So Smartphones are taking over our lives. So What?

SmartphoneOn 4th August Ofcom released its annual Communications Market report which revealed just how quickly smartphones have become entrenched in people’s lives:

  • Over a quarter of adults and nearly half of all teens now own a smartphone
  • 37 per cent of adults and 60 per cent of teens are ‘highly addicted’ to them
  • Smartphones are beginning to affect social behaviour*

The report noted that people ‘confessed’ to using their smartphone in the bathroom, bedroom and at the dining table. As one of our own team commented about his iPhone: “I live my life through it. I never turn it off.” New technologies change the way we live and how marketers reach their audience. Given that 59 percent of owners have acquired their smartphone in the past year, it’s surely a rising trend.

So what does this research mean for marketers? A lot really,
but here are three important points to bear in mind:

  1. Social media will become more influential. Smartphones let people access the internet from wherever they are, and with social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn all offering applications for smartphones, people can access their social media networks and share information 24 hours a day. Even if you’re not ready to go down the app path yet, taking a proactive approach to social media is important.
  2. If your app is good, people will want it; if it’s not, they won’t. All mobile operating systems such as iPhone, Blackberry and Android, each have their own app stores through which people must download apps. Apps are almost always accompanied by user reviews so if your app doesn’t work, people will give it a bad review, putting off potential buyers. The opposition is also true; create a great app and the public will help promote it for you, endorsing and sharing it on social media. 
  3. You need to build mobile-friendly websites. Mobile access to the internet has already exceeded desktop computer-based systems, and with increasing uptake of smartphones, this trend is set to continue. As more people view websites from their mobile phone, building a mobile-friendly website will become increasingly important.

Ensure your marketing strategy is built on proper intelligence. Contact Adams Creative today to find out how we can strengthen your social media engagement, build effective smartphone apps and design top-spec websites built for today’s mobile world.

*Source, Ofcom, Market Communications Report 2011
http://media.ofcom.org.uk/2011/08/04/a-nation-addicted-to-smartphones/


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