Timing is everything. Hitting the target means knowing the perfect time to reach the consumer with the most relevant message. I'll get email promotions and read them first thing in the morning before starting work, but I take no action. By the end of my day, I've completely forgotten about the sale. Apparently others follow the same path to purchase, according to recent stats.

Wireless carriers may finally wake up to their potential role in this new data-driven media marketplace. But are they really ready to become media companies? Of course, in a world where Facebook, Google, Apple and Twitter deem to be the superpowers of digital data, what is a "media company" anymore?

As the online advertising industry heads into the holiday season it will become interesting to see how much consumers spend through mobile ecommerce sites, and how much data they will part with while doing so.

Facebook and Cisco are helping retailers bring free WiFi access to bricks and mortar visitors in a new deal. Users get an easier path onto the data highway with a Facebook login, while Facebook and the merchant could get social reach and data in return.

Aditive, which supplies social data, recently became a launch partner for Acxiom, an enterprise data, analytics and software-as-a-service company to provide apps for new Audience Operating System (AOS) from Acxiom.

The Food and Drug Administration has issued general guidelines about the kinds of mobile apps it does and does not intend to regulate. As mobility brings technology into a more intimate relationship with consumers, marketers have both greater opportunity and responsibility.

Do you reach for your smartphone with your eyes barely open, while still in bed? Behavior plays a major role when it comes to when, where, and from what type of device consumers access the Internet. About 47% of U.S. consumers access the Internet at least weekly from a smartphone, according to a Forrester Research study titled "Build Seamless Experiences Now." Some 68% use the phone while in a car, 64% in the living room, 63% in a restaurant, 61% in a bedroom, 51% in the kitchen, 50% in the bathroom, 45% on public transit, and 31% in a home …

Personal data analytics is a fascinating counterpoint to the tag, track and target ethos of commercial data "collection." Here we see creative individuals leveraging digital technology to gain self-awareness and personal insight through data that is at once "small" but of utmost relevance to them.

Awareness, customer satisfaction, share of voice, and lead generation are the top four social business performance metrics that companies seek from social networks, according to a recent survey. Companies with more than 10,000 employees, however, are likely to consider customer satisfaction the No. 1 metric.

When it comes to protecting your mobile data, Apple is deemed the most trustworthy entity by consumers in a new survey. But overall, consumers say that privacy concerns influence their decisions about sharing different kinds of personal data in apps.