Here are the facts. There are basically two kinds of mobile. Wi-Fi and Wireless. For Wi-Fi, you have to stop moving and sit or stand in your home, a Starbucks, an airport or any other Wi-Fi enabled hotspot.

In other words, it’s not fully ‘mobile’. With true Wireless, you’re free to move and take your entertainment with you – but you have to pay a wireless carrier like AT&T or Verizon. And you pay them a lot.

If you’ve got a smartphone or an iPad, you know the wireless drill. At least $30 a month for a ‘data plan’ which is likely to be capped at 2-3 Gb. Verizon is $30 for just 2 Gb. If you use more than your limit in a month, you pay another $10-12 per Gb for data.

To put this in perspective… if you listen to Pandora (or any radio stream, even your favorite local station), you use about 1Gb for 40 hours. In other words, about 1 1/2 hours a day. If you watch about 75 YouTube videos, you use 1Gb. As you can see, it doesn’t take long to hit your data cap. And, at 4G speeds watching HD, you hit it even faster.

So, once you go over your data cap, 40 hours of radio costs $12. That’s 30 cents an hour. Or, it’s 16 cents for a YouTube video.  It can add up fast.

And these numbers raise a big question … have the automakers thought about this as they unveil the 2013 cars, many of which are loaded with bluetooth connections so that your wireless device can run through their dashboard? Have they thought about who’s going to pay to receive all this data?

Honda just announced a deal with Aha for a data heavy service in their new cars. Others, such as Ford and General Motors are right behind.

And that’s why companies like CBS Radio are going to love Acura – because it won’t be long until consumers are hit with huge data bills for using wireless in their cars. For many of them, broadcast over-the-air radio might start looking like a bargain again.

And, this won’t just hit cars. More and more, broadband providers are throttling data speed at home which affects your Wi-Fi. Once you reach about 5Gb, they slow you down so much that Netflix begins to look like a choppy movie.

But, for companies like CBS and Clear Channel, data caps are a sword that cuts both ways.

The tough part for CBS with Radio.com and Clear Channel with iHeart radio is that their streaming services are also going to cost the consumer money, especially those who listen a lot.

So, broadcast radio and TV will benefit from data caps on one hand and be hurt on the other.

This elephant in the room isn’t going away. It will be interesting to see the reaction of Acura, among others, when car buyers discover the price of on-demand, one-on-one media.

That’s our conclusion after researching online Latina moms for Mamiverse, a fast growing website that caters to this influential market.

By researching over 1000 moms, we  identified 6 different types (segments) of online Latina moms, providing information that will help Mamiverse create  highly targeted messages and content.

Mamiverse CEO Rene Alegria shared some of the findings in a detailed press release, including: political hot topics – jobs and education; social networking behavior – 90% go on Facebook and 37% used Twitter in the past 30 days; and the concern among many online Latina moms that their children may be losing touch with their culture.

And, if you think mobile research is tough now, consider this … “Mobile research hasn’t been defined yet”.

That’s the assessment of Dr. Tim Snaith,  researcher, customer service expert and co-founder of OnePoint Global -  one of the leading edge mobile research companies figuring out best practices in this rapidly evolving field.

Tim is working to define mobile research – with an innovative turn-key solution for reaching your mobile customers right when you want them.

And, he gets excited when he talks about how mobile phone research can get you closer to the customer, faster and more effectively.

In a recent interview, he gave an example of how granular and powerful mobile research can be. It drills right down into the customer who is making a purchase in real time.

He says,  “We can reach the customer in lots of ways. They might have already opted-in to the research from a panel, or just scanned a QR code on some form of marketing communication or simply responded to an in-store offer to text a keyword.”

Once they have agreed to participate, the mobile research begins. Here’s how it works…

“We might identify a customer in a store by using geo-location and then ask ‘What products are you looking at right now? Please barcode scan the one(s) you’re considering and then scan the one(s) you buy.’

As soon as our server sees the barcode, we ask the customer why they bought that particular product out of all those they considered. If the customer is using SMS, they might get 6 quick questions on their phone – one at a time. If they use mobile web or the OnePoint app, we can ask them even more.

Regardless of the type of phone they’ve got, the answers will be immediately used as real time feedback to help the client with pricing, product placement, packaging, and the product itself.”

Using this methodology, changes designed to increase sales and service can be made in minutes, not hours, due to real-time management alerts.

However, in spite of its benefits, Tim cautions that mobile research “is not a replacement for the 4 major research methodologies -  online, phone (CATI), mail, or face to face”.

Rather, he sees mobile research as a ‘the 5^th methodology’, an essential addition to the multimodal toolkit for a 21^st Century marketer. It can be used as a stand alone tool where the process requires it or as a very powerful addition to other methods.

But, getting it right isn’t always easy.

That’s why Tim’s team keeps updating and tweaking their mobile research software based on each new study they do. He sees it as the only way to stay ahead of the pack.

OnePoint went so far as to make their research software backward compatible so that it works not only on a smartphone like an iPhone or an Android but also on older handsets that are still in use by as many as 40% of Americans and most of the developing world.

And, so far, this approach is working.

For example, OnePoint Global did a study for 100 retail stores in LA. When customers scanned a QR code in a store, if their handset was set to Spanish, the OnePoint Global software immediately offered up a Spanish language survey.

They even customized the survey so that if customers scanned the code at a specific time (such as early morning), they were asked different questions than if they scanned at a different time.  This allowed the retailer to test different offers at different times of the day.

Even better, it seems that survey takers like it. Tim likes to brag that OnePoint Global is able to generate “unrivalled completion rates of 55%+ with 80% completed within two hours of interaction”.

In other words, more than half the mobile customers take the survey and 80% have completed in two hours – with data immediately available in the client’s online account.

For now, Tim is exploring every opportunity available for his software. OnePoint Global is willing  to ‘white label’ the software for any client. They already do this for 6 of the top 7 global research agencies  as well as  leading global brands.

They offer apps that help ‘panel’ companies do geo-located instant research and can even capture inbound, or serve up pictures or video very quickly if a client wants to evaluate something visual.

It’s an exciting new area of research that is still in its infancy.

When asked, “What is the best process for mobile research?”, Tim simply says, “Engage the consumer without them feeling like they were being spammed.”

To date, their best practices appear to be…

Ideal survey time is 1-3 minutes. The process is important.  Ask and offer an incentive.  Something like,  “Answer our 6 question survey and we’ll give you a reward.”

The reward needs to cover any ‘reply’ cost that respondents incur as well as the value of their time. For those using panel based responses, it’s easy to deposit ‘rewards’ directly into the panelists account.

Tim says, “We want people to look forward to the next mobile survey.  So keep it short.” He adds, “A mobile survey is a double edged sword. If you abuse it, people will cut you off.”

So far, no one seems to be cutting OnePoint Global off.

Tim is happy to report, “Clients double every year and we have a 98% retention rate. Our cost per complete is low, and we are constantly focused on how to make it really easy for the person who completes the survey and really efficient for the client who sends it out.”

With his eye focused firmly on customer satisfaction, Tim and his team are part of the movement that is helping to ‘define’ the emerging field of mobile research in 2012.

Here’s how to make your blog, your tweets, your Facebook page, and even your LinkedIn profile more effective.

Just check out this new study from CIG and The New York Times.

This new research suggests 5 key motivations for sharing online (they apply when we share offline too).

1.  To bring  valuable and entertaining content to others – 94% carefully consider how the information they share will be useful to the recipient.
2.  To define ourselves to others – 68% share to give people a better sense of who they are and what they care about.
3. To grow and nourish their relationships – 78% share information online because it lets them stay connected to people they may not otherwise stay in touch with.
4. Self-fulfillment – 69% share because it allows them to feel more involved in the world.
5. To get the word out about causes or brands – 84% share because it is a way to support causes or issues they care about.

For people and brands who want to optimize social media, the research is clear. It suggests that you…

1. Make your ‘content’ matter. If it’s not ‘valuable’, almost no one will forward it.
2. Make it easy for people to share their causes and what they care about.
3. Let them nourish their own relationships – don’t try to manipulate them to ’share’ their friends.

So, why the big fuss?  What’s important about Marshall today?

John Donabie from Canada’s premier jazz station Jazz.FM91 wondered the same thing…so he interviewed me on-air (click here to listen).

First, full disclosure.  I studied for my Masters with McLuhan in 1972 because I wanted to understand media and perception better. It was an amazing year.

Here’s what I learned and here’s why he is still important today.

1. Media extend of our senses. TV extends the eye. Radio, the ear.  The internet extends both.

2. We are becoming more tribal (McLuhan said it in the 60s). The consequence is that we have less interest in what those outside our ‘tribe’ say and more interest in reinforcing our ‘belonging‘. The internet has put ‘tribalism’ on steroids.  This explains everything from the Tea Party ‘tribe’ to the Apple ‘tribe’.  It creates an environment in which very smart ‘generalists’ will prosper because they are the only ones who can provide true ‘context’.

3. We aren’t really aware of how deeply we are being changed because we are immersed in it.  As McLuhan said, “I don’t know who discovered water but I know it wasn’t a fish“.

4. We need touchstones to keep us focused. McLuhan keeps us focused on media, on technological change, on what it’s doing to us.

In an age when all the focus is on tech, on social networking (the ultimate world of tribes), and on what’s new, it’s nice to know that a man born 100 years ago has ideas that are still fresh today.

If you’ve never read The Gutenberg Galaxy or Understanding Media, you might want to buy yourself a birthday present to see how they hold up 50 years on.

As I re-read the chapter recently, it reminded me that what is old is new again.

Written by Doc Searls and David Weinberger, its central thesis was “There is no demand for messages, there is a tremendous demand for good conversation”.

No demand for messages.  No demand for pop-up, rollover or takeover ads. No one waiting to hear from you.  Unless you are part of a “conversation”.

But now, online, a conversation is much more than words.

It’s more than Facebook and Twitter.  It’s TripAdvisor or a return email from tech support that helps solve your problem.  It’s searchable content and even smart, updated FAQs on your site.

Because 10 years after the Cluetrain manifesto, the internet has turned “conversations”  into actions, comments, site design, and, even corporate behavior. And, like all conversations, they only continue as long as they interesting and engaging.

As CBS research guru David Poltrack said, ”There is no link, none, between the age of the specified demographic delivery of the campaign and the sales generated by that campaign.”

Setting the stage for a spirited debate, he suggests that advertisers focus on heavy users of their product instead.

A smart summary of his findings can be found in this article at Advertising Age.

The article identifies 6 consumer segments based on CBS-Neilsen research, specifically…

TV companions: For this group, TV is almost always on and is like a member of the family.

Media trendsetters: Early adopters of technology and new content, and also 39% multicultural.

Sports enthusiasts: Made up mostly of men, but most guys aren’t classified here. This group also likes action-adventure programming.

Program passionates: Highly involved with favorite shows, and the biggest DVR time-shifters.

Surfers and streamers: Most open to watching alternative content on TV and most often using laptops or tablets to multitask while watching TV. They skew young, but include a large component of 50-plus people.

TV moderators: Those who enjoy being experts and leading others’ choices.

Now, the question is – do these segments only help CBS or is there something of value for others who use TV for advertising?