This week in the blogosphere we came across four blog posts that discuss mobile’s impact on social media marketing, how marketers are responding to the possibility of legislative regulations that would restrict access to marketing intelligence and Bing’s increasing share of U.S. search volume. Below are some of the highlights from these articles:
- Twitter-use via mobile has climbed 62% since mid-April; The social network points to their mobile apps as the driving force behind this growth.
- Marketers anticipate that investing their social media efforts in mobile platforms and location-based social networks will have the greatest impact on their brand.
- Even if audience data usage becomes regulated, U.S. marketers (on average) claim their marketing spending will stay the same.
- As of August 2010, Bing surpassed Yahoo! Search in search volume share, reaching a 13.9% share and effectively becoming the No. 2 U.S. search engine and pushing Yahoo to No. 3.
Strong Growth for Twitter’s Mobile Audience
ClickZ | Jack Marshall | 9-10-10
Since mid-April, Twitter reports that their mobile device user-base has increased by 62%, with 46% of active users accessing the social network from their phones daily. Additionally, the number of users who initially sign up for Twitter via mobile has grown from 5% in April to 16% at present. Twitter attributes their dramatic increase in mobile users to the series of mobile applications that they’ve introduced since April, including Twitter for iPhone, Blackberry and Android. Seventy-eight percent of Twitter’s users in August still accessed the network via Twitter.com, though, 14% of users logged on with Twitter’s mobile website, 8% via SMS and 8% via Twitter for iPhone.
Main Takeaways:
- Twitter claims that their mobile audience has grown by 62% since mid-April, and that 46% of users log on to the network via mobile daily.
- The social network associates the rise in mobile device users with the April launch of their mobile applications (i.e. Twitter for iPhone).
The Influence of Mobile on Social Marketing’s Future
In a June 2010 survey, PRWeek and MS&L Group found that U.S. marketers expected social media via mobile would have a significant impact on their brand. Among the social media marketing efforts which could potentially have the greatest impact on their company, 17% of respondents selected “greater use of social media via mobile platforms,” 12% responded with ” greater use of mobile, location-based social networks.” Four percent of respondents said that their most significant social media effort would be making a greater investment in Twitter, which has recently seen an enormous surge in their mobile audience and mobile sign-ups. While just 13% of marketers use mobile-based social media tools, the advancements and widespread nature of smart devices have increased marketers’ reach beyond just desktops, but to mobile as well for an increasing percentage of the population.
Main Takeaways:
- 17% of U.S. marketers count increased use of social media via mobile platforms as one of their most important social media marketing efforts and 12% have pointed to greater use of mobile, location-based social networks.
- As marketers move increasingly more toward mobile, eMarketer highlights location-based technology as having some of the greatest marketing potential for helping businesses connect with customers in a timely, targeted way.
Would Ad Targeting Regulations Affect Media Spending?
The Winterberry Group recently conducted a survey of U.S. marketers asking whether their marketing spending would change if legislative regulations were enforced over the next two years, restricting their use of marketing intelligence. On average, marketers responded that they foresee their spending habits more than likely remaining the same both online and offline. In fact, the Winterberry Group estimated that marketers will spend more than double on online marketing data over the next two years and spend $840 million on audience data by 2012. Among data used by marketers for improving marketing performance, respondents counted transactional data (online/offline purchase activity) as the most useful.
Main Takeaways:
- On average, U.S. marketers report that they plan for their marketing spending to stay the same even if legislation passes that would restrict their access to marketing intelligence.
- Marketers claim that they expect to spend more than double on online data in the next two years.
Bing Overtakes Yahoo! as the #2 U.S. Search Engine
According to the Nielsen Company, Bing’s search volume share increased by a 0.25% change between July and August 2010 to a 13.9% share, bumping them up to the No. 2 U.S. search engine for the first time, dropping Yahoo! Search to No. 3. Google experienced only a slight change in this same time frame, but still maintains a first-place ranking and a 65.1% share of searches in the U.S. Yahoo saw a drop in their share of searches between July and August, decreasing from a 14.3% share to 13.1%. The report points out that Bing-powered search (now that Yahoo has officially begun rolling out Bing results for their organic searches) for the month of August accounts for a 26% share of searches in the U.S.
Additional stats:
- Google hasn’t seen much change in its share of search volume over the past year, though Yahoo has decreased from a 16% share to 13.1%.
- Since August 2009, Bing has increased their share of searches from 10.7% to 13.9% in August 2010.
Bing vs. Google
We hope that you’ve enjoyed this weekly update and that you’ll share any comments or questions you might have with us. To get the weekly summary, or any other Optify updates, follow us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or subscribe to our RSS feed. Here’s one noteworthy question that we’d like to hear your feedback on:
- How significant is it that Bing has overtaken Yahoo! Search for #2 U.S. search engine? Do you think Bing offers a real threat to Google?
