The number of people in the US who use the mobile internet for social networking sites is expected to increase five times between now and 2014. Here’s a look at the mobile internet and what people are doing there to help you prepare your business marketing plans for going mobile.

• Before You Start: You are curious about the mobile aspects of social media.
• Learning Level: 1 | Social Media Basics
• Article Last Updated: Wednesday, August 17, 2011

The Mobile Internet

In general terms, the mobile internet uses a hand-held device like a cell phone to access the internet. From your cell phone, you can access the internet using your cell phone provider’s network. Just like your computer, you use a variety of software applications (apps) to reach the internet. You might use a mobile version of the same browser (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, or Opera) to reach the entire internet, or use a specialized app to reach just one website. Some of the most popular mobile apps in the last year include:

• Facebook
• Wikipedia
• Google
• TweetDeck (for Twitter)
• Yelp

This means that anywhere you have cell phone coverage, you can use the internet from your cell phone.

Growth Of The Mobile Internet

One of the most important trends for 2010 is the growth of the mobile internet. The mobile internet has been around since 200o and has grown rapidly since then. There are several factors that work together to make this the year for mobile, including:

• Smarter phones that make it easy to access the internet from your cell phone.
• Faster networks that allow large amounts of data to travel to phones.
• A wide range of mobile applications that make it easy to get the exact spoonful of data you want.
• The rise in popularity of social networking sites.

How Many People Use Mobile Social Media?

The popularity of social networking sites like Facebook and Foursquare are feeding the growth of the mobile internet. People want to stay connected to their friends and community, even when they are away from their main computer. Thanks to the mobile internet, they can stay connected.

Recent research indicates that the rate of growth in mobile internet use and specifically for accessing social networking sites make the mobile internet and social networking sites important for small business.

Predictions say:

• By 2013, 56.2 million people in the US will be using their cell phones to access social networking sites or 45% of all mobile internet users.
• By 2014, the number of mobile social networking users around the world will grow from 141.4 million today to 760.1 million. That’s a five-fold increase.

This means that your customers are moving to the mobile internet and social networking sites quickly. It’s an important trend that you need to start thinking about for your business.

Your turn: Do you use the mobile internet? Have you started to tap into the marketing power of the mobile internet? Have you considered building a mobile app for your business to tap into this market? Share you insights here.

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