The 2013 Yellow Social Media Report by Sensis contains an amazing amount of data, 70 pages in fact. The data comes from surveying Australians about their social media behaviours. Amongst the variable firehose of data in the report there are some key, important trends that we should take note of.
Over all Australians that are online, 65% are now using social media. This has increased another 3% in the last year, up from 62 per cent in 2012. Of those that are using social services, the report found that the number of users that engage via smartphones has increased to 67%. In 2012, this was just 53% in 2012.
We’ve all talked about the rise of mobile, but these numbers express just how quickly people’s behaviours are changing way from sitting in front of traditional PCs and going mobile. There is a serious business opportunity that is being lost here by businesses that don’t participate or ‘get’ social. Even still in 2013, a lot of Australian websites are not formatted for mobile.
On the web in recent years we’ve moved to the standard mobile responsive design, but those businesses who paid some guy down the street to make them a website 8 years ago are not updating. This needs to change to capitalise on the changing market and once it does, then social can drive traffic to that site.
Last week I got a chance to participate in a hangout with Kelly Brough, the Executive General Manager, Digital Partnerships and Innovation at Sensis, and John Butterworth, the CEO of AIMIA. Together with other social media influencers we chatted about the 2013 Yellow Social Media Report, and what this means for Australian consumers and businesses.
You can read the full report at Yellow Pages Social Media Report 2013 (3.89MB) or chat about it on twitter using #YSMR13
