Twitter has seen an additional 40 million users since April. That’s huge, but the interesting point is that usage among mobile devices like tablets and smartphones seems to be driving the majority of the growth.
Since April, Twitter has also seen a 62% jump in mobile traffic, and that coincides with it launching its own mobile version of its site.
Here’s another interesting stat: 83% of Millenials sleep with their smartphone within arm’s reach. Makes sense, as many use it as an alarm clock, as do I.
The point is, people love their mobile devices, and many people that own one have it with them at almost all times. And as CK shares, half the planet has a mobile phone.
Half the planet.
So I think this poses two interesting questions moving forward:
1 – How well do your existing social media efforts translate to mobile devices? Is your blog/site optimized for viewing on mobile devices? Are you tracking mobile traffic patterns for your blog/site? You should be.
2 – Will certain social media tools benefit more if usage continues to move to mobile? This bears watching, for example, Twitter’s basic functionality is very similar to texting, which is well suited to mobile phones. Tools that have more intricate functionality might not fare as well in the transition to mobile.
What do you think? Have you been tracking your site’s mobile traffic? Have you tried loading your blog on mobile devices to see how it looks? Have you thought about what impact mobile growth among your customers will have on your existing social media efforts? What are we missing?
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The ramifications of the iPad and smart phones just don’t quit, do they?
So many interesting statistics in this post to ponder. Great research, Blog Master 🙂
Hey Marjorie! Yes mobile is huge, people are interacting with and consuming content via mobile channels now more than ever, so companies have to consider how they are delivering that content and making sure it is ‘mobile-friendly’.
See you at #Blogchat 😉
I think twitter really had their timing right with the growth in mobile phones – I live in Africa and really didn’t expect things to develop so quickly – but I already frequently tweet from my phone.
Timely advice – I’m busy trying to re-focus my personal blog and will certainly have a look at how it looks and feels in a mobile device.
Vernon that’s wise and I am doing the same thing with this blog. Right now mobile traffic is very low, but I want to make sure the blog is optimized for mobile viewing now, rather than later. Because the growth IS coming.
Mobile is indeed not much the future, but the present.
The good thing? More and more services are born or updated to help you in this. WordPress blogs get a mobile version for free with the WPTouch plugin, Twitter is definitely becoming mobile-centric, most web applications have a mobile version (through the web, or a specific app). Procrastinating your mobile “evolution” is not refusing to embrace the future, but denying the present.
Gabriele thanks for reminding me about the WPTouch plugin, it was mentioned during #Blogchat a couple of weeks ago. I need to check into that one 😉
It’s a very nice one, especially ’cause it’s by default “on” in any new WordPress installation and it perfectly follows the “it just works” philosophy: I noticed I had it because I visited my blog on my iPhone.
Mack,
Some great points here. The importance of being mobile accessible, especially for Twitter, is that, in “third world” or “underdeveloped” countries”, internet time is still expensive, whereas texting is not, Twitter is much more accessible as a texting tool or something that loads easily on a mobile device rather than a high-speed internet connection on a computer. Most everyone has a cell phone, but pay-by-the-minute pre-paid plans are much more common than monthly all-inclusive ones used by most Americans.
What could Doctors Without Borders or Peace Corps workers do with Twitter or a similar service? The possibilities are ENDLESS!
Just think what things we could accomplish with those kind of “emails” or “post-it notes” or “directives” from one to another in field work. How cool would that be?
Sara those are great points, we forget that in many areas of the world, the way a person has internet access isn’t via their home network, but their smartphone.
Considering my social media marketing blog attracts a significant population of tech-savvy internet users and businesspeople, and that 0.008% of my blog’s visitors over the past 30 days connected via a mobile device, I wonder what they use their mobile device for if not visiting my blog.
Wow, while I was practicing dermatology/medicine and blogging this ‘half the planet has a mobile phone’ boom was going on without my really thinking about it. I haven’t viewed my blog and how it fits into life from this vantage point. Thank you for directing my conscious attention to it, it impacts choices I make for my little skin care ecommerce store and it’s blog.