The New Social Mobility
Every marketer is trying to devise a smart social marketing strategy. One key driver: Facebook has seen the highest increase in traffic of any Internet site over the past three years.
At the same time, marketers are trying to work out good mobile strategies. A key driver: the iPhone (and more recently Android-based handsets) have become the primary browsing device for a growing number of consumers.
Yet, companies that view these strategies as separate efforts may be missing an even important phenomenon: social media and mobile are evolving together in ways that reinforce each other. Social media by itself is partially displacing other, more traditional, interactive forms of communication. For example, such activities as emailing one's friends is being supplanted in some segments by messaging through Facebook and Twitter. Mobile devices, meanwhile, are being used by consumers as an alternative to the desktop, particularly for such activities as email and social networking. Companies in this space have seen the potential for some time: Apple's iPhone was visionary in this regard, Google's heavy investment in technologies like Android and Waves represent efforts to stake a claim to this emerging space.
One of the best overviews of the trend that I've seen is a recent presentation by Mary Meeker of Morgan Stanley. She has assembled a wealth of useful statistics that illustrate the convergence of mobile and social media.
From a data perspective, this convergence presents unique challenges. Most companies have a wide gap in the information and understanding that they have about their customers' mobile usage and social networking. As companies seek to develop strategies in these areas (and, one hopes, have them well-integrated with other customer interaction channels), mastering the information flowing from these sources will be a critical element to success.
Posted at 02:34AM Oct 29, 2009
by David King in General |
