52: Percentage of Americans who send text messages.

76.4: Percentage of US cell phone subscribers use text messaging.

72: Percentage of all teens who are text-messagers.
51: Percentage of all teens who were text-messagers in 2006.

2/3: Fraction of teen texters who say they are more likely to use their cell phones to text their friends than talk to them to them by cell phone.

50: Percentage of teens send 50 or more text messages per day.

80: Average number of texts teen girls send per day.
30: Average number of texts teen boys send per day.

40: Percentage of women who describe themselves as ‘mainly texter’.
30: Percentage of men who describe themselves as ‘mainly texter’.

42: Percentage of 18-34 year olds with cell phones who said they were interested in receiving alerts on their cell phones from places they frequent.
33: Percentage of 35-44 year olds with cell phones who said they were interested in receiving alerts on their cell phones from places they frequent.

26: Percentage of all consumers who use text messaging who say they have opted in to receive text message marketing messages.

25: Percentage of women who engage in TV voting via text.
14: Percentage of men who engage in TV voting via text.

15: Percentage of teens who say they have received a sexually suggestive nude or nearly nude image of someone they know by text.

26: Percentage of U.S. teens ages 16-17 who admit to have texted while driving.

More than 822 billion: Number of text messages sent and received on carriers networks during the last half of 2009 (That’s almost 5 billion per day).

Around 9.3 Billion: Number of MMS (multi-media messages) messages reported for the last half of 2008.
More than 24.2 Billion: The number of MMS messages reported for the last half of 2009.

80: Percentage of all ages who said they thought they would get a quicker response from a text than from an email or voicemail.

22: Percentage of U.S. cell phone owners who donated to Haiti earthquake relief who did so via text message.

Sources:

http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1572/teens-cell-phones-text-messages

http://www.qwasi.com/news/tag/text-message-statistics

http://www.carolflammer.com/2010/01/cell-phones-text-messaging-marketing-to-consumers/

http://mmaglobal.com/news/text-messaging-provides-us-consumers-convenient-secure-immediate-way-help-haitian-earthquake-vi

http://business-solutions.tmcnet.com/topics/email-marketing/articles/82201-twenty-six-percent-text-message-users-have-opted.htm

Photo Credit: ydhsu

300 million: The number of fewer female mobile subscribers worldwide than men.

$13 Billion: The increase in worldwide telecommunications revenue that would happen if telecommunications providers closed the gender gap in mobile phone penetration.

93: The percentage of women worldwide  who report feeling safer because of their mobile phone.

41: The percentage of women worldwide who report having increased income and professional opportunities once they own a phone.

$94: The average cellular bill for working moms.
$78: The average cellular bill for all cell phone users.

42: The percentage more likely working moms are than the average cellular user to download content to their phone.

55: The percentage of mobile social network usage that is female.
45: The percentage of mobile social network usage that is male.

42:The percentage of women who post photos on Facebook.
35:The percentage of men who post photos on Facebook.

40: The percentage of teenage girls who say they talk to friends on their mobile phones several times a day.
26: The percentage of teenage boys who say they talk to friends on their mobile phones several times a day.

19: The number of minutes boys between 8-18 years old spend on social networking sites in a typical day.
25: The number of minutes girls between 8-18 years old spend on social networking sites in a typical day.

25: The number of minutes boys between 8-18 years old spend playing games on the computer in a typical day.
8: The number of minutes girls between 8-18 years old spend playing games on the computer in a typical day.

77: The percentage of women who said that technology is NOT a “guy thing”.

In some important ways, we’re not very different.

47: The percentage of mobile web users who are women.
53: The percentage of mobile web users who are men.

77: The percentage of Millennial women who have created a social networking profile.
72: The percentage of Millennial men who have created a social networking profile.

57:The percentage of U.S. Facebook users who are female.
43:The percentage of U.S. Facebook users who are male.

14:The percentage of female facebook users who donated to Haiti earthquake relief via text message.
13:The percentage of male facebook users who donated to Haiti earthquake relief via text message.

57:The percentage of U.S. men who access the internet wirelessly.
52:The percentage of U.S. women who access the internet wirelessly.

70: The percentage of U.S. male teens who have a cell phone.
72: The percentage of U.S. female teens who have a cell phone.

50:The percentage of men who are “very” interested in the iPad as of January 2010.
50:The percentage of women who are “very” interested in the iPad as of January 2010.

Sources:

http://www.gsmworld.com/newsroom/press-releases/2010/4644.htm
http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/online_mobile/mobile-web-up-34-percent-july-09/
http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/consumer/working-moms-above-average-mobile-users-and-spenders/
http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/online_mobile/survey-global-facebook-users-generous-texters-for-haiti-but-unprepared-themselves/
http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?R=1007309
http://www.briansolis.com/2010/04/in-mobile-women-rule-social-networking/
http://www.pewinternet.org/%7E/media/Files/Reports/2010/PIP-Teens-and-Mobile-2010.pdf (pdf link)
http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2010/Social-Media-and-Young-Adults/Part-2/5-Wireless.aspx?r=1
http://pewsocialtrends.org/assets/pdf/millennials-confident-connected-open-to-change.pdf (pdf link)
http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1315/teens-use-of-cell-phones
http://www.srgnet.com/us/
http://www.gearlog.com/2009/06/what_women_want_from_their_tec.php

Photo Credit: Ingorrr

13 hours: The average amount of time spent consuming any kind of media by Black and Hispanic Americans 8- to 18-years-old.

8 hours and 36 minutes: The average amount of time spent consuming any kind of media by White Americans 8- to 18-years-old.

73: Percentage of White teenagers between the ages of 12 and 17 who have a cell phone.

71: Percentage of (English-speaking) Hispanic teenagers between the ages of 12 and 17 who have a cell phone.

64: Percentage of Black teenagers between the ages of 12 and 17 who have a cell phone.

17: Percentage of White Americans who on a typical day go online with a handheld device.

29: Percentage of Black and Hispanic Americans who on a typical day go online with a handheld device.

29: Average number of minutes spent on social networking sites by Hispanic Americans.

19 minutes: Average number of minutes spent on social networking sites by White Americans.

21 minutes Average number of minutes spent on social networking sites by Black Americans.

52: Percentage of Hispanic Millennials who have created a profile on a social networking site.

83: Percentage of White Millennials who have created a profile on a social networking site.

71: Percentage of Black Millennials who have created a profile on a social networking site.

64: Percentage of White Millennials who connect to the internet wirelessly when away from work.

66: Percentage of Black Millennials who connect to the internet wirelessly when away from work.

47: Percentage of Hispanic Millennials who connect to the internet wirelessly when away from work.

71: Percentage of Asian Americans who use Facebook at least weekly.

53:Percentage of Black Americans who use Facebook at least weekly.

52: Percentage of Hispanic Americans who use Facebook at least weekly.

40: Percentage of Black Americans who use YouTube at least weekly.

51: Percentage of Asian Americans who use YouTube at least weekly.

45: Percentage of Hispanic Americans who use YouTube at least weekly.

14: Percentage of Asian Americans who use Myspace at least weekly.

26: Percentage of Black Americans who use Myspace at least weekly.

32: Percentage of Hispanic Americans who use Myspace at least weekly.

82: Percentage of Twitter users who are White.

7: Percentage of Twitter users who are Black.

5: Percentage of Twitter users who are Asian.

5: Percentage of Twitter users who are Hispanic.

78: Percentage of U.S. companies said they had not used any social media to engage Hispanics.

18: Percentage of U.S. companies who planned to increase their Hispanic marketing spending in the next year.

69.7: Percentage of U.S. bloggers who are White.

20: Percentage of U.S. bloggers who are Hispanic.

12: Percentage of U.S. bloggers who are Black.

3.7: Percentage f U.S. bloggers who are Asian.

Sources:

Generation M^2: Media in the lives of 8- 18-year-olds (pdf)

Pew Research

View from the Social Inbox: 2010 (pdf)

eMarketer

Photo Credit

What was the first web site you accessed from your mobile phone?

If you are somewhere between 15 and 35, odds are it was Facebook. And if you are a regular Twitter user, your mobile phone has been an indispensable tool for posting Tweets from the beginning.

It’s pretty obvious that the fires that Facebook and Twitter started are rapidly sweeping across the globe…and the fuel that feeds these fires is mobile.

Today, over 100 million of the 400 million Facebook users access the site via mobile and the ‘official’ Twitter Blackberry app that was just released spurred 100,000 new signups in three days and is already driving nearly 2% of all Tweets.

It’s easy to say we have become a mobile society, but it is more appropriate to say we are now a connected society. The rapid adoption of smartphones and Internet enabled feature phones combined with widespread deployment of free wi-fi, has created ubiquitous connectivity for a significant portion of the world’s population.

And we cannot get enough of it. We love to get that direct tweet from a business associate while we are sitting by the pool. We love having the ability to immediately upload the photo we just took to our Facebook page. We are a social animal and now we can be social with a wide network of friends/followers/coworkers everywhere all the time.

As I have said before, the explosion of mobile connectivity is being driven by the largest technology companies in the world and their understanding that the future of personal computing is about the device in your pocket, not the one on your desk or the one in your laptop bag.

This has created a social tsunami with the convergence of mobile technologies, ubiquitous connectivity, our innate desire to be social, and two reasonably stable and well known channels that we are all now adopting, Facebook and Twitter.

Both of them should send Steve Jobs a royalty check.

Photo Credit

94: Percentage of Millennials who have a cell phone.

31: Percentage of 8- to 10-year olds who have a cell phone.

66: Percentage of Black Millennials who connect to the internet wirelessly.

47: Percentage of Hispanic Millennials who connect to the internet wirelessly.

7 hours and 38 minutes: The amount of time 8- to 18-year-olds spend consuming media daily.

1 hour and 51 minutes: The amount of time young people between the ages of 15-18 spend texting in a day.

43 minutes: The amount of time 15-18 year olds spend talking on the phone in a day.

80: Percentage of Millennials who have texted in the last 24 hours.

20: The average number of texts Millennials send in one day.

57: Percentage of 18-34 year olds who say price is the number one reason they aren’t buying an iPad.

31: Percentage of U.S. teens who want iPhones, almost doubled from 16% last spring.

20: Percentage of the mobile video audience that are teens. They also watch more than the average viewer.

1 in 3: The number of U.S. teens who use the mobile web on a daily basis.

62: Percentage of Millennials who connect wirelessly to the internet when away from home or work.

41: Percentage of Millennials who have a cell phone but no land line.

50: Percentage of Boomers who sleep with their cell phone on or right next to their bed.

83: Percentage of Millennials who sleep with their cell phone on or right next to their bed,  making it the first and last thing they often reach for each day.

Sources:

Generation M^2: Media in the lives of 8- to 18-year-olds (pdf)

Millennials: Hip and Poor

Survey: 31% of U.S. teens want iPhones

Nielsen: How Teens Use Media (pdf)

Pew Research Center: The Millennials (pdf)

Photo Credit: Steve Rhodes

Here are the 3 most important reasons small and medium sized businesses should use mobile marketing.

1. Location
2. Location
3. Location.

OK…I’m done…that was a really easy blog post to write. Oh….you want to know what I mean by location, location, location. Alright…happy to explain.

Well, back in 2001, when I began working on search engine optimization and search marketing, it quickly became obvious that local search would play a larger and larger role in helping businesses create awareness and drive traffic, both online and offline.

By simply adding location-based keywords to your search optimization efforts you had a much better chance of being successful with even the most highly competitive search terms.

Now fast forward to 2010. Location based services (LBS) such as Foursquare and Gowalla are the latest hot trend/technology. These location based services have become white hot because of the widespread adoption of smartphones and other mobile internet devices (MID) and the opportunity to market/communicate/promote at a local or location level. As long as they have that phone in their pocket, everyone is connected everywhere they go.

Are you following me so far? It’s a convergence of technology and need. Location is hot because we have reached a tipping point of widespread adoption of mobile technology (smart-phones/MIDs), the real world need of people to access information about what they are doing or what they are shopping for, and the ability/need of businesses to provide information and content to those people via the Internet and mobile technology.

So now you’re thinking, well duh Ken…we all know that…

Yes, you may know about all of this, but if you are a small, local business or you have lots of stores that are competing in local markets, you need to take a step back and think about this from a mobile marketing viewpoint. If you do not have a mobile element in your customer engagement strategy you’re missing an opportunity that your competitor may already be taking advantage of.

Mobile marketing opportunities are not all about smart phones and early adopters of Foursquare…these are trends you should be aware of and you should include them in the strategies and initiatives you are working on, but there are also huge opportunities for mobile marketing through the utilization of text messaging (SMS) campaigns and engagement. While smart phones are by far the fastest growing segment of the handset market, the sales of feature phones still lead the market by a significant amount. Of 1.13 billion total handsets sold in 2009 only 175 million were smartphones. All of those 1.13 billion phones can receive text messages and most can access the Internet. Well executed SMS campaigns have proven to be inexpensive and produce significant results.

So with geo targeting, location based services and mobile marketing, you can target your ‘local’ market and your ‘local’ customer with messaging and engagement campaigns to drive awareness, traffic and business.

This applies to all levels of customers. Whether it’s a lower economic strata or the highest level of income and technology adoption, there is a mobile strategy that can be effective; simple text messaging, smart phone apps, mobile web or, most likely, a combination.

If you are a small local business, think in terms of how you can use your location and the location of your customers as an advantage and a way to engage and position your company as the right choice for that customer. If you are a larger company with multiple locations, develop initiatives that allow each of your locations to do the same.

You need to develop marketing, advertising and promotion strategies that are based on the premise that you can engage each and every one of your customers through the mobile phone they have with them everywhere, all the time. You can bet your competitor is or will be soon.

Photo credit: Jerome Strauss

25 million: Users who accessed Facebook via a mobile browser in January 2010.

347: Percent increase of mobile Twitter users in 2009.

234 million: People in the US age 13 and over who used mobile devices in December 2009.

67: Percent of the world’s population are mobile subscribers.

54: Percent of individuals who agreed to receive additional offers when opting in.

68.5: Percent of mobile data usage that will be video by the year 2015.

117: Percent compound annual growth rate of mobile data traffic over the next 4 years.

3.9 billion: Total number of mobile phones in use worldwide at the end of 2009.

2.2 billion: Number of mobile phones discarded in the past 5 years.

4.6 billion: Estimated total number of mobile phones in use worldwide by the end of 2010.

9 out of 10: US adults who use at least one mobile device today.

80: Percent of Western European mobile users who actively use SMS text messaging.

49: Percent of US mobile users who actively use SMS text messaging.

69.6 million: Number of mobile web users in January 2010.

98: Percent of smartphone users who downloaded an app in the last 3 months.

48: Percent of smartphone users who only downloaded free apps in the last 3 months.

70: Percent of smartphone users who used some type of mobile banking or payment service in the last 3 months.

1.6 billion: Estimated 2010 revenue generated by mobile applications.

Photo Credit: MissTessmacher

Can you see through the cloud of app frenzy to understand the importance of mobile web sites and applications?

In my last post I provided 4 important criteria to look at when considering development of native smartphone applications. Today, I want to talk about how important it is to look beyond ‘app fever’ and consider how you can utilize mobile optimized websites and web applications to inform and engage.

1. So, we’ll start with today’s hottest topic, the iPad and its effect on the mobile computing space. Although the iPad is by no means the only one out there, it has served as a catalyst of the mobile internet device category. iPads and other MIDs provide the screen real estate to make mobile web browsing comfortable for just about any user. Gartner says that by 2013 more people will access the mobile web than the desktop web. Is your web presence ready for this?

2. The mobile web is platform agnostic. This alone makes mobile web the killer app for me. Yes, there will be millions of smartphones sold this year, but there will be hundreds of millions of feature phones sold and most of these will have Internet access. And the growing trend with carriers is to require a data plan with all phones. If you know who your customer is, you should know the level of adoption of smart phones. If you know this…then step back and ask yourself “Is my content or application available to largest portion of my audience?” That will tell you how important mobile platform neutrality is for your engagement initiatives.

3. Mobile web development is scalable. Look around you…you probably are already working with developers that have the skills to create web content and applications optimized for mobile. I’m not saying there is not a learning curve in creating a great mobile user experience, of course your UI designers must learn mobile and adapt. But, mobile is going to continue to evolve at blinding speed and to keep up you need to get your dev team on board with mobile and HTML5 and get on with it. Beats scrambling to find iPad experienced developers.

Take some time to think about these three considerations and what I posted about native smart phone apps. These are all important considerations, but these are the tools you will use to engage not the strategies you must develop first.

If you don’t know your audience and or have a comprehensive strategy for customer engagement, go back to square one and start over. It’s not about tools, it’s about engagement with the right audience, with the right message, at the right time.

Note: Starting with this blog post, my Twitter stream will provide links to related content. So if you have an interest to read what others are saying about mobile web take a look at the links provided in my tweets throughout the day. @kenvernon.

Is there a smart phone app in your marketing plans? And have you asked yourself, why is there a smart phone app in my marketing plan?

There’s no doubt that smart phone app fever is at epidemic levels. Advertising and marketing professionals are reporting wide-spread outbreaks in the client population.

The first sign is usually an email or text message from the client that has a link to news about the app that their competitor just released. The diagnosis is confirmed at the next meeting with the question, “why don’t we have an iPhone app?”

The tell-tell sign of app fever is the use of the term “iPhone app”. This shows that the fever has blinded the client to “what value is this to my customer and how many of my customers actually have smart phones (not just iPhones).”

A strange variant of app fever is CEO app fever. Your CEO may be vulnerable if he/she is exposed to other CEOs that have already caught the fever and are prone to showing off by informing all those around them that they just launched “one of those iPhone apps”.

OK, I’ve just about worn out the app fever metaphor. So I’ll back up a bit and say that beyond our current obsession with smart phone apps, apps are here to stay and they will live side-by-side with other mobile channels and functionality.

That said, let’s get down to the promise in the headline, the 4 reasons why you, your company or your client should invest in a smartphone app.

1. It provides your customer a tool or utility that resides on their smart phone and provides value. That value can be information, convenience or functionality. Start with ‘how can I help my customer?’ and then ask ‘how does this help my brand?’. If it doesn’t do both, walk away.

2. You are able to create a fun game that carries your company brand and engages your target market. It can be a complex game or something very simple. Don’t think ‘game’ think ‘advergame’.

3. Your app is one element in an integrated engagement or promotional campaign that drives engagement and traffic through multiple channels. Make it a piece of the puzzle that adds up to engagement and sales.

4. Your smart phone app will deliver content or functionality in a mobile environment that can’t be delivered any other way. This can be informational or entertainment, but is must be compelling content that, again, creates engagement and drives sales. Keep in mind, you can sell content.

So, if you can’t put your app idea into one of these four buckets then you need to put it in the trash can and refocus on marketing initiatives that truly engage customers and drive sales.

And if you still think you have to have an app, or your client thinks they have to have an app, or your CEO thinks they have to have an app…read this.

Are you focused on getting your customers to double opt-in or are you working every day to get them to be engaged with your brand?

I am sure you have already figured out what the right answer is.

You should not focus on a check box that says…this customer has completed a double opt-in so now we can send them stuff.

Your marketing department shouldn’t be launching a permission marketing campaign, the whole company should be involved in building relationships with your customers.

Your goal should be multi-channel opportunities for your customer to experience your brand, and once they do…you work to turn that engagement into a transaction, then turn the transaction into a customer.

Customer-centric marketing is based on driving ongoing customer engagements, creating a dialogue with your customer, bringing them into your customer community and providing value, information and incentives at each point.

I use the word  ‘community’ here to describe the overall, broad group of individuals or companies that have chosen your product or service.

Think of your customers as a community of people that have at least one thing in common. That one thing is the product or service you sold them. You are the common thread. With that knowledge, reach out and build relationships, you with the customer, and customers with other customers.

Yes, you should have an online customer community, it should be vibrant and active with lots of two-way discussion, feedback and support.

But, remember, all of your customer interaction should be vibrant and active with lots of discussion, feedback and support; from first contact, to closing the sale, to customer support, both sides engaged at all points of contact.

Engaging with your customer ‘community’ consistently, honestly, personally and with value creates a relationship. An ongoing, relationship that can build substantial value for both company and customer.

A customer who is active in your customer community chooses to opt-in with each and every action they take.