In my writing, I cover a lot of information and data that deals with today’s most popular marketing platforms; social and mobile. However, it seems that when it comes to the favorite advertising platforms in today’s world, there can never be enough data, and marketers are always wondering how performance will be each and every day. So, today we receive a bit of information regarding social and mobile marketing as they are together, from eMarketer.
Surely, we have all noticed that with social and mobile being the heaviest and most popular marketing platforms, they were bound to combine. There can be no doubt that they have, with consumers using social media on smartphones and tablets more and more, and accessing it on desktop computers much less.
Let’s not get too carried away here though. When asked what devices they used to access social media, respondents to eMarketer’s survey were still using desktop heavily. In 2011, 97% said they used desktop computers to access social media, and that number only went down to 94% in 2012. However, what is important is that in 2011, 37% of respondents said that they used mobile phones to access social media, but in 2012 that number shot up to 46%. For the tablet, only 3% of respondents accessed social media on these devices in 2011, but that number skyrocketed to 16% in 2012. So, it is in these numbers that we can see the intensified mobile-social integration that marketers have been preparing for.
The frequency with which mobile users are visiting social media on their mobile devices has increased as well. In July of 2011, about 71% of those who visited social media on mobile devices said that they did so at least weekly, 54% of which did so daily. In March of 2012, the number had gone up to about 74% who did so weekly, and 60% of which did so on a daily basis.
Now, since this change is coming quickly, marketers may think that by adapting to the change, they will be all set to see the performance that social-mobile integration has the potential to bring. However, eMarketer gives a bit of advice that will tell marketers a bit more:
“Understanding the ways in which consumers use their mobile devices—and the differences between how they use smartphones and tablets—is critical to constructing social marketing campaigns. Marketers also need to make their content accessible across all devices.”
“But the transition is not simply about adaptation. It is also about opportunity. With photo-sharing among the top activities of mobile social users, leaning toward using imagery instead of text in social media marketing is one effective strategy. In addition, mobile offers the location component to marketers who want to catch the attention of mobile users on the go.”
We have already seen the incredible results that Facebook’s mobile platform has brought in, and how crazy marketers have been going with excitement for it. A meshing of mobile and social marketing can only result in good things, as it is the perfect way for the marketing world to transform as does consumer behavior.
