The IAB’s social media and mobile councils have collaborated to produce a list of eleven things you need to know about mobile and social media.
1. Accelerating change. Whilst Gartner predicts that mobile will be the dominant form of web access worldwide by 2013, today, already, the combination of social and mobile is accelerating that trend, with nearly the same percentage of iPhone owners accessing Facebook through their mobile (71%) as through fixed line internet (77%).
(Ipsos, “The Future of Mobile” study, December 2009)
Steve Wing, Head of Mobile and Digital Attraction, Guardian
2. Social media and mobile are growing. It’s been predicted by eMarketer that mobile and social network users worldwide will grow more than fivefold between 2009 and 2014, rising from 141.4 million users in 2009 to 760.1 million in 2014.
Clark Turner, Editor, UTalk Marketing
3. It’s how we spend our time. 48% of time spent on the mobile internet is on social networking sites.
Alistair Hill, Analyst and Mobile Products, Europe, comScore
4. It’s personal. To get the most from mobile it is crucial to fully understand everyone you see, along with their actions. Use mobile analytics to precisely identify, measure and personalize websites and apps for each person. Then give everything a social element and learn how people share your service and spread the word.
Andy Bovingdon, VP Product Marketing, Bango
5. Becoming the norm. We conducted a survey of mobile users who viewed ads on our network to better understand how mobile social networking differs from PC usage. We found that over 55% of all feature phone users, 47% of smartphone users and 38% of iPhone users report using social networks from their phone “often”. Additionally, high-end mobile device users are more likely to use Facebook and Twitter while mobile than the reported PC usage patterns.
Jonathan Abraham, Brand Sales Director, Europe, admob
6. It’s frequent. Social networking on mobile is encouraging regular usage – when people use social networks they do so an average of 3.8 times a day for 42 minutes.
Alex Kozloff, Media Research Manager, Unanimis
7. Making mobile inspirational. Using mobile and social media together can add insight to your campaign at the same time as being inspirational. Nike’s True City app created by AKQA is a great example of this. The app utilises social media by encouraging the user to share content from their iPhone to their Facebook page.
Harriet Clarke, Communications Executive, IAB
8. It must be mindful of consumers. If driving users to your online social networking site, be mindful of the user journey for example iPhones aren’t flash enabled which could result in a deflating user experience and a missed opportunity for advertisers.
Mike Newcombe, Mobile & VOD Controller, bskyb
9. It can be compatible. A staggering 2.2 billion minutes were spent using Facebook in a single month via UK mobile phones (GSMA Mobile Media Metrics Dec 2009). As more and more people choose to access Facebook via their mobile rather than their PC, it will become increasingly important for branded Facebook apps to be mobile compatible too.
Richard Pentin, Senior Planner, TMW
10. It can be integrated. You can significantly add to your overall communications plan by including a mobile element to make your marketing more social. Setting consumers tasks that are relevant to their mobile usage and then providing a forum for comparison or competition can add dynamism to a campaign. Lean Mean Fighting Machine recently launched an award-winning campaign for Samsung, which made the most of the exceptional quality of their new phone with a ‘silent disco’ with a twist… Contestants danced to the music on their mobile phones and if someone called or texted them during the disco they were out of the competition. This campaign successfully tapped into the mindset of the mobile consumer, and built on behaviours they were already used to in a very social way.
Amy Kean, Senior PR and Marketing Manager, IAB
