What do social and mobile have in common? Each other, apparently. Nielsen’s latest State of the Media: The Social Media Report – Q3 2011 provides some interesting data points supporting the trend of convergence between social and mobile. Just as the personal and business use of social has been exploding, so has the use of mobile for a variety of lifestyle activities. And now, we are seeing the use of mobile devices for social networking, media monitoring and shopping on the rise. Nielsen’s report (which is featured along with many other helpful reports on the Resources page of this blog) shows:
- 40 percent of social media users access social media content from their mobile phone or iPad
- They view the most valuable features on their smart phones as:
- GPS (56%)
- Social networking (30%)
- Downloading/playing music and Web browsing (each at 26%)
- Scanning barcodes (21%)
- Mobile payments (20%)
- Checking in to places (16%)
These data points show the integration of social into everyday activities and devices. They also lend support to the convergence theory which posits that users are increasingly using mobile devices for an integrated experience which combines location based-services, mobile commerce, and social media.
Have you “checked in” at work or paid for lunch at the cafeteria with your mobile phone yet? If not, you’ll be Tweeting or Yelping about it soon.
What’s your convergence trend? How are you using social and mobile together?