40% of mobile social networking users engage with brands: report

It has emerged that several social networking brands posted significant gains for their mobile audiences over the past year as comScore released an overview of mobile social media usage across the five European markets (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK) from the comScore MobiLens service.

The study showed that the audience for mobile social networking in the EU5 region grew 44 percent in the last year with 55.1 million mobile users in the EU5 accessing social networking sites or blogs via their mobile devices during September 2011.

Usage

Approximately 39 million mobile users or 71 percent of the EU5 mobile social networking audience accessed Facebook via a mobile device in September 2011 – the largest mobile audience of any social network – and an increase of 54 percent in the past year.

Nearly 8.6 million mobile users accessed Twitter.com, representing a 115-percent jump from the previous year. LinkedIn grew by a notable 134 percent to 2.2 million unique users, more than doubling its user base during the same time period.

Engagement

In September 2011, nearly 3 in 4 mobile social networking users reported reading posts from people known personally, and more than 60 percent posted status updates on their mobile devices.

Mobile social networking users also engaged with brands on their mobile devices, as 44.3 percent reported reading posts from organisations, brands, or events, and a similar percentage (41.6 percent) reported reading posts from public figures or celebrities.

In addition, more than a quarter (26.7 percent) of mobile social networking users reported receiving coupons, offers, or deals on their phones.

Convergence

The convergence of two technological shifts – with the rise of the smartphone use and the meteoric popularity of social media – has created a seismic shift in consumer behaviour. Now, wielding their GPS-enabled phones, social media users are more comfortable than ever before in sharing information about their lives, and also expect instantaneous access to information and purchasing no matter where they are in the world.

According to EyeforTravel’s Social Media and Mobile Strategies for the Travel Industry 2011 report, to capitalise on the convergence of social and mobile media, marketers must take into account becoming fully accessible to customers on the go, with website content and features, including e-commerce, the mobile web, mobile applications, tablets, social media sites such as Facebook and in-store kiosks. These areas, precisely, are the points at which social media and mobile media converge.

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