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One-third of Mobile Subscribers Access Social Networking on Mobile Device

RESTON, VA, December 29, 2011 – comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today released data from the comScore MobiLens service, reporting key trends in the U.S. mobile phone industry during the three month average period ending November 2011. The study surveyed more than 30,000 U.S. mobile subscribers and found Samsung to be the top handset manufacturer overall with 25.6 percent market share. Google Android continued to capture share in the smartphone market to reach 46.9 percent market share.

OEM Market Share

For the three-month average period ending in November, 234 million Americans age 13 and older used mobile devices. Device manufacturer Samsung ranked as the top OEM with 25.6 percent of U.S. mobile subscribers (up 0.3 percentage points), followed by LG with 20.5 percent share and Motorola with 13.7 percent share. Apple strengthened its position at #4 with 11.2 percent share of total mobile subscribers (up 1.4 percentage points), while RIM rounded out the top five with 6.5 percent share.

Smartphone Platform Market Share

91.4 million people in the U.S. owned smartphones during the three months ending in November, up 8 percent from the preceding three month period. Google Android ranked as the top smartphone platform with 46.9 percent market share, up 3.1 percentage points from the prior three-month period. Apple maintained its #2 position, growing 1.4 percentage point to 28.7 percent of the smartphone market. RIM ranked third with 16.6 percent share, followed by Microsoft (5.2 percent) and Symbian (1.5 percent).

Mobile Content Usage

In November, 72.6 percent of U.S. mobile subscribers used text messaging on their mobile device, up 2.1 percentage points. Downloaded applications were used by 44.9 percent of subscribers (up 3.3 percentage points), while browsers were used by 44.4 percent (up 2.3 percentage points). Accessing of social networking sites or blogs increased 2.1 percentage points to 33.0 percent of mobile subscribers. Game-playing was done by 29.7 percent of the mobile audience (up 1.2 percentage points), while 21.7 percent listened to music on their phones (up 1.0 percentage points).

Our two cents:
It’s certainly no surprise to learn of the compound growth rate of research and purchases for mobile shoppers. While some retailers made early bets in mobile that have in some cases yielded 20% increase in online sales, most are still trying to define an overall mobile strategy. So when the IBM says things like “Retailers are going to have to do a really good job in targeting their messages and promotions for mobile users” we can’t help but shed some light on what exactly that means for most retailers. Below are a few key points to “getting it right” for any retailer:

1. Remember that mobile shoppers are surgical shoppers. And just as importnat, remember that shopping on a retailer’s mobile site means visual shopping, especially for ESL shoppers. Therefore, keeping copy to a minimum and getting multiple (and easily downloadable) images on the site is key. With the average mobile device shopper spending about 4 minutes on a site, it becomes imperative for retailers to quickly serve up ONLY the most relevant content. Furthermore, mobile shoppers also tend to do less browsing and look at fewer products when they shop, making it more imperative for retailers to personalize messages and content. Simply put, shoppers go to websites to get ideas, but they go to mobile sites to get what they want.
2. Use social networks to drive engagement and sales online. Social networks are an important factor in retail. According to IBM Coremetrics data, 9.2% of consumers in October that came to a retailer’s web site from a social media site made a purchase, compared to 5.5% who visited the store site directly. Retailers should not walk away from this fact thinking that adding a social networking step to the shopper journey is the right way to go. “Liking” or “following” a brand on a social network is a non-linear action for shoppers and not part of the traditional sales funnel. Therefore, retailers would be ill-advised to treat it like any other media channel.
3. Invest in mobile search. This is one of the few silver bullets retailers have in mobile and not nearly enough of them use it. The simple fact is that everyone uses mobile search and with google now running a mobile-specific algorithm, retailers must respond with mobile-specific SEO and SEM strategies.

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Analyzing more than 7 billion sharing signals during March — and zeroing in on 300 million monthly users across ShareThis’ top 1,000 publisher sites — Starcom and ShareThis conclude that “marketers should consider sharing to be a sign of ‘in-marketness’ and a prime audience for advertising. People are most likely to be sharing and clicking while brand consideration is still forming, so sharing offers the relevance of search and remarketing, but at scale.

Specific findings included:

•10% of Web site visits come from sharing — half as much as from search. Sharing also accounts for 31% of referral traffic.

• Facebook is the largest sharing channel, accounting for 38% of all shares. Twitter and email are next, tied at 17%.

• Shared links are clicked on 4.9 times each, on average, across all sharing channels, “so content shared by large groups of people reach a wider audience than content passed along from others.

• Instead of one person being universally influential on a wide range of topics, many people are influential on only one or two topics.

Starcom MediaVest and ShareThis said the study, titled “Sharing, More Than Just Friends, Fans and Followers,” was the first in a series. It is part of a new ongoing partnership.

Source: Nat Ives, Media Editor for Advertising Age, April 28 2011

Glamour’s September issue will try to make 2-D bar codes friendlier by including icons that readers can photograph to “like” advertisers on Facebook and recieve special offers in turn.

Magazines including Entertainment Weekly, Golf Digest and Woman’s Day have been exploring 2-D bar codes, quick-response tags and similar systems that aim to make print more interactive by letting camera phones fetch or share content, enter sweepstakes and receive special offers. Readers used the codes in Sports Illustrated’s Swimsuit Issue over 100,000 times in 2010 and over 120,000 times in 2011. Most executions, however, don’t generate so much response.

But Facebook isn’t usually the primary lure either. Prominently incorporating Facebook will make the technology more appealing to consumers, according to Nicole Skogg, CEO at SpyderLynk, which is supplying the new Social SnapTag codes that Glamour will use. “We all use Facebook and trust Facebook,” Ms. Skogg said.

That will help participating advertisers meet a persistent goal, according to Bill Wackermann, exec VP and publishing director at Conde Nast, which publishes Glamour. “On every sales call I go on, I hear ‘How do I build my social media,’ ‘How can we increase the number of likes and fans we have,’” Mr. Wackermann said. “It is a top objective for most advertisers we do business with.”

Brands need to capitalize on social networks because friends provide a fast route to new prospective customers, Mr. Wackermann said. “The most compelling part of this is helping our advertisers build their social footprint,” he said. “The reason we do that is because all statistics tell you is that like attracts like. If you’ve got someone who likes Armani, most likely their friends would too.”

Glamour will also use Social SnapTags on editorial pages in its September “Friends Issue,” which will let readers like articles on Facebook.

SpyderLynk is building a Glamour Friends with Benefits version of its SnapTag reader app for the September issue, but a smartphone isn’t necessary to act on SnapTags. Any camera phone can send a photo of a SnapTag to trigger the associated action. Glamour’s September iPad edition will let readers tap the screen to like an advertiser on Facebook.

Here’s an example of how it works: