Should mobile marketers focus on social network advertising?

There is enough evidence that suggests that social networks are the dominant forces in mobile web browsing destinations. ABI Research’s report recently indicated that from a study conducted, 46% of the participants said they visited their favourite social networks via their mobile phones.
The two largest social networks today, MySpace and Facebook claim 70% and 67% of that traffic respectively. In a country where mobile penetration outweighs internet penetration by a country mile, you would be excused to assume that here in South Africa, the statistics of mobile internet browsing may be far higher.
The question I’d like to address today is whether marketers should focus on advertising on these social networks, clearly the outright favourite online destination for the majority of mobile users, or if they should focus on mobile advertising at all.
Considering that the top two browsed (mobile) sites in South Africa are Facebook and Google, logic leads us to believe that Facebook ads, Google ads and search engine rankings should dominate our online strategy. It has been shown though that social network advertising has returned less than desirable results. The hype around the Facebook phenomenon has seized and where the platform was once the talk of the town, it has now settled into its role as connection and communications medium.
This however does not diminish the value of Facebook one bit as it remains one of the most important tools to our (marketers and consumers) disposal today. In terms of marketing, the determining factor is how to leverage off the platform. And sadly that’s where we seem to draw a blank. The market doesn’t really respond to advertising on social networks, nor do they seem vastly interested in corporate interactivity. Sure, some have managed relative successes, but in terms of return on investments, the jury is still out on that one.
Which brings us back to mobile. There are number of options for marketers to explore. One of the most obvious again is to try and leverage off the popular social networks. Mobile applications, Facebook groups and –pages are highly frequented, yet strangely difficult to convert into tangible advertising and marketing results.
Another is to focus on a niche which many industries have now started to embrace. Unfortunately, niche also means fragmented audiences, once again with a sensitive margin between marketing spend and ROI. As mobile penetration and mobile internet browsing frequency increases, so too does the demand from companies to create more innovative mobile strategies and advertising advantages. It remains something that I’m skeptical about at best.
Where some web marketers have realized that integrated, yet simple marketing strategies are still as effective as they once were without breaking the bank, it seems it’s a life lesson the mobile marketing generation still has to learn.
There are still no equal to growing a database of mobile users that are interested in your product, loyal to your brand and have personally requested a more direct communications level with their suppliers.

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