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Have you ever wondered what your child was rambling on about at the dinner table when he or she started saying things like “VR” or “RPG”? If so, you’re not alone. “VR” and “RPG” aren’t new text messaging acronyms – they’re acronyms for gaming and this article is going to introduce you to some of the more common forms.

If you at least thought of the Internet when you heard “VR” or “RPG” however, you’re on the right track. Exclusive to the online environment, “VR” or “RPG” – which consequently stands for virtual reality gaming and role playing games – are just two aspects of a gaming world gone wild. The days of playing scrabble in front of the fireplace are over in today’s generation, but we don’t believe you’ll hear too many people complaining about it. Today’s generation is fascinated with online gaming – an opportunity to play games over the Internet with hundreds of people at a time.

Available to anyone with a computer and fast Internet connection, there are thousands of online games available to play by anyone… sometimes free and sometimes for a fee. They range from the familiar family board games to strange and more complicated games which require a hundred page manual to understand. One thing that they all have in common however is that they’re fun to play.

The most common type of online game you’ll probably run into is the Flash game – usually located on educational sites or Yahoo! for Kids for example. These games may or may not involve other players, but they’re always full of color, they’re fast to download, and they’re fun to play. Since they run inside the web browser, no special equipment is needed. These are the simple games – more intriguing than checkers, but no more difficult to play than chess.

Another type of online gaming is more violent than the ones we described above and it’s similar to the “shoot-em-up” type games found on the first Nintendo and Playstation systems. Designed from the first person’s point of view, the player typically maneuvers around the screen as a weapon-clad hand – periodically changing weapons as the game’s scenario permits. The violence in these games vary from mild to offensive, and as a parent, you’re cautioned to monitor your children’s access to them – especially since these games are played online with other people.

Next, in terms of complication or violence, comes the virtual reality gaming and role playing games that we introduced earlier. These types of games require an extensive amount of time spent online since players assume the role of a game character in play. Players work hard to build up an inventory of weapons or skills – none of which can be accomplished in a period of thirty minutes or less. They then go on to interact with other characters which extends game time even longer (if it even stops). Both virtual reality gaming and role playing games require and encourage strategic thinking, but as parents, you may not be comfortable with the violence that’s prominent in some of these games. Nor may you be comfortable with the amount of time that playing these kinds of games can consume. Depending on the complexity of the game, any one person could spend at least six months at a game and having access to thousands of other players simultaneously doesn’t exactly make them easy to walk away from.

Our best advice is to learn about these games right along with your child and make the decision to play them (or not play them) together.

Mobile marketing is the new “hot trend”. It is a very successful manner of advertising for many companies around the world. If done correctly, you are going to reap the rewards of the time that you spend researching and planning your mobile marketing campaign. The following tips will help you successfully use this method for your business.

Be kind and generous with your customers. Give them special offers, discounts based on hallmark goals or even a simple thank you note. They need to know you value their business or they may take it to someone who will go that extra step.

When developing content for mobile marketing, be sure that you keep your message brief and easy to understand. Make sure the messages you send can be absorbed quickly and understood by your customers.

Make sure that your site and your ads are consistent across multiple formats. Not every bit of mobile technology is the same. There’s nothing worse than working hard on a mobile campaign just to find out that people using a certain type of mobile OS are having trouble accessing it.

You will have a tough choice in mobile marketing dealing with whether to go with mobile apps or mobile sites. You need to let the actual message choose its medium here. In other words, you should go with the flow with whatever works better with one method than the other. Don’t try to force it to go well the other way.

Avoid anything in mobile marketing that seems too easy. If it seems like it may be really easy to implement, you can be sure that something’s wrong with it. Of course, we’re talking about mobile-specific things here, like apps and formatted sites. A lot of ads and email techniques are universal.

When you are promoting a particular event, send the mobile marketing message a few hours or the day before the event. Customers that are genuinely interested in the event can easily forget the message if you send it several days before the event is to take place. You do not want your customers to miss out on anything.

Even though many people that are using their phones for the Internet text, not everyone will know what the abbreviations mean. Someone who cannot make sense out of what you are saying will get frustrated and not read your message.

Separate your customers. If you have a business that offers many different types of products or services, you may want to poll your customers to find out what they most want to hear about. Doing so can give you separate lists of customers with similar interests, so you will be able to send them information pertinent to them.

Your natural inclination may be to send out unsolicited messages with your new mobile marketing campaign, but spamming people is never the way to go in any campaign. It is a huge turn-off and can possibly leave a permanent stain on your reputation and cause you to lose regular customers.

Even if someone subscribes to your messages, they may still want to unsubscribe for whatever reasons, so make it easy for them to do so. In every single message that you’re sending out via mobile marketing, make sure you’re including an unsubscribe link so that people can opt out if they choose.

If you have people working for you, make sure you explain to them how and how not to approach social media. Your mobile presence is very important here, and the last thing you need is someone representing your company poorly by deciding to spam social sites or to present your company in a bad light.

Apply these tips to you marketing plan and you are sure to see positive responses from your customers. Be sure to take the time to plan your next move before doing anything to avoid making the mistakes that can cause you to lose customers that are already on your list.

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