Just the facts – A great post from our often quoted friends at the Center for Media Research, facts you can use during your reports, speeches and water-cooler arguments during 2010. Ah, we love stats.
Mobile Phones
U.S. mobile phone users 13+: 223M
Number of mobile Web users: 60.7M (up 33% from 2008)
Percentage of mobile devices that are smartphones: 18% (up from 13% in 2008)
Percentage of mobile device owners that streamed audio: 8%
Percentage of mobile device owners that viewed video via their mobile phone: 7%
Percentage of mobile devices sold in Q3 2009 that were smartphones: 25% (estimated 40%-50 in 2010)
Source: The Nielsen Company, November 2009
Looking Ahead To Mid-2011
Estimated smartphone user base: 150M
Estimated mobile subscribers: 300M+
Estimated users of mobile web: 120M
Estimated users watching mobile video: 90M
Source: The Nielsen Company, November 2009
Growth of cellphone only homes in the U.S.
2009… 21%
2008… 18%
2007… 15%
Top 5 Smartphones (% Ownership)
Blackberry 8300 Curve: 17%
Apple iPhone 3G: 15%
Apple iPhone 3G S: 12%
Blackberry 9530 Storm: 6%
Blackberry 8100 Pearl: 5%
Source: The Nielsen Company, November 2009
Top 5 Mobile Web Sites
Google Search
Yahoo! Mail
Gmail
Weather Channel
Facebook
Top Social Networks on Mobile Phones
Facebook
MySpace
Twitter
Top 5 Mobile Video Channels
YouTube
Fox Interactive Media
Weather Channel
Comedy Central
CBS
Internet
195M Active U.S. Internet users
160.3M People who accessed the Internet via a broadband connection: (93.3%… up 16% from 2008)
138.4M Unique viewers of video (up 11.4% from 2008)
11.2B Total online video streams viewed monthly (up 17% from 2008)
200.1 minutes Average time spent viewing online video per viewer monthly (up 12.5% from 2008)
Social Networking
Facebook reaches 56% of the active U.S. Internet universe with an average usage of 6 hrs a month per user
Facebook is the #3 site visited by users 65 and older
Twitter grew 500% year-over-year
Time spent on social networking sites in the U.S. increased 277%
The average U.S. worker spends 5 hrs a month visiting social networks at the office
32% of all mobile web users visited a social network
As the number of cell phones capable of surfing the Internet grows, so does the need to deliver content that is optimized for mobile devices.
What does it take to develop a site that plays nice with mobile web? What should it include and what are some of the obstacles you make encounter along the way?
Social media expert, Jeremiah Owyang, provides a glimpse into his Forrester Research study on the Future of the Social Web. He interviewed 24 of the top social media application experts across the nation - leaders from Google, Facebook, Twitter, etc.
Looking at the next 4 years, Jeremiah presents five eras of the social web:
Social Relationships (fairly mature) – connect with others online and share information – MySpace, Facebook, Twitter
Social Functionality (current) - social networks become like operating systems allowing you to add applications to social networks and perform activities beyond sharing static information. Multimedia / Multi-platform collaboration. Example: Facebook and LinkedIn. This era is not at all mature, much growth ahead.
Social Colonization – wherever you go online or with your mobile device, your friends can go with you. You can make decisions based on this peer review wherever you go. Also, you’re constantly connected to people.
Social Context – now that we have portable identities in our devices or online, you can exchange parts of your identity for more relevant content. Personalized content, even to the extent of personalized television and multimedia content. Demographic, psychographic, preferences, previous buying behavior and social context (people you know) will affect the kind of content you will have access to. Because you control your identity, registration pages will go away. Lead tracking will be reinvented.
Social Commerce – Communities will work together to define the products/services that they will buy. Product feedback will become part of the product development process. Again, a new level of customization. Brands will bid for their information. Community buying.
Great perspective – watch the video to hear Jeremiah firsthand.
With the recent rise of text messaging and other cell phone technology, most are quick to point out its drawbacks. But the South Dakota Office of Highway Safety and L&S are using it in a whole new way that could save lives.
The Office of Highway Safety’s new “Act Civilized” campaign discourages drunk driving in South Dakota and promotes the use of designated drivers to get home safe. To support this effort, the state and L&S have launched a text messaging program that alerts users of sobriety checkpoints coming to their county. In select cities, users can also text in for the numbers of local cab companies.
Not only is the technology resonating with the campaign’s main target audience (males 21-35), but it’s setting a national example for other states. The campaign was recently featured in USA Today for what appears to be a first in discouraging drunk driving. Jonathan Adkins, a spokesman for the Governors Highway Safety Association, says he’s surveyed all 50 states’ highway safety agencies, and none reported having a program quite like South Dakota’s.
This text messaging campaign is not only a relevant application of modern technology to help with an old problem, but also a big win for every motorist on the road. Read the entire USA Today article here.
You can also sign up for text messages in South Dakota on the “Act Civilized” website.
As I dig out, literally and figuratively, from the big snow storm that hit western South Dakota and Wyoming earlier this week, I reflect on how technology has enabled us to become extremely efficient and information-centric, yet when the lights go out and weather blocks our doors, our technically-savvy culture is literally halted.
This storm blew in earlier than predicted which caught me stuck out of town due to the Interstate 90 closure. I spent the snowstorm with a couple of friends with drifts surrounding the house ranging from 4-6 feet in the open areas with higher drifts against the buildings.
Many people would’ve just relaxed and enjoyed the snow days, but my workaholic nature made me crazy trying to find a way to get some work done. I had my laptop, but no power cord (not that it would’ve helped when the power was out). My friend had a computer, but no Internet so I couldn’t access our network files. I was reliant solely on my Blackberry. Its amazing how much we really can accomplish from the palm of our hand, but I was unable to access many of our campaign-related, web-based applications due to Blackberry browser issues and cell service was very spotty so I found myself using the Verizon tagline, “can you hear me now,” all too often. At several points, I cracked out the old pen and paper to sketch some things out, which was actually quite refreshing.
The snow won’t catch me unwired next time. My technology survival kit/checklist is in place:
1.Power cord ALWAYS – this was my dumb mistake – I may need to ditch the small, stylish laptop bag, for a larger one to fit all of the essentials
2.Blackberry with tweening cord to use as a modem for my laptop when necessary
3.Car adaptor, in case there’s no power
4.Blackberry attachment software in place to handle all normal file types
5.Road report and weather bookmarks in my Blackberry browser
6.Text message road alert service activated
All’s well now… I’ve been back in the office all day and have a new appreciation for my laptop and Internet connection. It was a good reality check as to how reliant I am on technology. Are you winter storm survival ready, technically speaking?
Dinner conversation has really changed. A few days ago a group of friends and co-workers sat down for a nice meal after a long day’s work. As soon as the beverages were ordered, most of us (myself included) had our phones out… checking basketball scores, Facebook and Twitter.
Our mothers would not approve.
We are not, however, alone. comScore recently released research showing the number of people daily surfing the web on their cellphones has doubled since January 2008. All together daily mobile web users now total 22.4 million!
Top categories include:
News, weather, maps & other information = up 107%
Social networking site or blog = up 427%
Financial accounts = up 188%
Movie information = up 185%
Business directories = up 161%
And it isn’t just high-end iPhones and Blackberries. According to comScore, 70 percent of the people accessing mobile web are doing so on lower cost feature phones (any phone that isn’t a smartphone or PDA phone).
My question to marketers is, what information on your website might people want or need to access while on the go? Is it available in a mobile-friendly format? If not, what are you waiting for?
I’m a Machead. I’ll admit it. I grew up on PCs, which might be WHY I became a Machead. Since my first “stick of gum” iPod shuffle to our household iMac, my wife and I have come to embrace and relish the iLove.
That’s why I spent half my day refreshing the Apple homepage. I had heard, just in time, that Apple was announcing iPhone 3.0 software. When I realized the video of the keynote wouldn’t be out until afternoon, I sad mac’d the browser window and went about my day.
How often do you leave the house without your phone/mobile deivce? My bet is never, at least not intentionally. It goes everywhere you go; to the office, the grocery store, the kids’ football games, even on vacation. Your mobile phone is likely the most personal, and most depended-on, object you own.
In a recent study conducted by the L&S research team, adults between the ages of 18 and 34 said they would rather have a cell phone than cable television or health insurance. In 2008, the United States passed a critical mass when there were more cell phone lines than land lines in the country.
I just read a study on the effects that mobile advertising has on brand advertising (not to be confused with direct response). The impact is impressive… almost a 24% lift in brand awareness and 12% lift in message association. Part of the reason for the high impact is simply the newness of the medium; people are paying attention because they are not bombarded with messaging. But I also think it goes beyond novelty. 97% of adults carry a cell phone. More than half of all new phones sold have online capabilities (although only 26% claim they have used their phone to go online). Almost 60% of phone users have sent and received text messages.
Look at your brand and your current messaging; are you missing a golden opportunity to increase awareness and drive sales? It could be as simple as making sure your web site is WAP compatible or as complicated as a CRM campaign targeted to mobile devices. There are possibilities to market through phones that will fit into every budget, every market, and every campaign.
But make sure you proceed with caution. Mobile messaging is very personal and marketers have to be careful not to invade. Users are open to messaging that is relevant and timely. By “spamming” your messages often to broad audiences, your message will backfire creating a negative brand association. Use caution, find the right message for your audience, and work with a reputable agency and distributer.
