The Rise of Mobile in Social Media

Mobile phones sales have skyrocketed in the past decade. Web devices have begun to reshape every aspect of our society. How are you using Mobile in your marketing strategy? Understanding the impact of Mobile on Social Media Marketing and your ability to prepare will keep you in the game and ahead of your competition.

Apple now has over 600,000 apps for the iPhone and iPad.
Android has over 400,000 apps.
25% of US internet users are mobile only.
8 Trillion text messages were sent in 2011.

US consumers prefer mobile browser for…

Banking
Travel
Shopping
Local Information
News
Video
Sports
Blogs

US mobile users prefer apps for…

Games
Music
Maps
Social Media

Mobile ad spending amounted to $3.3 billion in 2011 and is predicted to be $20.6 billion in 2015.

PayPal expects to see $7 Billion in mobile payment volume in 2012.

Mobile searches have quadrupled in the last year.

Is your business optimized for mobile?
Can you be found in search?

Mobile is very different than your PC or Mac. You will need a different approach to reach your targeted market.

Mobile users move quickly (Speed).
Content short and to the point.
Geo location options.

The biggest mistake that small businesses make is to assume that mobile marketing is for large corporations with huge budgets. Not only is this completely false, but in reality many small businesses that have been successful with mobile marketing started out studying how big companies were using it, and then borrowed the tactics that worked for them.

Here are three ways that businesses (both large and small) are using mobile media to capture these audiences:

Mobile display advertising and paid search: Placing ads on relevant mobile search engines, businesses are more likely to catch prospects during some part of their buying cycle and convert them into customers.
Short message service (SMS): You can inform subscribers of your updates and your product information. Create text-to-win contests.
Multimedia messaging service (MMS): MMS includes not just text but also sound, images,animations and video content. Encourage engagement by inviting them to send a short video, a photograph, to win a prize or discount.

Start to use mobile increasingly in every thing you do.

Use Google voice search from your smartphone.
Download Geo based targeting apps like Foursquare, WHERE, SCVNGR and check-in to your favorite retail store. Tip, you can find discounts, I’ve been using Foursquare for over 2 years.
Use Starbucks Mobile Card to pay for your next cup of coffee.
Use Amazon’s Price Check App that scans a bar code and shows you who has the best price on that item.

Commit to using Mobile Media instead of just reading about it.