Public Relations & Social Marketing Insight

Data from the Pew Research Center shows teens now primarily use their smartphones to access the Internet -- and this could have a big impact on your business.

Teens use smartphones (shocking, right?). What you might find more interesting is that new data from Pew Research Center shows that 78% of U.S. teens now have a mobile phone—and nearly half of them (47%) own a smartphone. As a result, smartphones are now the primary devices that teens use to access the Internet—and this has big implications for your marketing strategy.

The Pew study reports that 50% of teen smartphone owners say they use the Internet through their phones. And 3 in 4 teenagers report they’re “mobile Internet users,” which means they access the Internet on some sort of mobile device including phones and tablets (compared to 55% of adults who classify themselves in the same category)....

It may only take up to a 20 percent deal to drive a mobile shopper out of a store to purchase online.

Some years ago, I was walking through Sears and came across a couple looking at a Kitchen Aid mixer, with the price prominently displayed. The man pulled out his smartphone, read the barcode and told his partner “it’s cheaper at Best Buy. Let’s go.” And they left Sears, presumably headed to Best Buy.

Out of curiosity, I loaded one of my barcode reader apps and checked the price. Sure enough, it was available at Best Buy for 10 percent less at Sears....

Businesses may soon be able to lure customers passing by their stores with precisely-timed, tailor-made discounts sent to their cell phones.

AT&T Senior Vice President Jeff Bradley said his company is working with a well-known restaurant chain on an app that would send a customer a dollar-off coupon for her favorite latte or slice of pizza.

His statement created an audible buzz among the nearly 1,000 people in the big ballroom of the Westin Seattle on Wednesday, and it was just one of the whiz-bang examples he cited to show how technology is dramatically reshaping how goods and services are traded....

Mobile shopping behavior continues to evolve with consumers using smartphones and tablets for both researching and purchasing products.

I came across an interesting new study around this that shows how the actions of research and purchasing differ by device.

While the smartphone is the device for research, the tablet is more the device for purchasing, according to the study by a Lenovo team led by Mo Chaara, Director, Site Optimization, in the Global Web Marketing Team at Lenovo....

Facebook hit a billion users! Twitter is the new digital water cooler! Youtube is the future of TV! Ok, you get it right? Social media is transformative. So what? Every business that thinks about customer engagement through a technological lens will miss the very thing that will keep them in business for the long-term—the impact of technology on society and behavior and how it opens up new touch points and changes expectations as a result.

Depending on your business, you may or may not already have someone dedicated to your social media strategy. Whether it is aligning with your current business objectives and priorities is a different article. The focus for our time together right now is on how you will compete for the future of attention, wherever attention is focused. All signs at the moment point to mobile as the future of engagement and commerce as smartphones and tablets become the lens for how consumers see the digital and virtual worlds....