In 2009, it became extremely apparent that social networking was the biggest thing in mobile web. Social networking websites made up almost half of the total mobile web usage in the US, alone, said Openwave Systems’ 2009 Mobile Insights report. Out of the top web domains that were accessed using different mobile devices, as a matter of fact- four were social networking sites.

This is almost entirely along the same lines of the survey put out by the Internet Advertising Bureau, which brought up a one hundred and seventy percent year on year jump in the number of mobiles accessing social media sites on the whole. The desktop versions only saw a ten percent increase and this showed a great deal more people not only making use of things like smart phones, netbooks, laptops and more, but also what they were using them for. Social networking.
As suspected, Facebook was the top of the food chain- in the US, the site is now the second most accessed site following Google. Twitter, also gained a great deal of popularity, and showed alot of access happening, as well. comScore revealed that the number of people using mobile devices on the whole, to access the internet for various reasons doubled this year, and of the 63.2 million people who accessed the internet on their mobile devices in January 2009, 22.4 million (35 percent) did so on a daily basis which more than doubled the size of the audience last year. Portio Research predicts that by the year 2013, there will be 5.8 billion mobile subscribers worldwide. It’s little surprise at all that the bulk of these users are accessing social networking sites- most are geared towards ease of access via mobile device- making them also an excellent marketing tool when done properly.

“Social media and travel are a perfect fit, because they both are built around this idea of sharing experiences and storytelling. Content, whether that’s a blog post about your favorite restaurant or the story from your latest trip to Greece and photos of that trip, is a form of social currency that you share with other people who frequent your social media space”, said Mary Madden, a Senior Researcher at the Pew Internet and American Life Project in Washington.

If you will remember, when Twitter first started making the scene as a potential boon for social media marketing, many people hailed it as a fad, just something that would go away. However, recent months have seen an exciting upswing in the importance of Twitter itself on social media- this is also not a surprise. If more users are connecting to mobile devices, and they’re connecting with social media- it all comes together and makes a world of difference for those who know how to use the tools that are at their disposal. There are very few more cost effective ways to not only market your business, but better connect with your target audience for a much wider range of influence all together.