Posted by Joe on Saturday, January 11, 2014 Under: Mobile
For years we have joked that NEXT YEAR will be the Year of Mobile. This is a shock to no one, but I can now tell you from personal experience that the tipping point has already occurred, where people are using mobile devices/tablets more than desktops/laptops. On January 2, 2014, I announced via this website that it was my last day with Spunlogic/Engauge/Moxie/Publicis, after six years with the agency. I posted the announcement on my primary social networks: LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. Much to my surprise, in less than a week, over 1,300 people visited this site (THANK YOU)! I love Google Analytics because it provides me with all kinds of wonderful statistics about the incoming traffic including Traffic Referral Sources, New Visits, Unique Visitors, Visits by Browser, Visits by Operating System, Device Category, Duration of Average Visit, Number of Pages Viewed, Which Pages Are Viewed, etc. While examining the stats from the first week of the year, I noticed two things that surprised me:
There is more traffic coming to my site via mobile device/tablet (59%) than desktop/laptop (41%).
There is more traffic coming to my site from m.facebook.com (62%) than facebook.com (37%). This shift in Facebook's usage is significant for their business, but also for the larger digital ecosystem.
My sample size is not tremendous, but the numbers are pretty consistent with larger studies showing that mobile has been growing and growing. Here is a snapshot of the Google Analytics focused on Device Category:
Here is a snapshot focused on Referral Source:
Most organizations are ill prepared for the mobile revolution that has taken place. Few organizations have mobile optimized websites, so the experience for the user is terrible. Also many organizations without mobile websites have not thought through the mode of the person accessing their site, so they present the same content typically presented on their desktop site. Mobile users typically have very different needs than those sitting in their office or home on a laptop.
There is much debate about mobile websites vs. apps. The reality is that most organizations should have both. The mobile web is great for discovery (by new users, potential customers, etc.), while apps are excellent for utility for repeat or frequent visitors.
The mobile shift has already happened. Are you on board?
