Facebook’s Mobile Dominance Often Ignored By Hispanic-Owned SMBs

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For years, we’ve known that Hispanics are early mobile adopters with a large group accessing the Internet solely via wireless device. Further, there is ample evidence that brands running mobile campaigns aimed at Hispanics have sold product and upped scores in both loyalty and engagement.

Last week, Facebook said it garners 20 percent of overall time spent on mobile by all users.

These facts make a new study all the more troubling: only 12 percent of U.S. SMBs have active Facebook pages and a whopping 40 percent hadn’t done anything with Facebook – advertising included – in the last 30 days.

Talk about missed opportunities.

The YaSabe study analyzed over 500 SMBs in five major US markets. Fifty percent of SMB’s selected have Spanish-speaking owners/staff.

The study revealed that less than 1 in 4 businesses had ever made a post to their Facebook page. Fewer than half of SMBs with Facebook pages had accumulated more than 100 “likes”.

Facebook claims that 16 million businesses have a Facebook page.

When asked by Portada whether Facebook is a relevant business networking site as opposed to be more of a consumer social network, a YaSabe spokesperson said that " I agree that Twitter and LinkedIn are good social networking tools. Their focus thus has primarily been on B2B and for business networking. However, Facebook remains, at least for local advertising, the consumer-oriented social media. At the moment, Facebook is considered the dominant B2C social media platform."

In defense of the SMBs, Facebook only recently has proven its worth when it comes to mobile advertising and promotions. Plus, the social network has made repeated changes to its offerings, forcing businesses to spend valuable time staying abreast.

Still, with mobile eyes so focused on Facebook, its imperative that SMBs be both up to date and active.

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This post was written as part of the IBM for Midsize Business program http://Goo.gl/t3fgW, which provides midsize businesses with the tools, expertise and solutions they need to become engines of a smarter planet. I’ve been compensated to contribute to this program, but the opinions expressed in this post are my own and don't necessarily represent IBM's positions, strategies or opinions.

 

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Notes From A Mobilized Marketer - The Slam Dunk For Dunkin' Donuts Edition

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Dunkin’ Donuts recently launched the ability to toggle its mobile app to Spanish. Bueno. Hispanics overindex on most things mobile.

It was no coincidence that Facebook stock topped $50 for first time on the day we learned that 20 percent of all time spent on mobile is on Facebook.

Mobile ad budgets rose 142 percent in the past two years, according to the IAB. No surprise – if anything, I would’ve thought it was higher.

Hey, naysayers - Apple's iPhone sales alone are bigger than all of Procter & Gamble’s sales.

There has been four times the mobile traffic for Macy's in they last 12 months.

Also, Macy's has begun a heavy TV schedule promoting its new mobile app - "a shopper's BFF". The download call to action includes SMS.

Is it just me or does the virtual keyboard function in iOS7 make an iPhone look like a Blackberry?

There are 23 million results if you Google smartwatch, according to R/GA's Bob Greenberg who says that the timeline between science fiction and reality is short.

The average person looks at their phone 150 times a day, says the Mobile Marketing Association’s Greg Stuart.

A Mediapost headline said that agencies are “embracing” mobile. I believe that many traditional agencies are way behind their clients.

Another story caught my eye, this one in Mobile Marketer - brands are moving from apps to "what's my mobile strategy?" That should've been settled 3 years ago.

Samsung says it will launch a curved display smartphone in October. Yawn.

According to Forrester, 71 percent of smartphone owners take photos/video with their mobile phones. I thought that was closer to 90 percent.

There are five times as many cellphones in the world as there are PC's.