We've all seen the stats that texting while driving has similar effects to your vehicular dexterity as downing a case of Kokanee (a nod to our Canadian friends up the road). But maybe we're not actually texting. Is it possible we're all Facebooking?
A few weeks ago, Facebook announced the following:
"Today, we hit another milestone...with more than 100 million people actively using Facebook from their mobile devices every month. This usage happens on almost every carrier in the world and comes less than six months after we announced 65 million peopleon Facebook Mobile."
Some marketing teams still have giant whiteboards with doodles, where they are "strategizing" a Facebook road map for the next 12 months. But, isn’t it high time marketers stop thinking about Facebook as a Web site, and instead focus on how it will follow you around everywhere you go? I agree with Mediapost's David Berkowitz, who says the following:
"The safe bet is in time that the mobile user base will nearly mirror the overall user base, and that most of its usage will derive from mobile users. Facebook is in an especially strong position to benefit from the mobile boom, as mobile measurement firm Ground Truth noted this month that 61% of mobile Web pageviewsare served by social networking sites."
So here's the question for the marketer who still has a 2008 Social Media Strategy in 2010: Do I need to catch up, or can I just jump ahead to mobile? Starbucks and their 5 gabillion Facebook fans may be an inspiration to Fortune 500's across the nation, but maybe the smarter move for large laggards is to skip the whole catch-up game and join the mobile party. Meanwhile, SMBs may want to investigate hyper-local, location-based mobile social media strategies.
It won't be about ads popping up on your mobile Facebook page, but a tighter integration with PayPal and potentially some partnerships with folks like Whrrl, Foursquare, and Gowalla, could allow you to buy a beer for your friend at a bar, while you sit in a movie theater across town. Or, you could order a Sounders jersey while your friend is at the game, and have him pick it up at the souvenir stand.
So, fear not brave marketer. If you missed the original social media wave in 2007, look at the 100 Million Facebook users on mobile devices, and realize you get a second shot at the growth curve.
