There are a myriad of ways to leverage mobile, social and location. However, many marketers jump in without considering the importance of building an integrated and comprehensive campaign.

SoLoMo has become quite a catchphrase in the mobile space. And since the hype, marketers have been marrying all three mediums to better reach consumers to offer them a 360-degree experience.

?Many brands have challenges across all individually and definitely as an integrated approach,? said Russ Whitman, chief strategy officer of Ratio Interactive.

?The biggest challenge we see is that it?s difficult to determine best practices and how to measure results,? he said.

Enhanced features
When married together, social, mobile and local are an effective way to drive consumer engagement.

Mobile and social complement each other well. Add location into the mix and all the ingredients add up to success.

However, many marketers are not taking advantage of these three mediums.

Gone are the days when solely have a mobile campaign is enough.

Additionally, having a Facebook or Twitter presence does not mean a company has a good social strategy.

Everything last year was all about location and companies such as Best Buy and Victoria?s Secret took advantage of the emerging technologies to better interact with consumers, as well as drive in-store traffic.

By implementing an effective SoLoMo campaign, marketers will be able to engage in two-way dialogues with consumers.

Furthermore, by checking out location data, companies will be able to create more relevant and personalized experience to better target both loyal and new consumers.

?As always every good solution is only as good as its execution, but we are seeing users respond well across the three when implemented well,? Mr. Whitman said. ?Especially in key consumer segments.

?SoLoMo will grow, spreading and increase in effectiveness,? he said.

?Best practices will advance, users will continue to adopt and programs will become more sophisticated.?

Harnessing the power
Marketers need to build their multichannel strategies.

Taking a multichannel approach ? in this case mobile, social and local ? will help marketers stay ahead of the pack and differentiate themselves from competitors.

?Brand and retailer marketing departments have a lot to sort through,? said Wilson Kerr, vice president of business development and sales at Unbound Commerce, Boston.

?There are literally hundreds of service providers pitching them on the best way to harness the power of location and social media and mobile, all at once,? he said. ?I think the mobile industry does itself a disservice by lumping these trends together in witty acronyms, as it makes the shift from the figurative to the literal hard for brands and retailers who need actionable, results-oriented ways to increase revenues and track impact.

?Retailers and brands should start by asking themselves what their landing zone looks like for the mobile consumers they engage vis SoLoMo. Once done, there are any number of exciting ways to target by location, engage via social and use mobile to deliver messaging at the exact time and place when consumers are most likely to act.

The mobile space is growing rapidly and marketers must constantly keep up with emerging technologies and ongoing trends to stay ahead of the game.

?Mobile is exploding and we are seeing double-digit growth in both traffic and sales,? Mr. Kerr said.

?What is exciting is linking these incremental mobile commerce sales engines, once they are built and deployed, with marketing tools, so that previously static touchpoints like print ads or boxes used for shipments, or point of purchase signage can become hyperlinked sales drivers,? he said.

Final Take
Rimma Kats is associate editor on Mobile Marketer, New York