TimmyH
Milennials drive the growth of Mobile Social Networking
June 3rd 2008 00:41
A new study released last week by In-Stat claims that nearly 30 million mobile users worldwide will be accessing social networking services by 2012.
The study said that Generation Y, will be among the key demographic drivers of this mobile social networking trend. The next generation will no doubt continue the trend.
The report, titled “Mobile Social Networking: Marketing to Millennials,” said that by the year 2012 blogging, photo and video sharing, games, SMS text messaging, instant messaging and loaction search like google maps and earth will all mesh into the social networking experience from a mobile phone.
The introduction last year of the Internet-enabled and user-friendly products like the Apple iPhone and the BlackBerry have changed user expectations of the mobile phone.
The only problem now is the managers of these sites and creators of their applications: how to bring in revenue from these services.
Advertising, premium upgrades and subscription services are at present the major sources of revenue. Add to that the actual cost of mobile subscription and there are plenty of ways the trend could go. In marketing terms, Social networking remains an experiment. Although In-Stat estimated advertising revenue within the industry to be more than $1.5 billion.
More than half of millennials have a mobile phone worldwide. Social networking through mobile technology allows them to update their profiles, post pictures and announce events to the world without having to go home and log on to their personal computer.
It is fast and easy and it allows real-time communication to an entire group of friends from any location with an internet signal.
Mobile phones are always on and always with their owners. Compared to purses and sunglasses, they are lost surprisingly rarely. People will walk out of the house without their wallet, but turn around to go get their mobile. So for advertisers, mobile technology poses a unique opportunity to reach potential customers.
Also, the personal data that is put into social networking in the form of user-generated content makes for very specific target marketing. The personal data submitted to social networking sites is in-valuable to advertisers. These data include not only the basic demographics, but the posts the members make as well.
Although there are some privacy issues for the operators of scoial and mobile networks, this could be a boost in efficiency for consumers. Targeted marketing means that consumers could be given access to information which generally interests them rather than relying on the guesses of advertisers.
The study said that Generation Y, will be among the key demographic drivers of this mobile social networking trend. The next generation will no doubt continue the trend.
The report, titled “Mobile Social Networking: Marketing to Millennials,” said that by the year 2012 blogging, photo and video sharing, games, SMS text messaging, instant messaging and loaction search like google maps and earth will all mesh into the social networking experience from a mobile phone.
The introduction last year of the Internet-enabled and user-friendly products like the Apple iPhone and the BlackBerry have changed user expectations of the mobile phone.
The only problem now is the managers of these sites and creators of their applications: how to bring in revenue from these services.
Advertising, premium upgrades and subscription services are at present the major sources of revenue. Add to that the actual cost of mobile subscription and there are plenty of ways the trend could go. In marketing terms, Social networking remains an experiment. Although In-Stat estimated advertising revenue within the industry to be more than $1.5 billion.
More than half of millennials have a mobile phone worldwide. Social networking through mobile technology allows them to update their profiles, post pictures and announce events to the world without having to go home and log on to their personal computer.
It is fast and easy and it allows real-time communication to an entire group of friends from any location with an internet signal.
Mobile phones are always on and always with their owners. Compared to purses and sunglasses, they are lost surprisingly rarely. People will walk out of the house without their wallet, but turn around to go get their mobile. So for advertisers, mobile technology poses a unique opportunity to reach potential customers.
Also, the personal data that is put into social networking in the form of user-generated content makes for very specific target marketing. The personal data submitted to social networking sites is in-valuable to advertisers. These data include not only the basic demographics, but the posts the members make as well.
Although there are some privacy issues for the operators of scoial and mobile networks, this could be a boost in efficiency for consumers. Targeted marketing means that consumers could be given access to information which generally interests them rather than relying on the guesses of advertisers.
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