Companies may be focusing too heavily on posting and not enough on the message they are sharing.

Among the hottest ways for a business to go about spreading the word about itself, encouraging customer interaction, and advertising its latest news is social media marketing, but just because a company has a Twitter account, it doesn’t mean that they know how to use it effectively for their desired purpose.

In fact, many are finding that businesses are failing to use their Twitter opportunities properly.

The entire purpose of social media marketing is to help a business to solve certain problems. It can be used to raise awareness, build reappraisal of a brand, reduce churn, and reward loyalty. These are all the primary goals of marketing over any channel. Twitter offers businesses a very cost effective way to accomplish these goals – when done properly. Unfortunately, for many businesses, this doesn’t appear to be the case.

Social media marketing efforts are all too frequently focusing on presence, not problem solving.

Among the companies that have been able to break away from that trend is Oreo. Despite the fact that the brand has been around for a century and it has already achieved a high level of recognition there had not been any real relevance to the brand among younger audiences. The marketers at that company took it upon themselves to use Twitter creatively and reach out to that generation.

The Super Bowl last year was a defining moment for the brand, when it took advantage of its advertising spots and Twitter to get the very most out of the power failure that struck the massive NFL event.

Since that time, the brand has managed to keep up a strategy that works to engage with consumers over social media marketing on Twitter. Competitor, KitKat, did not miss this lesson and has since boosted their own efforts over this channel, nor have many other major brands. The positive feedback that they have received has reinforced the belief that this form of mobile advertising is getting through to consumers and is making a difference. Equally, other businesses should be studying those successes in order to determine how they can go about applying it to their own efforts.

Organization set to launch a new mobile service in the UK

The Payments Council, an organization comprised of financial institutions based in the United Kingdom, is set to launch a new mobile commerce service named Paym. The service is meant to provide consumers with a more secure way to make mobile payments. Security remains one of the most outstanding and problematic issues that faces the mobile space. Because mobile commerce has become so popular among consumers, it has also become a popular target for malicious groups that seek to exploit financial information.

Paym aims to make money transfers quick and easy

Paym has the backing of several prominent financial institutions due to their association with the Payments Council. The service is designed to allow consumers to send money directly to a bank account as quickly as other forms of money transfer would work. The Payment Council notes that the service is linked to an overarching initiative in the United Kingdom that involves associated all bank accounts with a mobile device. Money transfers through Paym can be done through the use of a mobile number.

Collaboration may help companies avoid unnecessary competition in the mobile space

Competition in the mobile commerce sector is quite fierce, if somewhat in overabundance. Many startups are fighting one another to win the attention and support of consumers while large companies are doing the same. The Payments Council believes that collaboration in necessary in order for mobile payments to become mainstream. These collaborations could allow organizations to sidestep much of the competition that exists in the mobile space, but whether these collaborations can produce services that consumers are interested in has yet to be seen.

Paym may be able to lay some security concerns to rest

Paym is expected to be made available later this year. The service is currently undergoing a final stage of testing before it is officially released. Concerns regarding security remain high, however, but with the regulations that banks must adhere to, these concerns could be dispelled once the service is launched. Banks have long focused on financial security and are typically required to meet the security standards of whatever country they are operating in.