Mobile Social Media: 3 Super-Easy Tips [Research / Charts]
Want to reach your target audience where and when they’re available?
Think mobile social media.
Why?
Because mobile is where you can reach me. Smartphones have become our must-have item that we can’t live without. It’s how we stay connected and organize our lives.
Smartphone shipments have grown to 30% of the 5.2 billion mobile phone user base. 315 million smartphones were shipped in 4Q2013.
Global mobile traffic, both smartphones and tablet, as a percentage of total Internet traffic is growing at 150% and likely to maintain that rate according to Mary Meeker.
Social media: Where you can engage me
Social media is today’s snackable content. It’s where we turn when we have short spurts of time. It keeps us connected by enabling us to communicate with friends, family and colleagues in the ways that suit our needs.
Social media visitors by platform by device
When it comes to social media visitors, size counts regardless of device used. Facebook is still the king of social media. A plurality of Facebook visitors (45.1%) access the site via a combination of devices.
Don’t think mobile-only social media platforms to find the largest mobile based social media audiences!!!
- Facebook has 41.0 million mobile-only visitors (or 24.4% of its 167.9 million unique US visitors.)
- Instagram, 2014’s social media darling, has 33.4 million mobile-only visitors (or 54.3% of its 61.5 million unique US visitors.)
- Twitter has 26.3 million mobile-only visitors (or 42.6% of its 61.8 million unique US visitors.)
Time spent on social media platforms by device
- Mobile based social media apps, Instagram, Vine (Twitter’s video app) and Snapchat are almost 100% mobile.
- Pinterest lags these mobile based social media slightly with 92% mobile activity. This is consistent with RJ Metrics research that revealed Etsy, the top pinned company, received most of its pins via mobile.
- Both Facebook (68%) and Twitter are predominantly mobile.
- LinkedIn as the professionals’ social media site is mainly computer based (74%).
- Tumblr, the millennial based social media, is mainly PC based.
Daily social media activity on mobile devices continues to gain ground.
Daily social media usage continues to grow on mobile devices across the major platforms Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and LinkedIn, according to findings by the Temkin Group in 1Q2014.
Service related businesses using Yelp or TripAdvisor take heed: Consumers are just as likely to read and write reviews on a mobile device as a computer.
Translation: Bad service may yield immediate results on users’ rating sites of preference. Where possible make patrons happy.
3 Super-easy mobile social media tips to reach your target audience
1. Social media: How we communicate now!
The combination of smartphones and social media have changed how we communicate, engage and interact. Our interactions are no longer one-to-one or one-to-many. Rather, often, we communicate many-to-many.
Most social media participants use multiple social media platforms.
Snapchat continues to be the social media darling. With its high media profile, it’s grown by two-thirds in the last half year.
After being acquired by Facebook, What’s App has grown over 30% while Instagram has grown by 25% during that period.
Across the board, mobile social media apps are gaining traction according to Global Web Index.
Visitors are 2x more likely to share content via a mobile device as a proportion of their total activity according to ShareThis.
Mobile Facebook activities have increased over the last half year, while PC based activities have declined. Sharing a social link via a mobile device increased over 20% in the last 6 months according to Global Web Index.
Marketers take note: This is a sign that social media is moving to a mobile-first mentality.
- Facebook (60%), Pinterest (19%) and Twitter (14%) dominate mobile social media sharing based on ShareThis data.
- 2/3 of Facebook sharing occurs via an iPhone while 1/2 of Pinterest sharing occurs on a tablet. This finding is aligned with social media activity. Facebook is on-the-go, short periods of time and Pinterest is “me” time.
Social media sharing by the numbers:
- Facebook social media shares: 1:00PM for shares and 3:00 PM for clicks.
- Twitter social media shares: 5:00pm for retweets and 1:00- 3:00 PM for clicks.
- Pinterest social media shares: 2:00-4:00 PM for repins and 8:00-11:00 PM for clicks.
Social media moves towards more frequent communications with smaller group of contacts.
Actionable mobile social media tip:
- Engage your target audience on the social media platforms they use when they’re active, not when you’re at work.
- Provide your target audience with mobile-friendly content that they can’t wait to share via social media. Craft titles that scream “Share me!!!”
- Mind your manners on social media. Don’t try to interrupt personal communications with your promotional message.
2. Say cheese: Mobile cameras drive social media usage.
Photos, taken with a smartphone or tablet are often consumed on the same type of device. And, we can show our BFFs (and others) what we’re doing—right now—via mobile social sharing.
Even more important, we can modify and enhance these images with a few quick swipes to add a gloss to make our lives look better than they are IRL. In turns it motivates people to share more and more of their lives. It can result in FOMO (or fear of missing out.)
While Snapchat has grown quickly over the past few years, Facebook has been the main repository for our personal visual history until 2014. Its ownership of WhatsApp and Instagram have enhanced that position.
Actionable mobile social media tip:
- Give your prospects and customers a reason to take a photo via social media. Set up an area of your physical location, website or your social media presence for them to share their personal photos where they appear with your product. This is particularly useful for otherwise boring products. It gives them a human interest aspect.
- Ask your target audience to share their photos of your product. Hopefully they’ll include a relevant hashtag.
3. Lights, camera, action: Mobile and tablets make us video directors.
Having a camera that shoots both stills and videos in the palm of our hand is increasing what and how we share our lives with our family, friends and the public.
Video takes our personal storytelling a step further. We understand it from the movies and television.
Video is the new black of content marketing.
Instagram and Vine offer short format video. (Here’s how to use Instagram Video.) The good news is that these 2 formats enable your brand to stand out.
Actionable mobile social media tips:
- Leverage the power of video. People love to watch other people. At a minimum, interview experts in your field. This is a great way to create content at a conference. (As Ian Cleary did at Content Marketing World 2012.)
- Show your customers how to use your products. Shoot short how-to videos to help prospects. Include them on appropriate product pages.
- Use social media platforms to expand your video distribution. Don’t forget that YouTube is the #2 search engine after Google.
The bottom line: You need to be where your prospects, customers, influencers and the public are or you’re missing these 3 mobile social media opportunities that your competitors may have already employed.
Mobilize your employees, prospects and customers to engage with you on the social media platforms where they spend their time.
Share your content with them, gather their photos, and get their videos.
BTW–Don’t forget to have fun on mobile social media!!!
How have you used mobile social media platforms to attract your target audience?
Happy Marketing,
Heidi Cohen
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