Monday Morning Mobile: 2012 Mobile Wrap Up

The holidays have come and gone and the New Year is upon us. Looking back on 2012, there is no question that "mobile" was a hot topic. While a lot went on in the mobile landscape throughout the year, all of which is certainly worth reviewing, there were a couple stats and studies that I thought were worth starting the year with here at Monday Morning Mobile.

Since my entre into the real estate space in 2008, social media has been going strong and apparently is just as strong as it has ever been. A new study released by NM Incite and Nielsen shows that consumers spend more time on social media than any other web category--roughly 20% of their time on PCs and 30% of their time on mobile. That's a 37% increase year-over-year in minutes spent engaging on social media channels overall; engagement on social mobile apps increased 76%.

As a real estate firm in today's market that's effectively leveraging social media channels to drive traffic, there has never been a more important time to ensure that your website is formatted for use on a mobile device. If they go from a social source on their mobile device to your website, they are still on their mobile device and your website better work correctly, even inside an app.

Changing gears, there were a slew of new tablet devices released this holiday season, including the Kindle Fire, the Samsung Galaxy family of tablets, the Asus Transformer and the Barnes & Noble Nook, to name a few. As consumers unwrapped and toyed around with their new tablets, the iPad's market share decreased 7.1% the day following Christmas from 86% to 78.9%. That being said, analysts predict that the iPad's share of tablet web impressions will return to over 80% after the newness of the holiday gifts and browsing declines in January.

One thing's for sure--more tablets on the market mean more ways consumers can access your website. This year, firms need to be aware of the multitude of users who access their brand online via mobile phone and tablet.

A couple things to look at when crafting your mobile strategy include how your site currently formats for mobile devices. Also check your existing Google Analytics account to see what type of devices are used most in your marketplace.