An idea for a blog post came to me during dinner tonight. My dining companion and I were talking about how he kept on top of what was being said about his company. He would check his phone every few minutes to make sure he had no new emails from his bosses, no new tweets mentioning his company’s Twitter name, etc.

It occurred to me that in 2013 and beyond, we’re going to be more focused on mobile than ever before – Let’s face it – Within a few years, the majority of sales and transactions will be performed on a mobile device. It’s just the way we’re headed. But that shouldn’t mean we need to spend a dinner with a friend constantly checking for updates.

I think the companies (and marketing heads of said companies) that will come out on top will do so because they’ve figured out how to keep an eye on what the world is saying about their companies, without having to check in every four minutes.

So how are you monitoring? Are you getting alerted anytime you’re mentioned? Or only when things explode? Are you immediately aware when your competitors do something that could affect you, or only when things have exploded, and the CEO is on the phone asking you why you weren’t on top of it? What we think of as “monitoring” has moved beyond “oh, someone tweeted about us,” and into “there’s a potential sale here, we should get on that.”

My belief? In the end, companies who are serious about their marketing, about knowing what their customers, clients, and even the public is saying about them, will monitor in real-time, so they can get the jump on their competitors – But here’s the thing: They won’t have to do so by constantly checking in. They’ll use a type of “smart monitoring” software, that won’t just alert them to problems, but also let them know when there’s a possible sale to be made, or potential client to be converted. And the best part is that it won’t be intrusive – It’ll be smart enough to know the difference between a basic mention, and something on which needs to be acted right away.

(Note: The next two paragraphs are a plug for the company that acquired HARO from me. Pointing that out in the spirit of full disclosure.) Vocus, the company who bought HARO from me, has created a suite that does everything I’ve just talked about. Their new Marketing Suite integrates Search, Social, Email, and Publicity and allows companies to constantly be aware of what people are saying about them and attract, engage, and retain customers all the while.

The suite also includes two innovative technologies, Buying Signals and the Recommendation Engine, which will add new tools to marketers’ arsenals. To be blunt, this software is a game changer—everything you need to market your brand is assimilated into this one suite. Say goodbye to being attached to checking your phone every four minutes.

It’s only a matter of time. Mobile is here, and if you haven’t embraced it already, you will soon enough. So ask yourself – How will you? And more importantly, when you do, will you do it in a way that allows you to live your life, while never being out of touch?

Peter Shankman sold HARO, the company he founded that connects journalists looking for sources to those sources in real time, to Vocus, Inc., the company behind Danzig, the marketing monitoring software that lets you know what the world is saying about your company, as it happens, over all channels, in real time. You can find him at Shankman.com, or petershankman on both Facebook and Twitter.