Although this should not come as any surprise with the proliferation of mobile devices across the globe it is still astounding to see some of these numbers on paper.
A survey recently completed by comScore, a company who provides measurements in the digital world for analytics and trends, released the results of a survey they did for August 2011 and mobile device usage for social networking.
"Social media is one of the most popular and fastest growing mobile activities, reaching nearly one third of all U.S. mobile users," said Mark Donovan, comScore senior vice president for mobile. "This behavior is even more prevalent among smartphone owners with three in five accessing social media each month, highlighting the importance of apps and the enhanced functionality of smartphones to social media usage on mobile devices."
This survey compared mobile access to social media sites compared to the same timeframe one year earlier and these were the significant findings.
- Accessed social networking site or blog ever in the month: 72,252 people (an increase of 37%)
- Accessed social networking site or blog almost every day: 39,854 people (an increase of 58%)
Method for accessing the social networking site or blog:
- Mobile Browser – 42,251 people (an increase of 24%)
- Application – 38,453 people (an increase of 126%)
Mobile Audience Growth (Total Audience):
- Facebook – 57,332 (growth of 50%)
- Twitter – 13,375 (growth of 75%)
- LinkedIn – 5,482 (growth of 69%)
Some other takeaways from the survey:
Understanding how mobile users interact with social media is important for brands looking to engage with on-the-go consumers. comScore recently released new social media metrics through its MobiLens service, offering deeper insights into mobile consumers’ social media activities. Of those accessing social networking sites or blogs on their mobile device in August 2011, 80.3 percent read posts from people known personally, while 69.5 percent posted status updates while on their mobile device.
Mobile social networkers also were likely to interact with brands on these sites with more than half (52.9 percent) reading posts from organizations/brands/events. One in three mobile social networkers received a coupon/offer/deal, with one in four (27.7 percent) clicking on an ad while on a social networking site.
Pretty amazing numbers and growth across the board. My takeaway from this is that all sites and services need to be catering to an increasingly mobile audience and users. The best method is apparently through applications so all of you big businesses need to see about getting onboard with the Windows Phone platform and not just the iWorld of devices.
I can not tell you how frustrating it is to read a story and find out that the service is not available for my mobile platform of choice. Don’t get me wrong, a lot of companies have already made the move to support Windows Phone 7 as well as the iDevices, but more of you need to get there or else you are going to miss out on a large audience of mobile users.
