Mobile technologies continue to influence companies’ business strategies, especially in the areas of social media and marketing. In fact, AT&T issued a press release on December 6, 2011, which revealed the role smartphones will play in some organizations’ marketing decisions in the year ahead.

Using a recent survey, AT&T set out to gauge 501 marketing or advertising professionals’ opinions and attitudes toward mobile marketing. What the communications company found was that 88 percent of respondents expect their businesses’ mobile marketing programs to increase in size over the next 12 months.

Many of these professionals feel that mobile technology will lead to a rise in sales and innovation. AT&T also learned which areas companies would like to focus their strategies around.

A total of 43 percent of respondents reported that mobile applications were an area of interest in the 12 months ahead. Additionally, 41 percent plan to focus on mobile barcodes, 40 percent are looking toward banner ads and 35 percent want to develop mobile web strategies. Other areas of interest included SMS messages and digital signage.

Of the survey respondents, 66 percent feel that mobile barcodes will lead to mobile marketing innovation. At the same time, before implementing strategies related to these barcodes, professionals stated that they need to assess the cost, security and customer demand.

"With the growing popularity of smartphones and the increasing dependence on mobile devices, it’s only natural that marketing executives want to turn up the volume on their mobile strategies next year," said Chris Hill, vice president of advanced mobility solutions for AT&T Business Solutions.

While owners of mobile devices can already access social media websites when they are away from their computers, many companies are looking at how they can make phone calls even more social.

For example, on December 5, 2011, Mashable spotlighted Vringo’s Facetones application, which plays a slideshow of a friend’s Facebook photos whenever he or she calls. For Jon Medved, chief executive officer of Vringo, phone calls "almost feel out of date because there is no social context."

Once the program is installed on people’s phones, it matches their contacts and Facebook friends so that the slideshows will play whenever calls come in, the news source reported. The interest in creating more social phone calls is apparent, as the free application has been downloaded 500,000 times.

As companies increase their focus on mobile strategies, they stand to gain more opportunities for social learning since so many consumers log into Facebook, Twitter and other websites while they are on the move.