iLoop Mobile Contributes to New Books on iDirect and Social Media Marketing

SAN JOSE, CA (RPRN) 11/12/09 — iLoop Mobile’s Michael Becker a Contributing Author to Reinventing Interactive and Direct Marketing and Social Media Marketing for Dummies

Two important new books on social and interactive marketing have been published, with Michael Becker, VP of mobile strategy at iLoop Mobile, contributing key authorship to sections focused on the mobile channel’s role in both. The first, Reinventing Interactive and Direct Marketing: Leading Experts Show How to Maximize Digital ROI with iDirect and iBranding Imperatives is edited by Stan Rapp, the legendary co-founder of Rapp Collins Worldwide, the largest marketing services company in America, and the former CEO of McCann Relationship Marketing (MRM). Ever the pioneer, Stan Rapp now is the Chairman of Engauge, a 21^st century customer engagement agency, and with this book has written an Introduction that presents a new marketing paradigm for the digital era called iDirect Marketing. iDirect replaces the Interactive and Direct disciplines with a singular approach to the new marketing landscape. Michael Becker contributes the longest chapter in the book “Hold the Consumer in the Palm of Your Hand with Mobile” that explains what mobile phones and the mobile channel mean to direct marketing and interactive marketing. The second book, Social Media Marketing for Dummies is by Shiv Singh, who was named a 2009 Media Maven by Ad Age and AdAge.com and is a hands-on marketing professional working with some of the globe’s largest corporations. Michael Becker contributes a key chapter on the intersection of mobile and social media, co-authored with Jeannette Kocsis, Senior VP of Digital Marketing at Harte-Hanks.

Reinventing Interactive and Direct Marketing

Stan Rapp, co-author of six books and author of the international best seller Maxi-Marketing as well as being named by Advertising Age as one of the 101 individuals who shaped advertising in the 20^th century, tapped Michael Becker of iLoop Mobile to author the chapter on the role of mobile marketing in 21^st century iDirect marketing. Michael Becker outlines how mobile is and will continue to be a key enabler of iDirect marketing and how mobile will cause all marketers to becom e “iDirect marketers”. The book thesis is that direct marketing is interactive, and interactive marketing is direct. Michael Becker outlines how mobile, with its anytime, anywhere interactivity and digital analytics, will have the leading role in the data-driven, online, lead-generating, customer-retaining, multi-channel marketing future.

"Michael Becker has an extraordinary talent for unraveling the complexity of mobile marketing,” says Stan Rapp. “In his contribution to Reinventing Interactive and Direct Marketing, Michael steers the reader away from mobile's pitfalls and opens the door to exciting new opportunities. Mobile, practiced with an iDirect mindset, is the most personal, ubiquitous and resultfull marketing channel to come along in this or any other century. Michael shows how best to master its powerful potential."

Social Media Marketing for Dummies

Social Media Marketing for Dummies is an indispensable resource for small businesses and start-ups looking for low-cost online strategies, as well as for marketers in larger companies who want to be more involved with social media. Along with strategies for leveraging Twitter, blogs, Facebook and other social media outlets for effective marketing initiatives, Michael Becker in his chapter on “The Intersection of Mobile and Social Media” outlines how social is a key driver for reaching today’s consumer, and how mobile will be the key access point to social media.

“It was a great experience contributing to both these books and collaborating with industry thought leaders like Stan Rapp and Shiv Singh,” says Michael Becker. “These publications are important roadmaps that assist marketers in understanding the sea change occurring in communicating with the 21^st century consumer. In my view, mobile will be the most disruptive and powerful force in the dialogue between the brand and the consumer. Learning to harness the power of the mobile channel will be a key component of future success in any marketing endeavor.”

Michael Becker is also featured with a section on mobile for social media in the Direct Marketing Association’s current issue of its online magazine Point at http://www.zinio.com/reader.jsp?issue=416101928&o=ext