The other week  I wrote a post with a run-down of stats, about why brands need to be ‘mobile first’ rather than ‘digital first’.  Following that stats came out showing that in the US, mobile users spent longer on Facebook than PC users.

Now data about mobile social networking in Europe has appeared from Comscore.  While the social media audience on PCs grew 8% to 171 million in the major EU states (UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain) over the past year, the mobile audience grew 43% to 66.9 million.

Yes, that means the PC audience for social media is still 2.5x larger than the mobile audience, but the trend is only one way.   Moreover, if you look at individual social networks, the picture is different.  Twitter’s mobile audience grew 101% and LinkedIn’s 96%.

At the IAB UK Mobile Engage conference last week, Twitter actually stated that 80% of its UK user base now accessed the network via their phones.

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The other week someone asked me what an agency such as Rabbit (where I work) should be focusing on going forward.

My reply, was previously organisations have been talking about a digital first approach.   In other words, concentrate on online channels and content 1st, which then filters into the offline world.   However now the priority has to be mobile first,  you cater in the 1st instance for people who may be consuming your content via their smartphones.

Sounds obvious enough, but some recent stats demonstrate the need to move from theory to practice:

• In February 2012, smartphone penetration in the five main European Union states was 48.9% – 54.7% in the UK .  Similarly, in the US, over half of all mobile phones will be smartphones in 2013 are now smartphones, according to Nielsen stats.

• Most in the UK had used an app (52%) a mobile browser (52.6%), and though the mobile games space is growing with 37% having played a game, 39% had accessed social networks via their mobile

• Depending on who you believe, mobile Internet will overtake fixed PC Internet use in either 2014 or 2015. (infographic from Microsoft above)

• In April for the first time in 40 months, social network apps overtook games.  Analytics company Flurry says mobile users spent 24 minutes each a day on games and social networks, with social networks slightly ahead.    Overall users Flurry tracked spent 77 minutes a day with mobile apps – so over an hour a day

• A related study published in the Telegraph, found that smartphone owners make *fewer* telephone calls, spending five hours a week surfing the Internet on their devices

• The UK study by Recombu.com found that smartphone owners spend more time sending emails, on social media and shopping online…and less time reading books, exercising or watching TV

• That latter stat ties into an Ofcom one I use quite a lot about the most essential form of media among UK consumers.   Among 18-24 year olds, the TV is now the 3rd most essential media (after mobiles and PC+Internet) and another piece of research this week said that 41% of 18-24 year olds (1/5 of all adults) had abandoned live TV

• In fact, a lot of that reading now happens on Tablets.  “Tablet is the new PC” says a Forbes blog post – Gartner is predicting a 98% increase in tablet sales in 2012 to 118 million units

• In March 2012, mobile devices accounted for 10% of traffic to online retail sites.  Separately, a study by SEO Agency Spy said that 54% of UK consumers had made a purchase via their mobiles, while only a minority (35%) would never consider it

• A study involving 34,000 people worldwide by browser Opera found that in some countries almost half of new Internet users are mobile only.   Bear in mind that Opera pulls its data from its own users, and that Opera’s main focus is now mobile devices, but this is still significant

• Though high-end digital camera sales are expected to remain strong, the bottom end of the market will suffer as more and more people use their smartphone as their main camera – digital camera shipments are expected to decline 4.3% in 2012

So what’s the conclusion?   In two, at the latest three years, mobile devices will be the main way of connecting to the Internet.   Younger consumers are already doing so, and various activities ranging from social media to online shopping are increasing on smartphones.

Smartphones are becoming the primary camera for more and more people coinciding with Instagram reaching 50 million users, while smartphone users are not only always connected but engage in content snacking as this US report says 

In other words, what they consume may not be different, but how they consume it, how long for, how they share it and how they view it will be.  That’s something we need to be ready for now.

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The idea that Mac people are elitist liberals who enjoy munching hummus sandwiches is just a stereotype, right?

Social recommendation website hunch, took responses from 700,000 users to find out.   They broke down answers given by self confessed PC people vs Mac people to come up with some conclusions and an infographic.   Here are ten facts from the findings
1 – Mac users are indeed more likely be identify themselves as “liberal” – 58% vs 36%

2 – PC users are more likely than mac users to say they have a mathematical aptitude, while Mac users are more likely to say they have a verbal aptitude

3 – When given a choice between the Harley or the Vespa, 69% of PC users would go for the Harley, while 52% of Mac users go for the Vespa

4 – Mac people are 80% more likely than PC people to be vegetarian

5 – PC people like tuna sandwiches.   Mac people like, er, hummus

6 – PC people drink Chardonnay.   Mac people Chianti

7 – PC people like Pepsi.   Mac people San Pellegrino

8 – Mac people are more likely to consider themselves early adopters.  PC people are more likely to be later adopters

9 – PC people are 26% more likely to prefer fitting in with others

10 – 52% of Mac people live in a city, while PC people are 18% more likely to live the suburbs

So…no myths shattered there then!
Click on image above for hunch post and full infographic Via @marshallk
(Re-blogged from Rabbit – my day job)

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When referring to the shift from ‘old’ to ‘new’ media one piece of research I talk about again and again is a question Ofcom (the UK equivalent to the FCC) regularly asks consumers – what one piece of media can you not live without?   I use it, as it is a stat that gets to the bottom of which media really matters to the consumer

Previous results showed that TV is still far in front with the Internet a  distant second and newspapers nowhere to be seen.   But for 18-25 year olds things were somewhat different.   Mobile phones and not PCs+Internet were in second place.   TV was in front, but not by much.

The latest results have changed and an important milestone has been crossed:

TV remains the most-missed media for UK adults as a whole, although this has decreased from 50% in 2009 to 44% in 2010.   But for the first time, adults aged 16-24 mention using a mobile phone (28%) and using the internet (26%) ahead of watching television (23%).     Result – TV only campaigns are increasingly leaving consumers behind, and if you haven’t got a mobile element you are missing a lot of young adults completely.

Trust in social media increases
Another key stat: Trust in information relayed via social media and online media as a whole has increased.

34% trust what they read in newspapers, while 59% trust what they read on news websites.  Related to that, as another study showed, online articles command more attention than their print equivalents.

However at the same time, more consumers now trust rather than distrust what they see on social networks – 36% vs 33%.   That trust is most likely to be highest among women, 16-35 year olds and ‘AB’ higher earners.

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Some interesting stats from a presentation given in Belgium by electronic publisher mobile web putting the reach of tablets such as the iPad into perspective.   Though it obviously has a Belgian focus there are still some good talking points in there such as:

* Tablets are set to have a major role in enterprise.

According to the Alphawise CIO survey, 51% will purchase tablets for their employees in a year (which of course is not the same as saying as that they will purchase it for all employees) as a lot of businesses realise, tablets are much more than toys.   For example at Rabbit when we are out on a job or event, we tend to take our iPads with us, but not our laptops.

* As anyone who owns an iPad will know, one of its main uses is as a media consumption device.  54% read ebooks, magazines and newspapers on tablets, compared to 27% on PCs. Perhaps Rupert Murdoch is not so off the mark after all.   Other major tablet uses – listening to music (52%), playing games (52%) and watching video (51%).

* Android might be slowly winning the volume game, but iPhone users are worth more, spending on average 32% more on utilities, 37% more on entertainment and a whopping 111% more on games

Useful stuff to throw in when people tell you that tablets are just glorified toys, the full presentation is up at the Mobile Web blog.

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According to Cisco, worldwide mobile data use is projected to hit 3.5 million terabytes by 2014 (via Technology Review) – the year in which mobile is set to overtake PC Internet use.

Western Europe (30%) and Asia Pacific (26%) will both have higher share of the global mobile data total than North America (22%).    However, Africa, the Middle East and Latin America are showing the highest rates of growth – albeit from a relatively small base.

Some stats out from Nielsen (via Marketing Charts) show that North Americans and Europeans are less enthusiastic adopters of mobile video than web users in other parts of the world.

If 100 is the global average, then the European Union scores 55, while North America comes out even worse at 45.   Compare that to Asia Pacific at 145 and the Middle East, Africa and Pakistan (why that combo?) at 136.

Why is this significant?  Because using mobile video is the tipping point at which people switch from their laptop or PC being their primary Internet device, to their mobile.

This is according to a study by Transpera a year ago, which showed that 62% of mobile video users use their mobile/cellphones to browse the Internet more than they use their computers.

Perhaps one reason for the North America and European figures could be down to increased data capping, with both AT&T in the US and the major UK operators having called time on unlimited mobile data.  If so, pricing is having a real impact on consumer behaviour and online habits.

Meanwhile in Japan, Softbank still allows unlimited data for its iPhone4 plans.   And with the Middle East being quick on the mobile video uptake, UAE telecoms company DU has an unlimited data plan with a ‘fair use’ policy of a whopping 10gb.   Compare that to the fair use policy of Orange in the UK of…750mb.

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A pre-Christmas survey, though one still worth noting is the one carried out by Convergys Corp, which says that a single bad tweet or Facebook comment can cost you 30 customers.

Apparently Convergys found out that bad reviews or comments on social networks reach on average the ears and eyes of 45 people.   Out of these, 2/3 would consider not giving their custom to the brand being slated, without even necessarily re-tweeting or building on the negative comment.   In other words, they are gone and without any kind of warning to you.

According to Frank Sherlock of Convergys, these kind of web posts lead to “silent attrition where customers switch companies without complaining directly.”

Which is not to say that some can’t be highly vocal, the company surveyed 2000 UK consumers and found that 1/3 had posted negative brand experiences online.    This is similar to a Euro RSCG study earlier in the year, which identified a trend of ‘cyberdisinhibition‘, where people are more likely to complain from the anonymity (and low hassle factor) of their PC.

This and other items are in the weekly ‘Rabbit Feed’ – more details here!

Image – Life as art

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NMA has a piece on ‘social networks ignore mobile at their peril.‘ Though most of it is behind a pay-wall, the gist of it is that social media is being accessed more and more via cellphones.

In particular, NMA talks about specially commissioned research for Nielsen and the fact that 65 million Facebook users – so more than 1/5 of the total – now access their social networks from their mobiles.

These users are apparently 50% more active than purely web based users, my guess is that this is so due to the fact that purpose built apps make accessing social media via your phone fairly easy, while surfing the Internet can be an unsatisfactory experience.

Overall, the gist of article, about the growth of the mobile Internet, is of course right and it’s worth summarising a few recent stats that make the same point, namely:

• According to UK regulator OFCOM, for 16-24 year olds, mobile phones are their second most essential media, ahead of PCs+Internet (for other age groups, its reversed)
• A report conducted by Transpera in the US showed that once someone starts graduating onto mobile video with their phone, they are hooked and use it as their main way to go online. According to the results, 62% if mobile video users use their cellphones to browse the Internet more than they do their computers
• iPhone users are richer, younger and better educated than the average. Read – early adopters and people generally ahead of the curve use smartphones
• Mobile phones are becoming our remote controls for life, 2/3 of us even take them to bed with us! More to the point, 17% of people globally (and 26% in the US, 25% in the UK) check their emails via their cellphones
• Though mobile click through rates are pretty appalling (at least in Europe and the US – here in Africa they are actually quite high), once you serve up consumers with ‘location based’ advertising, it can work. According to Navteq, 72% of consumers found location based ads to be “acceptable” (whatever that means), but 19% who recalled seeing them would click through for info on what’s nearby

Back to the NMA piece, according to 3 mobile boss Kevin Murphy, ‘there’s now an “overwhelming awareness” among consumers of the ability to use social networks on mobile.’ What’s needed now is for social networks, and indeed brands, to take further advantage of that fact.

Image – Angelsk

I’m coming to this a few days late due to being in transit to Cow Africa, but UK comms regulator OFCOM has published it’s regular digest of facts and stats. Among other things, the look at adult media literacy reveals that online TV watching is relatively high in the UK.

In particular, 29% of Internet users, watch TV online or download programmes or films. This is largely driven by broadcasters such as the BBC and its iPlayer service, but it means that with 73% of the UK population online, over one in five adults (21%) watch TV over the Internet.

The research also shows that Internet usage among seniors is on the increase, with 41% of the over 65s now online. The Ofcom report also refers back to earlier data about most missed media – I personally use this stat time and time again, especially as it shows that TV is less and less of a ‘can’t live without’ for 16-24 year olds and that for them, mobile phones have pushed PCs+Internet into third place (NewTeeVee has the chart).

The statistic about Brits watching TV online is interesting. It shows that if the content and ways of watching it are good enough, the uptake will reflect that. And that content is what people are used to seeing on their TV screens.

For instance, despite all the talk about the growth of online video and reach of the You Tubes of this world, a report in the summer by Comscore found that these sites capture around 10 minutes of the average US Internet time, and 15 minutes for the UK.

Image – Mr Phillip

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