Image credit: Robert Scoble
Just when you think you’re getting all the social media technology under your belt along comes mobile.
One out of every seven minutes of media consumption today takes place via mobile devices, according to new research from IPG’s Universal McCann and AOL. That’s expected to grow by 60 percent over the next two years.
The proliferation of smartphones and increases in mobile browsing are key trends for 2009, with smartphone shipments worldwide set to grow by 23% this year. Companies need to devise appropriate ways to communicate with mobile users or they risk missing out on huge opportunities.
There are 63 million mobile Web users in the U.S. — 19 million of whom access the Internet on a weekly basis. 44 percent reported seeking news and information on their mobile devices. So it’s no longer enough just to get your news seen online and in social media sites, it also has to be available on mobile devices.
The study polled 1,800 mobile users over the fourth quarter of last year and first quarter of 2009 and found that 80 percent of smart-phone users are satisfied with the quality of the Internet on their mobile devices.
Who uses smartphones?
- 74% of iPhone users are over the age of 25 – Forrester
- 31% are 35-49
- 70% of iPhone users are male
- 64% of key decision makers in marketing departments are using mobiles to view emails
- 61% of all smartphone owners have a household income of greater than $70000, compared to just 49% of normal mobile owners
When are they consuming media via mobile?
- 95 percent use mobile media to fill downtime
- 82 percent said they use it at work
- 81 percent while shopping
- 80 percent at home
- 65 percent while commuting to their jobs
Where does all this lead? Visit your IT department or call your webmaster and find out –
- How many visitors browse your site via mobile devices?
- How can you add mobile-specific functionality to your social media newsroom?
If you do nothing else, start to wrap your wits around this new segment of your website users. They map well with the online news readers.
One company with their fingers in this pie is Fluent Mobile Inc. They launched with a plan to become Google News for the mobile device – it’s a news search engine and aggregator designed to find only news content that is optimized for reading on mobile devices.
They won’t find your news if it is not ready for mobile.
