Mobile: the next big thing in Marketing and PR
The number of people accessing the internet via mobile devices may reach 1 billion by 2014, meaning mobile will overtake the PC as the most popular way to get on the Web. At the same time, more users will be consuming mobile apps with the mobile app market reaching $8.3 billion in 2014 compared to $3.8 billion forecast for this year.
This makes thinking about the marketing opportunities of mobile and mobile apps all the more pressing and exciting. Many brands are already incorporating mobile apps into their marketing and PR campaigns. Deodorant brand Lynx has launched a mobile app which encourages consumers to share their party experiences with selected friends by streamlining their social media activity in one place. The application will be promoted through the company Facebook page, YouTube channel and a dedicated website and will act as a media channel for future brand and marketing campaigns.
What’s significant about this example is how it makes the most of how the mobile platform allows marketers and PR professionals to interact with consumers regardless of time and location. The increase in mobile internet usage is a great opportunity for brands to engage consumers through social networks, while using dedicated apps and location-based websites to make their messages relevant to consumers. Additionally, mobile apps can be used to create innovative, interactive and engaging forms of content using specific Smartphone functionalities such as multi-touch navigation, cameras, GPS, etc.
Not surprisingly brands and media companies are focusing significant efforts on tapping into the mobile platform. In the era of mobility and social networking, mobile devices will have a profound impact on how marketers and PR professionals communicate with their target audiences.
Social Media Revolutions?
The roll call of dictatorships falling (or tottering dangerously in the case of Gaddafi today) is exhilarating and continues to dominate the news agenda and front pages (even pushing the NZ earthquake off the front pages which is striking because this event is so tragic and much closer to home with the UK’s ties to New Zealand).
What’s also interesting is watching how commentators are arguing over the real role of social media and social networks in triggering and driving these mass movements that have been so unexpected. Today’s UK Guardianlooks at this issue in depth and makes the point that we are seeing events unfold through ordinary people’s footage posted on Facebook et al. This is a vivid feature of what’s going on and links back to how some many media events now are told through social media (remember the 7/7 tube bombing footage). But is social media running or simply recording the revolution?
We had some inkling that this could happen when Twitter was lauded as enabling last year’s Green Revolution in Iran over the disputed election. What’s different this time is that protests haven’t been extinguished as viciously as they were in Iran. Personally, while I credit the powerful role that social media and the Internet has played recently, it still seems to me that successful protests like these depend on the sheer physical bravery of citizens who are no longer willing to be cruelly oppressed and the willingness of powerful components of the state apparatus – the army, police, national TV media – to not take part in the repression e.g. look at how the departure of Mubarakwas hastened by the reluctance of the army to intervene on his behalf. That latter is probably the most critical factor as has been the case in other popular uprising (e.g. the break up of the Soviet Bloc in the pre-web era)
So what’s this got to do with PR? Other than how a poor response to getting Brits home has been a PR crisis for the first PR man to be prime minster, it is a reality check about what is happening on so many levels. Social media is becoming more woven into people’s lives globally(and not simply in the West) and the influence of publishing personal content online can be powerful when topical and unique. But it also tells us how social media is a tool not a panacea for solving all of our problems. As in revolutions, social media works best in PR when done in conjunction with other tools and disciplines. And when you put in a lot of hard work and slog.