If you are engaged in mobile content marketing then you’ll be pleased to hear this news. If you aren’t then here’s why you should be.
The way people use their mobile phones is changing and the big gain in 2012, according to Flurry, is in social network use. While gaming has traditionally eaten up the most time they report it is now tied with social networking on an average of 24 minutes per day each. The average time people spend on their phones each day has also gone up from 68 minutes in 2011 to 77 minutes this year. Time spent reading news through apps has also increased slightly to 12 minutes each day on average. These trends are good news for content marketers engaging in social media campaigns and using apps as a content outlet.
How Big Are Mobile Social Networks?
We know that more and more people are accessing social networks on their phones but which ones? Should content marketers be focussing on a few key locations or trying to hit a range of the most popular social networks? To start with we need some figures to work with and Tomi Ahonen recently posted an estimated list for mobile users which looks like this.
Social Network (Owner) . . Users . . . Home Base
Facebook mobile . . . . . . . 425 M . . . USA
Mobile QQ (Tencent) . . . . 200 M . . . China
Sina (Weibo) . . . . . . . . . . 150 M . . . China
RenRen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61 M . . . China
iMessenger (Apple) . . . . . . 58 M . . . USA
Mig33 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 M . . . Singapore
Twitter mobile . . . . . . . . . . 55 M . . . USA
Blackberry Messenger . . . . 50 M . . . Canada
Mxit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 M . . . South Africa
Nimbuzz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 M . . . Netherlands
Skype Mobile (Microsoft) . . 40 M . . . USA
Gree . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 M . . . Japan
Instagram . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 M . . . USA
Mobile Cyworld (SK) . . . . . 25 M . . . South Korea
Mobage Town (DeNA) . . . . 25 M . . . Japan
Mocospace . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 M . . . USA
Whatsapp . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 M . . . USA
FourSquare . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 M . . . USA
Mixi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 M . . . Japan
MyGamma (Buzz City) . . . . 5 M . . . Singapore
Flirtomatic . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 M . . . UK
Itsmy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 M . . . Germany
Funbook (XL) . . . . . . . . . . . 2 M . . . Indonesia
Frenclub . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 M . . . Malaysia
Source: TomiAhonen Consulting Estimates April 2012
As you can see the trend is worldwide and there are many more examples like those listed above that are specific to a country. For starters that means mobile content marketers can pick and choose their targets according to the audience they want to appeal to, both in terms of nationality and other demographics.
Social Networking Apps
The potential for new social networks is still huge. Facebook buying Instagram points to some possible consolidation as they look to completely dominate the scene but the meteoric growth of Pinterest proves a newcomer can muscle their way in if the idea is good enough.
The idea of location-based flirting seems to be taking off in a big way, take a look at apps like Skout and Flirtomatic.
There are also apps that offer an alternative private network to Facebook for sharing your life with family and friends. Take a look at Path or more specific apps like Pair, which is for couples, and Kidfolio, which is all about sharing your child’s development.
Networks like Gree are also partnering with companies like Crowdstar to blur the line between social networks and gaming. Many kids especially are using in-game chat and social games to talk to their friends and this trend is set to grow.
There’s no end of opportunity in this space but how do content marketers take advantage?
Building Your Brand
The same rules apply in the mobile social networking space as elsewhere when it comes to marketing. Provide people with something of value and in return you will build brand awareness which leads to trust and eventually loyalty.
Companies that have embraced the growth of social networks and the swing to mobile devices amongst Internet users are already reaping the benefits. It is vital to have a brand presence and the earlier you engage with a social network on the rise the more you can get out of it.
It is also much more measurable than many other avenues of promotion. You can see how people engage with your brand through social media and analyse the return on your investment.
The Boston Consulting Group is suggesting that smartphones and tablets will account for four out of five broadband connections by 2016. Amongst mobile users in general we are seeing a trend towards apps and social networks in particular. Put that together and the case for focussing on a mobile content marketing strategy and a social network presence is overwhelming.
MAY
About the Author:
Simon is a Creative Director at Rock The Deadline. He is an experienced writer, an expert researcher and a meticulous editor with a strong background in technology, software development and project management. He has been writing on a freelance basis since his student days studying Scottish History at Edinburgh University. He then spent several years working in the video games industry, starting off as a Game Tester and going on to work as a Game Designer and finally as a Producer. For the last few years he has been working as a freelance writer, researcher, proof reader and editor on a full time basis. Simon writes on a wide variety of topics including movies, video games, mobile technology, gadgets, history and software for various clients on the web and in print. He is a regular contributor for Beckett Media's Phone Apps magazines, he served as the Managing Editor for the Mobile channels at Bright Hub, he has covered video games for websites such as Bit-Tech, Boom Town and on his own gaming blog, Frankengamer. He has written for various blogs covering movies and runs the horror movie website Eat Horror. He has also written and proof read text for various video games. He is skilled at investigating and researching any subject, has developed a number of websites and served as a consultant for content development and SEO.