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Affordable Social Media Marketing, business, Marketing, Mobile, mobile adoption, Mobile Apps, mobile consumer, Small Business, Social Media, Social Media Marketing for Small Businesses
I recently read a report by the Nielsen Company entitled, “STATE OF THE MEDIA: THE SOCIAL MEDIA REPORT 2012″. Late in 2011, when I was just starting up, I told all of my clients that if their small businesses were to survive in the long run, they would need to be “social”, and that a big part of being “social” would hinge on being “mobile friendly”. So what I read in the Nielson Company report with respect to the influence and adoption of the mobile web and apps was not surprising, in general. But what did surprise me were the figures related to the increase in usage of mobile and tablet devices between 2011 to 2012.
Here are a few statistics (between July 2011 and July 2012):
- Increase in time spent on mobile usage: 120%.
- Increase in time spent on mobile web usage: 28%.
- Increase in overall mobile web usage, unique U.S. audience: 82%.
- Increase in overall mobile app usage, unique U.S. audience: 85%.
While my sense was for mobile adoption to increase significantly in 2012, I think few would have predicted these figures. And they go on for overall time spent on social media and how that time was distributed between devices used to access social networks – big increases for mobile and tablet devices all around, while PC usage increased marginally or even decreased. Read the infographic-packed report.
Another report by digby.com entitled “(Mobile) Industry Statistics” reinforces the figures provided in the Nielsen Company report and provides even more mind-blowing statistics related to mobile consumer behavior (you can really get lost it this report, though the figures are not as current as in the Nielsen Company report).
- 55% of mobile owners access mobile web.
- 29% of mobile users are open to scanning a mobile tag to get coupons.
- By 2014, mobile internet is predicted to take over desktop.
- 57 percent of consumers will not recommend a business with a poorly designed mobile site. Similarly, 40 percent of consumers will go to a competitor’s site after a bad mobile experience.
- Mobile search will generate 27.8 billion more queries than desktop search by 2016.
- By 2013, 54% of all phones globally will be smartphones.
Although statistics can be manipulated, numbers don’t lie. If you own a small business in Paradise, or just about anywhere else – retail, restaurant, hospitality or specialty service – you need to take note of these figures. Because if your business is not “social” and it isn’t “mobile” in 2013, it’ll be broke in 2014.
Mobile is where it’s at. Everyone I know at my age uses their smartphones and tablets for almost everything online. The most frustrating thing to me is to go to site and it not be optimized for mobile viewing and/or it’s mobile version sucks! If your looking to gain my business (and the business of my peers for that matter) and I can’t get to you or easily use your site from my phone, you’ve lost me.
Hi, Stephanie. I agree with you. As mobile and tablet devices become the defacto ways and means of accessing information via the internet – whether it be via apps or the mobile web – it will become more and more important for small businesses to adapt to this trend in order to survive. Those who adapt, will compete. Those who don’t will end up fossils. Thanks for your comment!