Whether PC or mobile, marketers should go social

Digital world functionality is splitting between mobile and web usage, suggests a report by Nielsen. In essence, mobile smartphones are specializing in quick communications while the web is focusing on entertainment and socializing. What will this mean for businesses?
Social network usage skyrocketed over the past year, with 22.7% of time spent on the web compared to last year’s 15.8%. Online gaming also become more popular with 10.2% of internet time dedicated to playing compared to 9.3% in 2009. E-mail usage, on the other hand, fell from 11.5% to 8.3%, signifying that more people are sticking with Facebook to chat with friends.

Mobile usage, however, saw a big jump in e-mail, with 41.% of mobile time being dedicated instead of last year’s 37%. Not surprisingly, social network access shot up from 8.3% to 10.5%.
What does this mean for the marketing department? Direct marketers are going to have to rethink e-mail advertising and go to where the eyeballs are: social networks. Mobile e-mail advertising may look like a good idea at first, but most mobile users probably won’t invest the time to read an inbox special offer on-the-go. Instead, people are sticking with apps to get the information they need quickly, so investing some time into figuring out geo-location marketing opportunities (or if project resources are big enough, iAd advertisements) will maximize reach.
In any case, e-mail spammers beware. Your days are numbered.

Brian Skepys