Mobilized Marketing: How to Drive Sales, Engagement, and Loyalty Through Mobile Devices

Chapter 27

Trends

The Convergence of Mobile and Social

Facebook Mobilizes

We may be in what Kris Foley of Clear Channel refers to as a “time-crunched” society, but when it comes to sharing the minutiae in our lives, we always find a way.

Whether it’s posting Halloween pictures of the kids or commenting on the new Chinese Chicken Salad at Applebee’s, social networking is so prevalent that it is nothing short of a global phenomenon. And it is increasingly going mobile, understandable given the fact that social commentary can’t wait until one gets home or, in many instances around the world, until the population adopts the personal computer. That day may never come.

By far, the most popular social network is Facebook, which as mentioned previously in this book, launched in 2004. As of July 2011, Facebook had more than 800 million members and publicly pointed to mobile as the way to continue growing.

The company says that it aims to have 500 million mobile users worldwide, a figure it knows it can reach only if it goes after all wireless subscribers—including the obvious owners of smartphones but also those in the United States and around the world who carry feature phones.

In the first half of 2011, the company launched a new mobile application, or app, to bring Facebook to the most popular and mainstream mobile phones around the world. According to Facebook, the app works on more than 2,500 devices from Nokia, Sony Ericsson, LG, and other manufacturers.

Although it may be focused ...