Tag: social media marketing

Mobile commerce becoming influence by social networking

Mobile commerce is growing more prolific around the world. It is becoming increasingly important for retailers and large brands to begin accommodating the needs of a growing consumer base that is tethered to mobile technology. As businesses begin to focus more on mobile commerce, consumers are also becoming increasingly reliant on the information they can find online, bringing more attention to the concept of social commerce. Social networks and other forms of online engagement are aiding in the continued evolution of mobile commerce by introducing more dynamic aspects to this still emerging sector.

Social commerce begins emerging among consumers

The concept behind social commerce is relatively simple: Consumers are able to find reviews for products on social networks and use this information to make informed purchase decisions. Peer reviews of products and services have long been valuable to consumers. These reviews often determine whether or not a consumer will purchase a particular product or support a particular brand. Bad reviews have, in the past, meant significant loss for a wide range of brands. As these reviews become increasingly mobile-centric, they are beginning to affect the purchasing habits of consumers.

Social media provides new platform for peer reviews

The average consumer relies heavily on social media to stay connected to friends and family as well as attain information of subjects they may be interested in. Consumers tend to share a great deal of information through social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, and this sharing often includes information concerning the products they purchase. A recent study from Reevoo, a market research firm, shows that a growing number of consumers are accessing product reviews from their mobile devices. The report also shows a major spike in the reviews that consumers are posting from mobile devices. According to the report, reviews from mobile devices have grown by 212% since September 2011.

Social media may become intertwined with mobile commerce

Mobile commerce is becoming a more prominent part of the lives of consumers, which in turn is leading mobile commerce to become a more prominent part of social networking. Mobile commerce itself refers to much more than payments being made from a smartphone or tablet, it also encompasses mobile shopping and banking. Because of the always-connected, always-online nature of mobile commerce, social networking may soon become a major part of the way people use their mobile devices to purchase, review, and search for the products they may be interested in.

Recent research findings have shown that the usage of this network has greatly switched to smartphones.

The findings from a study on social media marketing and usage have just been released, showing that the use of Twitter is rapidly moving away from PCs and is heading toward smartphones and tablets, instead.

Mobile is rapidly becoming the most common place that Twitter is accessed and used.

The survey was conducted by ConsumerMetrix from Strategy Analytics and the results were published within their report, which was entitled “Social Network Profile: Who Uses Twitter?”. This research has provided some interesting information with regards to the direction that social media marketing is taking, as well as the trends regarding the type of device that is being used by consumers to use that platform.

This social media marketing trend could be defining for future campaigns using that network.

The social media marketing and usage study that produced this data was performed from March 2012 through October 2012. What it indicated was that the percentage of people who had been using laptop or desktop computers for tweeting dropped from 77 percent at the start to 64 percent at the end of that period.

It also indicated that the number of users who were tweeting over their smartphones increased from 53 percent at the start of the survey to 64 percent by the end. Equally, among tablet users, tweeting increased from 9 percent in March, to 18 percent in October.

As a whole, the data collected through the social media marketing research offered a clearer image of the proportion of Twitter users who were accessing the service by way of various forms of devices, and that the usage over mobile – be it smartphone or tablet – increased overall from 56 percent to 71 percent.

The Strategy Analytics vice president of digital consumer practice, David Mercer, said “The immediacy of Twitter communications requires devices which are close to hand at every waking moment.” He added that this, by definition, indicates that social media marketing and usage prefer smartphones and tablets. This information could be useful for the development of future efforts to reach and interact with consumers.