 total) were retrieved on March 2, 2011. Cities that had at least 5 job listings were then ranked and only job listings for each city’s exact location were retrieved. Download the complete list of cities and their rankings here.

Sign up to hear about Mobile Developer jobs at FoneGigs.com

Since a job opening can be listed in more than one place and can remain online for a time after it is filled, this analysis does not reflect a precise outlook at where the Web Developer jobs are. Nevertheless, the results do present a strong case for which cities are the easiest and hardest for finding Web developer, Android developer, and iPhone developer jobs.

The easiest way to hear about Web or Mobile Developer jobs is by registering to receive mobile job alerts for free at FoneGigs.com. Read more about FoneGigs here.

Toughest cities with major populations to find web developer jobs

Although there are several cities like Beaumont, Flint, Garden Grove, and Odessa with a population of 100,000 or more that did not even rank in the list, we are going to look at 5 major metropolitan areas where it is really difficult to find a web developer job. Here they are:

No. 5: Philadelphia (86^th place) – 6^th largest US city.                                           0.47 ‘Web Developer’ job postings per 1,000 population

No. 4: Los Angeles (97^th place) – 2^nd largest US city.                                            0.41 ‘Web Developer’ job postings per 1,000 population

No. 3: Houston (113^th place) – 4^th largest US city.                                                      0.35 ‘Web Developer’ job postings per 1,000 population

No. 2: Phoenix (120^th place) – 5^th largest US city.                                                  0.30 ‘Web Developer’ job postings per 1,000 population

No. 1: San Antonio (141^st place) – 7^th largest US city.                                          0.21 ‘Web Developer’ job postings per 1,000 population

Download the FoneGigs Web & Mobile Developer Job Outlook that shows a complete list of cities along with their rankings and number of job listings.

What about Android and iPhone Developers?

For the most part, there are an equal number of job listings for both Android and iPhone developer jobs (5,497 vs. 5,677). Average salaries are roughly equivalent with Android developers earning $95,000 annually compared to $93,000 for iPhone developers. Similar to web developer job listings, most of the jobs are in New York, Chicago, and Seattle. However, it is easier to find gigs in Cambridge, Irving, and Atlanta.

5 Toughest major cities to find iPhone developer jobs

Although there are several cities like Memphis, Kansas City, Arlington, and Omaha with a population of 100,000 or more that did not even rank in the list, we are going to look at 5 major metropolitan areas where it is really difficult to find an iPhone developer job. Here they are:

Receive text or email alerts for Mobile Developer jobs at FoneGigs.com

No. 5: Houston (70^th place) –4^th largest US city.                                                0.008 ‘iPhone Developer’ job postings per 1,000 population

No. 4: Phoenix (71st place) – 5^th largest US city.                                                0.0075 ‘iPhone Developer’ job postings per 1,000 population

No. 3: Jacksonville (72nd place) – 13^th largest US city.                                                0.0074 ‘iPhone Developer’ job postings per 1,000 population

No. 2: Fort Worth (73rd place) – 17^th largest US city.                                                0.0069 ‘iPhone Developer’ job postings per 1,000 population

No. 1: Detroit (74th place) – 11^th largest US city.                                                0.0066 ‘iPhone Developer’ job postings per 1,000 population

Are there places where it is easier to find an Android Develop gig versus an iPhone developer gig and vice versa?

Yes! In cities like Austin, Fort Lauderdale and San Jose, there at least 1.5 Android developer job listings for every iPhone developer job listing. However, if you are a fan of Google and like Android programming, it will be a little tough finding a gig in Charlotte, Columbus, and Burbank where there are at least 2 iPhone developer job postings for every Android developer gig.

Looking at the graph below, the left side represents cities where the number of Android developer job listings greatly outweigh the number of iPhone developer job listings. On the right it is the opposite – cities where iPhone developer gigs outweigh Android gigs.

To see the easiest cities to find an Android and iPhone developer gig along with rankings of all cities with a population of 100,000 or more, download the FoneGigs Web and Mobile Developer job outlook here.

Mobile Apps Marketing 101

Smashing Magazine released a fantastic article about Marketing Your Mobile App. The article was written by Michael Flarup who is an interface designer based in Copenhagen. Competing against 150,000 apps in the App Store and counting, Michael provides great ideas for marketing your mobile app. What does it take to get good media coverage? How do you get people to talk about your app? How do you get people to buy your app?

Michael says the first thing is to be unique. Yes that may seem like common sense, but it is important to be the first developer in your category of product or you reinvent the existing category with something unique. Remember that whoopee cushion app that was a hit? Within days there were a few copycats in the market. There are hundreds of developers who are out to make a quick dollar, so it is important to be first or so unique that it will take a while before anyone can duplicate your efforts.

[By the way, did you know you can receive notices for Mobile Marketing and Mobile App Developer jobs from FoneGigs.com? Join us on FB, Twitter, or LinkedIn now!]

Michael further explains that when marketing a mobile app, one should be tweetable, be interesting, cater to blogs, think like media, control the hype, and launch big. Read the full article here.

What is your Online SOV on the Web?

If you have ever used TNS to try and figure out how much your competitors are spending on online advertising, you know that the numbers can be way off. Moreover, you don’t have access to their web analytics tool so you don’t know how many unique visitors they are getting every month either. I like using Compete.com because you can pull traffic data on your website and your top 4 competitors based on a sample that Compete collects.

Compete is a very powerful tool that can help you track the competition and online sov. In addition to providing website traffic, it will also tell you what keywords are popular for all brands, what affiliate links, and more.

Back to analyzing online sov, I not only like to compare competitor unique visitor data for my clients, but also show an estimate of how much money the competition is spending online (since we know that paid search and online display have the highest correlation with website traffic). By pulling unique visitor data from Compete, we can show the percentage of ‘online share of voice in the market’.

From looking at the example above, we can see that recently Budlight.com has been increasing its online share of voice the past couple of months. How is this helpful? Tracking this will provide a benchmark as to how much share of online voice you have with your online advertising budget. This is just one of the insights you can get out of Compete.com. There is much more insight you can pull especially when it comes to paid and organic search.

Well what about Facebook Fans and Twitter Followers? “My brand has more fans than my competitors, but we have a smaller online sov?” Good question. My suggestion is that you ‘weight’ a Facebook Fan and Twitter Follower. To be more specific, a Facebook Fan can equate to 50 unique visits. Why 50 and not 1, 10, or 100? It doesn’t matter how you decide to weight a fan or follower, the important thing is to keep it consistent across your brand and your competitors. Again, I am not saying a Facebook Fan is worth 50 unique visitors to your site, I will leave that discussion to other analysts and social media experts.

[By the way, did you know we have directories of Mobile Analytics, Mobile Ad Networks and more at FoneGigs.com? Download them now for free!]

Via: Mobile Marketer

Consumer Reports is now available on your Mobile Phone

While you are out and about shopping, check out reviews, ratings and reliability studies from Consumer Reports on your mobile. The company is charging $0.99 for a 24-hour access and $4.99 for 30-day access. If you are already a subscriber, the mobile service is free. The company believes that people will be more than willing to pay $0.99 when they are in a store and confronted with a tough purchasing decision.
The company’s mobile site provides data by category including vehicles, appliances, electronics, home and garden and babies. Users can browse information from any mobile device with internet access. Consumers can access ratings, reviews, product comparisons, poll results, buying advice, user reviews, brand reliability information, the latest news and blog posts. Moreover, video content can also be accessed via iPhone and Android devices.

Read the full article here.