Social Know on the Go
Anyone could tell you that social networks are more than just taking over the world of mass communication—They are becoming evidently hard to live without. Over 7 billion people around the world are accessing at least one social network. In the U.S., over 72 million are accessing some social platform from their mobile phones. The mobile networking is become so expected, that now professors and teachers must not only warn their students not to text…but also, no status updates, no checking in, no app-searching, no note taking, no accessing your desktop computer, and no tweeting about any NBA lock downs or Kardashian divorces.
I’m convinced that even our brains are trained to click on the Facebook App icon on my phone’s desktop, even without really wanting to. SO many times have I unlocked my phone and immediately, (sort of subconsciously), tapped that blue little square and realized, “Oops…I definitely meant to click on calculator”.
“Facebook’s U.S. monthly mobile audience grew 50% year-over-year to 57 million, while Twitter’s mobile user base skyrocketed 75% to 13.4 million monthly users, according to comScore. LinkedIn also jumped to 5.5 million monthly U.S. mobile users, a 69% increase over the previous year” (mashable.com, 2011).
Social media users via mobile
What’s the best thing about social networks on mobile? Business owners and employees can keep their pages and accounts live and active. Even if you are a Hootsuite user, (meaning you schedule all your Tweets and posts in advance so you don’t necessarily have to interact everyday), there is now an app for Hootsuite on smart phones.
Just yesterday, I updated all my clients’ accounts on Hootsuite through my phone while I rode on the max. It’s the perfect time killer—and now we happen to be killing time, all the time.
Especially for those of us who are constantly on the go, from point A to point B to point C, it’s nice to check on Facebook, Twitter, or other social apps like your local news station’s to find out what’s going on outside of your world. I frequently check my channel 8 news’ app to see what’s happening with Occupy protesters, traffic alerts, weather updates, etc.
I also, however, frequently check my Facebook app to see if John and Mindy are really broken up, what the new flavors are at my favorite frozen yogurt shop, and what the Black Friday deals will be at Best Buy.
It’s an unlimited world where you can learn just about anything about anyone or any place. It’s a world that seems to be taking over our current world…but no one seems to be complaining.
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