Mobile Social App Usage Skyrocketing

ReadWriteWeb posted last week about new statistics from ComScore about the rapidly increasing use of mobile apps to access social networking platforms. Here is the link...

Analytics firm comScore released new data today showing that U.S. mobile social media audiences increased 37%, and more than half of social mobile audiences read a post from an organization, brand or event on their mobile device.
While the mobile browser accounted for more visits, research shows that the social networking app audience has grown five times faster in the past year. While the mobile browsing social networking audience has grown 24% to 42.3 million users, the mobile social networking app audience shot up 126% to 42.3 million users in the past year.

And...

People are increasingly checking social networks more from their mobile devices. More than half (52.9%) read posts from organizations/brands/events. One of three mobile social networkers snagged a coupon/offer/deal, and twenty-seven percent clicked on an ad while visiting a social networking site.

This Recession is Boring

This recession is boring. I know we aren't really in a recession any more, but it certainly still feels like one. I am bored with the feeling. Time to flip the switch.

Businesses are waiting for smooth sailing before hiring and investing. Waiting for the idiots in the White House and Capitol Hill to behave a little less stupidly. Waiting for our European friends to deal with or ditch Greece, Italy and Spain, etc. Waiting for Americans to deleverage and pay off the debt of the 2000's. Waiting, waiting, waiting.

We can't wait forever. There are 17,000,000 Google results for "innovation during recession."  Everyone knows that the strong invest, innovate and take market share during tough times. Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) has had no trouble taking over the consumer electronics space. Whole Foods (NASDAQ:WFM) continues to rake in boatloads of cash. Read here:

I was just reading an interview of Whole Foods CEO John Mackey by USA Today. The most interesting part of the interview is his discussion of how Whole Foods is entering the health and wellness services business.

The company is open up 5 prototype stores with “Wellness Clubs” to expand their business into the services sector.

“We’re opening Wellness Clubs in five prototype stores. It’s potentially a new paradigm for people being healthy. All of the key diseases killing Americans can be largely avoided or prevented through healthy diet and lifestyle, but people don’t know exactly what to do. Whole Foods will help educate them."

I find this fascinating for a company with $8 billion in sales that is the clear market leader in its niche. Instead of resting on its laurels, it decides to innovate instead.

The whole economy is being held back by a lack of confidence, by just about everyone, consumers and businesses alike. Confidence, or animal spirits as economists like to call it, is a fragile thing and hard to build. When you don't feel confident, you should fake it until you make it.

The article How You Too Can Be an Optimist in Prevention points out, "In research at Wake Forest University, for example, scientists asked a group of 50 students to act like extroverts for 15 minutes in a group discussion, even if they didn’t feel like it. The more assertive and energetic the students acted, the happier they were".

Or...as Barney would say...

A couple of interesting tidbits I found interesting. Well, interesting enough to share with my vast readership...

One, apparently Google is setting up a location on the Moon.

Second, the confluence of digital media and the mobile device seems to be reaching a white-hot level of growth. I've been a happy owner of of broadband enabled PocketPC for quite some time now, but with, the rollout of the iPhone and other consumer focused broadband phones, I think the platform is there for both paid and advertising-driven content companies to drive an extraordinary amount of revenue.

Here is the chart from eMarketer, if you don't totally believe everything I write on this blog:

I'll be spending some time this Friday at the Digital Media Conference in lovely Silver Spring, MD. I'm looking forward to hearing from the experts how this exploding market is going to evolve, who the winners will be and when will I be able to just implant an iPhone in my brain and let Steve Jobs control me remotely.

A very interesting post from B.L. Ochman's blog:

"Study: 82% of Americans Trust Social Media Before Corporate Sites"

While corporate web sites are obviously full of self serving hot air, I'm a little surprised with the 82% number. That's a lot. Social media, to me, is a very interesting medium with a lot of potential but full of biased, barely credible people. It's very interesting that most people are looking to online social networks as a source of information.

Again, this is another data point to support the theory that public relations will become more and more important as companies lose their grip on the mass communications techniques that served them so well for the last 50 odd years.

And then we read about "Blogola" from the Wall Street Journal. Will the pendulum swing too far and destroy the credibility that social media seems to inherently have? Seems possible...

According to IDC, tech companies are going to increase spending on marketing by 8% this year over last.

IDC forecasts 8% increase in tech marketing spending

The story in B2B Online points out that IDC surveyed 40 senior marketing executives. I'm no statistical genius but what kind of margin of error do you get with a sample size of 40...50% plus or minus?