The rise of social and mobile is rewriting the marketing playbook for even the most established companies. While many brands are still casting a wary eye at social media for business, Pepsi has embraced the technology, carving out an ambitious social strategy aimed at building relationships with the Millennial generation, soon to be the largest consumer group in US history.

In spite of the dizzying array of options available, email remains the preferred digital marketing tool, according to a March 2012 online survey of US marketing professionals conducted by trade publication Chief Marketer. In the survey, 78% of respondents confirmed that email marketing was the most popular tool used in their digital campaigns. This trend has not been missed by Inbound Marketing industry leader Hubspot, who has rolled out a significant enhancement to its already robust marketing automation software platform that will give your brand even more MOFU punch.

The shocking pace of US smartphone adaptation has quickened two prevailing social mobile trends: 1) a heightened demand for instant information, and 2) an increasing dependence on user-generated content (UGC) for consumer purchase decision.

In today’s hyper-paced business atmosphere, executives and marketers alike are often way too overwhelmed with day-to-day chaos to spend too much time pondering social media strategy. For those of you ready to hoist your laptop out the window, here’s a simple tip to help you pick the right social media channel without having to miss your son’s T-ball game:

Online daily deal provider Groupon, once the darling of Wall Street, has had its share of woes in recent months. Its stock is down over 50% from November's IPO price, thanks in part to a pending SEC investigation of the company’s Q4 2011 earnings restatement (actual net revenue was significantly lower when refunds to consumers for unused deals were factored in). In addition, merchants are beginning to pull back from Groupon, surveying their options in an increasingly crowded geo-local marketing landscape that includes the likes of Yelp, Google, Facebook, Amazon, Living Social and Foursquare, to name a few.

This post was born out of a fascinating and revealing conversation our CEO recently had with a business executive of a prominent Minneapolis-area car dealership who absolutely refused to entertain the idea of social media marketing in general, and Twitter in particular. A marketing director, she was convinced that her fairly expensive ad spend on a local radio station was all their brand needed to reach its target demographic, 18 to 45 year-old men. Incredulous, our fearless leader tried to explain that such a group was one of the sweet-spots for social media/Twitter marketing (in fact, 70% of Twitter users are between the ages of 18-45; of these, just under half are men). The marketing exec seemed agitated. She would have none of it, and quickly changed the subject.

With the rise of social and mobile, more people are going online to purchase goods and services than ever before. Marketers and business owners should be thinking about three trends in particular that are shaping the future of online commerce: social sharing, live online chat, and mobile commerce.

As you probably know, yesterday Google+ announced it will begin rolling out Hangouts On Air to the general public. Plenty of articles have already been written detailing exactly how the new service works (Hubspot wrote a great summary here), so I’ll spare the Internet another one. Instead, this blog will focus on a critical new functionality Hangouts On Air offers businesses and marketers: the ability to promote and host webinars that are open to the Google+ audience, and can be indirectly accessed by the billions who use Google’s search engine.

On May 3rd, Facebook officially rolled out its new Groupon-like marketing platform, Facebook Offers, to all local U.S. companies. With Offers, businesses can distribute coupons or other promotions to fans directly through news their news feeds. Two things make this a potential boon for your brand:  1) Facebook isn’t charging anything or taking a cut, and 2) when a Facebook user claims your Offer, his or her friends will see an ad in their news feed; the action also posts to the user’s Timeline.

In case you missed it, YouTube/Google threw a star-studded event for advertisers Wednesday night to promote its $100 million investment in new "channels," Google’s initiative to bring professional entertainment to the world's largest video site.³ There was Jay-Z, Flo Rida and the Neon Trees, Julia Stiles, Jennifer Beals, and Virginia Madsen, all partying down with the search giant’s generalissimo, Eric Schmidt.