We're off to The Mobile Marketing Conference soon, where we'll be providing coverage of some of the most exciting sessions, interviewing mobile marketing experts, and live tweeting. Follow the stream next week at #TMMC on twitter for immediate updates from the event, or stay tuned to this space for session write ups and photos from the event.

Attending the event? RSVP on Lanyrd, LinkedIn, or Facebook and start connecting with other attendees now.

But before we fly off to Miami, let's take a look at what happened this week. ClickZ published a fascinating article about the "tendency to retrofit mobile into an existing marketing strategy." Entitled, "The Problem With Mobile Marketing?" author Derek Harding really hit the nail on the head, noting:

"Email and web are well established online channels in use for over a decade. Though much has changed in that time and there are areas where email in particular is less well utilized than it should be, they are mediums and they are well understood as such. Social meanwhile is the new kid on the block. In many ways little more than the latest shiny evolution of web-based services. Still and all, social is being well served. There are a wide range of specialist providers creating tools and services to support marketers and more media experts offering advice than any one person can reasonably keep with.

Mobile though is another beast entirely. The breadth of capabilities of mobile devices and the range of purposes to which owners put their devices is both astounding and daunting. When a marketer speaks of mobile marketing they could be speaking about location-based services, SMS, email on a phone, apps, or mobile web pages."

Ultimately understanding the many faucets that fall under the "mobile" umbrella and tailoring a strategy that is customized for whichever of those you choose to use is going to be the key to mobile marketing. "Mobile" is not just email or web marketing, but on a phone.

A good example of this? Millennial Media released a report this week identifying three trends as being the most influential for mobile marketers: local, video, and mass market reach. For any company to successfully participate in any of these trends, you'll need a specialized strategy. Local and mass market in particular sit at opposite ends of the mobile spectrum.

Whatever way you go, this interesting MediaPost blog included some sound advice from Chris Silva of Altimeter “A mobile strategy should not focus on demonstrating the means -- mobile platforms -- but on meeting the end needs of customers.”

With that in mind, many are still figuring out social customer experiences. Amex seems to have the medium mastered though, debuting their new "AmEx Sync" platform. AdAge asked "What If the Real 'Winner' of SXSW Was AmEx?" this week, exploring the new offering and it's predominance over Austin.

 Many other companies are busy trying to adopt the new Facebook Timeline format for their pages before the March 30th deadline so as to continue to offer a seamless Facebook experience for their customers. Techcrunch reported that 8 million Of the 37 million+ pages on Facebook already upgraded within 10 days of the Timeline becoming available, saying:

"There are some concerns about the removed ability to set a custom promotional app as a default landing page, but those are offset by eagerness for pinned posts, bigger photos, and more presentation flexibility."

Will that continue to be the case after all pages are forced to change on the 30th? Only 8 of the top 20 pages have migrated, many page owners have invested significant time (and money) in the old format and it's not certain that fans will become more engaged with the new. Have you switched over yet, what do you like or dislike about the change?

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