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Social media marketing will become the mainstream in 2010, according to the Direct Marketing Association (DMA).

Kevin Dendy, commercial director at the trade association said that more and more businesses will use social media, including Facebook, Twitter and blogs, to target consumers over the coming months.

This may come as welcome news to businesses looking to expand their mobile marketing capabilities as many social networking sites are available and widely-used as handset versions.

However, Mr Dendy went on to say that it was important that businesses expand their marketing campaigns beyond this platform.

"It's all about being integrated," he said. "There are great campaigns that will testify to the fact that actually the multiple campaign still is the winner, rather than single channel."

His comments came after it was revealed by marketing software solutions company Unica that nearly half of marketers have already used social media for their campaigns and a quarter will use it over the next 12 months.

Commuting has been seen as the best time for businesses to target customers with mobile marketing techniques, according to new research.

A survey by Compete.com found that the majority of smartphone users browse on their mobiles during commutes and while watching television, mobilemarketingwatch reported.

This might come as useful information for businesses looking at how to best target their customers.

The survey also revealed the type of advertising that users are most receptive to. It found that users appreciated marketing that had value for them such as offers of grocery coupons, which was the most favoured, at 36 per cent.

Related to this is the second most favourable advert, scannable barcodes. Users were found to appreciate offers that can be scanned and redeemed using their device.

Other adverts including film offers (26 per cent) and SMS marketing (21 per cent) were also well received.

It has been reported that smartphones are leading the way for marketers, but it was announced yesterday (March 15th) that 120,000 Apple iPads have been pre-ordered, a device which has shown great opportunity for mobile marketing.

ITV mid-morning lifestyle show This Morning has launched two huge competitions this week for viewers to enter via a premium rate phone line.

One competition offers the chance to win tickets to the Dancing on Ice tour at London's O2 Arena. The trip includes an overnight stay at the Four Seasons Canary Wharf hotel, with travel and £200 spending money included.

If this was not enough, the winner will also receive a Nintendo Wii console and the Dancing on Ice Wii videogame.

Running alongside this competition is the show's weekly offering of prizes. This week presenters Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby are asking viewers to answer the question via a premium rate phone line or SMS line with the chance to win a Fiat 500 1.2 car.

On top of this, the winner will get their mortgage paid for an entire year up the value of £20,000, an all-inclusive, week-long holiday for four at the Fiesta Garden Beach Resort in Sicily, as well as £25,000 in cash.

Both competitions will run until Friday March 19th.

A new service for families to ensure their elderly relatives take their pills on time has been set up using a premium rate phone line.

The Telephone Reminder Service has been set up by communications company Heart Communications and provides a service to customers to relieve the burden of making sure that their relatives who live alone take their medication.

One caller phones up the client as often as three times a day, to remind them to take their pills or even eat lunch. If they do not answer the phone, then they call the relative to let them know that there might be a problem.

Calls to the premium rate phone line cost from 99p per minute and the initiative has been praised for offering elderly people living alone more independence and a feeling of security.

A spokesman for the company told the Metro: "This service offers great peace-of-mind to relatives of elderly or disabled people who live alone."

Danny Young has failed to win enough premium line SMS votes to stay in the Dancing on Ice contest.

The former Coronation Street actor was left in the bottom two and had to perform in a skate-off against Hollyoaks actor Kieron Richardson.

After earning the lowest number of SMS votes, the two actors were put to the judging panel, which includes ex-Spice Girl Emma Bunton, who then voted among them to send Danny home.

This week was possibly the toughest yet as it was 'props week', where skaters are required to use one prop during their routine. For Danny, it was a hat, which he unfortunately dropped.

However, Danny left despite getting his highest score from the judges – 25.5 out of 30.

On leaving, he said: "Hilary the hat let us down a little bit, but I've had an amazing time."

Kieron, Danniella Westbrook, Hayley Tamaddon and Gary Lucy have made it through to next week's semi-final.

Comedian Rufus Hound has won the grand final of BBC1's Let's Dance for Sport's Relief after earning the most premium phone line votes.

His rendition of Cheryl Cole's hit Fight For This Love, in which he dressed up in military gear, complete with bare legs and a long brown wig, placed him as the bookie's favourite since he appeared in the heats in week one.

Six finalists performed in the final on Saturday night (March 13th), which included acts by Kate Garraway and Richard Arnold, actress Debra Stephenson and the Grumpy Old Women.

Hound beat other favourite, comedienne Katy Brand, who came second. Brand performed a rendition of Beyonce's Single Ladies, dressed in a tight black leotard.

Handed his award by last year's winner Robert Webb, Hound said: "I believe this moment defines me and is history."

Proceeds from the premium phone line throughout the series have been given to Sport Relief, a sister charity to Comic Relief.

Solo artist Josh has gone on to win Your Country Needs You in a premium line phone vote. He will represent the UK in this year's Eurovision Song Contest in Oslo.

Last Friday (March 12th), six acts played a version of a Pete Waterman hit on the BBC1 one-off show, presented by Graham Norton.

Waterman, who has produced the song for this year's contest, chose his three favourites who then went on to perform their version of the song, entitled That Sounds Good to Me.

The public then voted for their favourite, choosing 19-year-old Josh Dubovie.

Josh, from Basildon, competed against Esma and male artist Alexis for the title and will go on to sing at the main event in Norway on May 29th.

On winning, the amateur singer said: "I'm so so happy, I really can't believe it - is this real? I never believed I'd come this far."

Last year, new Sugababes singer Jade Ewen sang an Andrew Lloyd Webber-produced song and came fifth in the competition.

PhoneBrain, a scheme that teaches children in schools about internet micropayments on their mobiles, has won an award.

Created by industry regulator PhonepayPlus, the project was awarded a Hollis Sponsorship Award in the Education Sponsorship category.

The watchdog introduced the scheme in response to the growing use of children downloading apps and games to their mobiles as well as voting in premium rate competitions and saw a need to educate pupils on where to find out about the costs of these services, while still enjoying them.

Over 50,000 pupils took part in the ICT lessons and this year it is expected that over 1,000 schools will take part now that it has introduced new teaching resources such as encouraging pupils to create their own phone-paid business plan.

Paul Whiteing, chief executive of PhonepayPlus, said: "PhoneBrain is an example of a truly innovative consumer literacy initiative. We are providing teachers with free, curriculum-friendly lesson plans that fit in with the skills students are required to learn, but also help teens get to grips with the services they're using on their mobiles."

Global video sharing site YouTube has announced that it will show advertising throughout the mobile version of its website.

This might come as welcome news to businesses looking to further their mobile marketing strategy across the global sphere.

According to YouTube, its mobile site saw a 160 per cent traffic increase in 2009.

It said in a blog on its website: "The increased usage of high-end devices like the iPhone and Android is also making mobile advertising easier and more effective for advertisers."

To begin with, the advertising will be used on US and Japanese versions of the site before rolling out worldwide if successful.

"We've already seen some early campaigns run on YouTube's mobile site by advertisers like Sony … and Kia, both of whom were able to easily reach their target audience, no matter where they were looking for video," the creators claimed.

Test campaigns using brands including L'Oreal and Land Rover have shown a rise in click-through and increased brand awareness.

Mobile marketing via the internet using smartphones is as popular as SMS marketing, according to new research.

Marketing software solutions firm Unica Corporation released a report yesterday (March 11th), which showed that more than one third of marketers surveyed conduct some type of mobile marketing, finding that "the richer interactivity" of mobile web sites and mobile applications has proved to be as effective as SMS marketing.

Paul McNulty, chief marketing officer for the group, said: "2010 is shaping up to be an exciting year for marketers. Unprecedented change, brought on by a volatile economy, the rise of new channels, and the increased demand for financial accountability, are creating a new era in marketing."

The research also found that social media marketing is proving to be an increasingly used tool by businesses. This may come as welcome news for companies as Facebook recently announced plans to introduce a form of internet micropayments on its service.

"This new era is more immediate, more personal, more social, and more engaging," Mr McNulty added.

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