Let us count the ways.

We love you because...

You’re personal. You’re with us wherever we go - at home and work, in the store or at the coffee shop. If we didn’t love you so much, we’d accuse you of being clingy. Yes, we know, three new tweets mention us.

Most people associate mobile as an end game for marketing, a medium to get new leads. But if mobile is the most personal medium ever created, then why aren't companies using it to brand?

Mobile marketing has its acronyms and jargon. The number of letters and words can all be a bit daunting, which is why we’ve decided to visit some of the basic and not-so-basic terms.

We’ll start with the basic of basics: mobile marketing. Mobile marketing, what is being called “location marketing” by companies such as foursquare, is marketing delivered to mobile devices - that is, smartphones and tablets. Mobile marketing operates on either a push or pull method and attempts to target individual customers with relevant, location- and contextually-based ads.

Mobile sales took a whopping 27 percent of all affiliate sales links in December, highlight the growing power of portable devices for Internet marketers. Affiliate networks are also experiencing the shift to mobile with increasing sales numbers and click throughs.

As the new year unfolds, many people will publish their annual “three words” posts. We decided to partake in the trend but give it a mobile marketing twist. Our three words for the year are:

When it comes to mobile marketing trends, it can be hard to pinpoint which ones are most poised to deliver in 2014. Mobile ad spending certainly will increase; new mobile ad formats, such as ones including more video, probably will be created; and consumers will continue to “showroom."

Wearable technology will gain share in terms of profit and the public eye. Businesses will focus on creating immersive experiences rather than attempting to create Oreo moment after Oreo moment, and may employ mobile/virtual queueing as part of their online to offline strategy.

2013 was a great year for mobile, perhaps more so than any other in recent memory. The media form became more visual, profitable and viable. Celebrities embraced mobile, as did many brands with responsive web site designs.

Here is a look at nine top mobile trends that dominated headlines this year.

Mobile marketing is a lot like Justin Bieber: they both have a lot of growing up to do.

The two have potential, but they’re plagued by problems. Bieber struggles to control his mouth and temper; mobile marketing struggles to make sense of the available data and to use it in a way that produces relevant, contextual ads and apps.

Everyone talks about contextually aware mobile computing. It's supposed to be the holy grail of marketing, allowing brands to engage one-on-one with their customers. But brands are struggling to make the context vision a reality.

Mobile is the pivot point in context because it offers access to local behavioral data through GPS and other sensors. In reality, tying corporate customer databases to local mobile media has become an extremely difficult process.

When it comes to context theory is frequently discussed but the success stories are rare. And for every case study there are 100 failures. Brands are struggling to make local marketing work for them.

Since Oreo’s big moment at the last Super Bowl, almost every marketer has sought similar real-time successes in channels ranging from blog posts to video and from social to mobile. The result has been a preponderance of messages that relate to real events but are not relevant to the brand or to the people who follow that brand.