It’s hard to overestimate the opportunities that exist now that just about everyone carries around a cellular phone. Of course, we can all jabber on and on about what we’re having for dinner, but there are also opportunities to either rethink businesses or dream up extensions of what you currently do.

Look at IQzone as an example of how you might enable your sales force to offer ancillary services to your existing customer base. This service lets anyone snap, send, and sell – simply snap a photo or capture a video and then send it by email to create an instant classified ad. These ads don’t just stay on this site, but get broadcasted to other ad sites, such as Google Base and edgeio. What’s interesting here is the idea of creating a marketplace by letting people identify and submit simple ads on the fly.

If you have a sales force for industrial products, imagine using them to create an instant marketplace among your customers of, say, second-hand equipment. With a minor upfront investment, you could leverage your roving salespeople to provide a new service to your customer base . . . and earn a few points in the process.

Your best customers have something in common – their interest in your brand and your category (of products or services). We’ve spoken about a service named Twitter (see Stay close to mother hen ) that lets you stay connected with your customers by text message. Now there’s a more robust offering that helps you create a mobile social network with your customers.

Frengo lets you create text messaging channels called buzz, then invite people to participate (by mobile or web). Once you’ve created your channel, you can then interact by text message with your members. You can keep these text messages private (restricted to your members) or let anyone follow it by opening it to the public. There’s almost no limit to interesting content – imagine updates from the latest industry trade show, a fashion show, or even a sponsored sporting event. Or, you can just push original content, say a groovy growth idea, to anyone who subscribes.

Your customers can follow your brand wherever it goes – all for free.

Today social networking is most associated with websites like Facebook or MySpace. However, the real social marketing device isn’t a website that you can access from your laptop on our desk . . . it’s in your pocket.

Dodgeball (owned by Google) shows you how social networking can take advantage of the fact that everyone carries a mobile phone. What’s interesting here is how the combination of mobile phones and social networking can bring together people. Members of this system sign up and confirm their cell phone number. Then, they check in with the service, say when they’re at a bar. The service will then let their friends know where they are and also alert the member if friends or friends of friends are anywhere nearby.

In the same way, you could create a social network today, using low cost tools, and combine it with basic mobile phone capability to keep your customers close to you. While it’s not as easy as just flipping a switch, it could help you retain your existing customers and bring them back to your business more frequently.

Here’s the deal. Your cell phone runs on a closed network that belongs to your cell phone company. Your laptop or website connects to a network called the internet that is open to the public. Where does the opportunity lie? Connecting these two networks.

3 Guppies gives you a vision into how this can be done. It lets users transfer any music, pictures, videos, or MySpace information from a website to a cell phone. Users can simply install a mobilizer widget that in turn lets them send pictures and videos on that page to any cell phone, with just a simple click. Alternatively, with this same widget, your friends can turn your pictures into cell phone wallpaper or watch videos on the go.

While this site is free, the lesson remains the same. Your users are trying to move content from one place to another. While not everyone can develop an application to transfer content, how about just creating a separate section of your site with optimized sizes and formats. Or, how about making it easy to send content by text message?

If your buyers want to move content from the web to their phone, how easy are you making it for them to do so?

When your key customers call, who picks up the phone? When you think about it, for many businesses, there are really only a handful of people who are “make or break” for the business. The big question is . . . how do you make sure that their calls get answered?

Consider using services like Grand Central or Virtual PBX. Grand Central gives you one phone number that rings all of your phone numbers. No matter where you are, your office line, your home line, and your cell phone (or any others) all ring at the same time. In addition, users can route calls, record messages, and set distinctive ring tones. This can be a great way to guarantee that your customers reach your sales team (the system is currently transitioning to Google’s systems, so it’s temporarily unavailable). Virtual PBX is an online system that replicates the office systems that we all know (press 1 for sales, press 2 for customer service) for any size company. It can help your customers find your sales team by integrating their cell phones into the office PBX, instead of assuming that everyone is sitting at a desk.

Grand Central is free (for now), and Virtual PBX starts at $9.99 a month. Are you satisfied with your sales team’s ability to identify and respond to important customer calls?

It may seem as if the race for search advertising supremacy has already been won by Google. When you own the searches, you win the spoils by earning the right to place the search related ads. Even if you are already placing ads next to Google or Yahoo! search results, are you prepared for what may be the much bigger search related advertising market – the cell phone?

Advertisers should consider opportunities to place mobile ads with mobile ad networks like Medio. Medio, the “on-deck” advertising partner of Verizon, T-Mobile, and others, offers advertisers the opportunity to use its ad placement system, with a minimum spend of $25. Much as with Google’s Adwords system, it’s easy to use and lets you choose targeted searches, develop a short text ad, and place bids for optimal ad placement when a user searches (see this Medio overview). It remains to be seen if consumers will use the search systems that are built into their phones or if they’re going to download and use the phone-based applications provided by Google and Yahoo! (that in turn tie to their respective text ads).

One thing’s for certain, when one of your customers or prospects is searching on a phone, it’s almost guaranteed to be a great selling prospect. Just as with web-based text ads, why not get your feet wet and learn more about how mobile-based text ads might drive sales or leads for you? Remember . . . there are three times more mobile handsets in the U.S. than PCs. On top of that, data usage (such as when you conduct a phone-based search) is doubling every year.

Need to list something in the classifieds? The likely online answer is Craigslist (much to the chagrin of eBay, GoogleBase, and others).

What’s surprising isn’t the success of Craigslist, but the fact that even though the site was started 12 years ago, the notion of what a classified is hasn’t really changed. Most online classifieds don’t even begin to represent what’s possible on the web.For example, check out RealPeopleRealStuff or Imoondo, two sites that represent the future direction of classifieds, spelled v-i-d-e-o. Maybe you’re considering the purchase of a top of the line dressage horse. Or, maybe you would like to unload your coveted gaming computer that lights up. When you compare these ads to stale print or even print with images, it’s easy to see where classified ads will move.The lesson here is that you have a window of opportunity to build out your own “video classified” capability. The faster you move up the learning curve, whether you’re selling puppies or million dollar homes, the more of a competitive edge you will build.

The challenge with selling a new product is getting potential customers to try it. Of course you can just give away free samples to everyone and anyone, but you may go bankrupt in the process.

Consider text messaging as your strategic ally. In this Starburst lollipops example, consumers were prompted to send in a text message (SMS) entry to win over 50,000 instantly redeemable prizes in the form of Starburst lollipops, instant win (mail out) prizes and entry into a grand prize sweepstakes draw. By using text messaging, you can integrate “send a message to receive a sample” right into your media (print, online, TV – anywhere). The difference here is that you’re sending samples to people who have shown an interest in the product. On top of that, you could also tie the sampling results back to specific media investments.

In any case, by using text messaging for product sampling, you’re putting your samples into the right hands, while also creating a direct connection with your customer. This means that you can follow up and continue to promote your product (e.g, send coupons). What sort of feedback do you get from your current sampling efforts?

To acquire new customers, first you have to help them find you. You might think that it’s enough to rely on people printing out Mapquest results in advance to find your offices or stores. That would be foolish.

For a monthly fee of $150 (for up to 20 locations), you can use the web-based IVR Locator to record and serve up directions that will help your customers find any of your locations. This system works just like your voice mail. What’s different here is that it includes an ability to help your customer or prospect choose which location is closest. Once they’ve picked a location, they receive the recorded driving directions.  Try out this online service right now by making a call to the US National Park locator at 877-274-6436.

There’s just no way you can be sure that prospects get the directions they need if they make a random call to your location.  Even the airlines have figured out that recorded boarding directions reduce variability and improve service levels. Are you doing everything you can to help your prospective customers find you?

Got a hot stock tip or a great insight on a newly listed house, but don’t want to be accused of sending your clients spam (unwanted emails or text messages)?

Twitter, a text messaging service, gives people up-to-the-minute reports on each other’s thoughts or whereabouts. Use it to create a higher level of connection to those clients who choose to opt in to your personal text messaging network. When you send a text message, it is automatically forwarded to everyone who is in your personal network.

The system records your text messages on a website that can be referred to later. As you see in the service offered by Delta airlines, Twitter can help you stay connected to both your customers and also a broader network of partners.  Don’t your biggest fans deserve to get even closer?

You know how it is when you’re running a competitive business. When people want information about your product or service, they want it and should get it right now.

Use a text messaging pull service to let people get the sales or service information they need, when and where they need it . . . right from their phone. House4Cell offers a tool that lets prospective home buyers request information by sending a text message to a number (a common short code as we described in I just texted … ) on a for sale sign. They gain access to all of the relevant MLS information, the price, open house dates, and the agent’s contact information.

For large, out of the office or out of home purchases (from homes to cars or even electronics), you have a better chance of closing the deal if you make your sales or service information immediately accessible.  With a text messaging pull service, you have a way to get information to someone … just in time.

Millions of fans use text messaging to vote for the American Idol. Text messaging can connect your customers and prospects with your brand, too.

NBC’s TV ratings blockbuster – Heroes (No. 1 new show for viewers 18-49) goes beyond simple polling and uses text messaging as part of an integrating marketing effort, called Heroes 360. Characters from the show develop websites, send you text message clues and reminders, and generally extend the show’s excitement (program details) well beyond the boundaries of TV. Try the Heroes 360 experience right now by sending the text message HEROES to 62288

You can use a similar approach to bring your best customers closer – alerts for product news, promotions, or special opportunities. "A" students can go further and create an integrated marketing effort that documents the experience of your best customers using text messaging, blogs, and online video.