Like many other residents of the Northeast US, I spent the past weekend preparing for Hurricane Irene. We inventoried our food supply (thanks to couponing we had a great stockpile), filled the bathtub, replenished our battery collection, and embraced the media–the social media, that is. Yes, we had The Weather Channel running nonstop in the background, but it was social networking that really kept us engaged with storm developments.

A real-life Irene from Brooklyn, NY felt the effects of the social media rush firsthand, and she eventually “donated” her personal Twitter handle, @irene, to the cause of aggregating and disseminating important storm updates to her slightly misguided followers. A new study conducted by the Red Cross quantifies the important role social media plays during times of disaster. Among the key findings, the study revealed that:

• Internet is the third most popular means of information during emergencies, with nearly 1-in-5 adults turning to Facebook for this reason
• About 24% of the general population would definitely use social media such as Facebook or Twitter to communicate with loved ones during emergencies; that figure increases to 31% among online adults

So how exactly did social media bring us together during this stressful time? For those of you who lost power or otherwise missed it, here’s my roundup of three under-the-radar social media moments that helped connect us during Hurricane Irene: [...]

With the notion that smartphone sales will surpass computers in 2012, and that by 2013 mobile phones will be the most common device used to access the web, it’s understandable that so many marketers are investing or looking to invest in mobile advertising. It is clear that it will soon become the way to reach consumers.

Currently, the main form of mobile advertising is through text and banner ads via mobile ad networks like AdMob and iAd. Mobile ad campaigns generally experience high click-through rates (CTR) with an average CTR of 0.67% VS a 0.08% CTR for online banner campaigns. This is because mobile ads are somewhat a new form of advertising, and anything that is new brings about curiosity. Mobile web and app users will click on the ads just because they are intrigued to see an advertisement while conducting a search or using their favorite app. Search is the main activity done by mobile web users at 48%, followed by Socical Networking at 41%. Another reason for the high CTR with mobile campaigns are accidental clicks[...]