Research shows most smartphone users aren’t interested in mobile social marketing

More than half of UK cell phone users use the devices for Facebook and Twitter

Though research has shown that 60 percent of smartphone owners in the United Kingdom use their devices to access Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and others, it has also now indicated that they don’t want to receive mobile social marketing messages from companies.

Until now, these networks have appeared to be a prime opportunity for advertising and promotions.

However, because of the number of brands that have now spotted this opportunity, social network users are now being bombarded by these ads in the same way that email users receive spam, and they aren’t all that wild about this fact. A poll performed by the Mobile Marketing Council at the Direct Marketing Association has shown that 35 percent of smartphone users think that brands should not use mobile social media marketing at all.

Among the 1,200 smartphone consumers polled, another 31 percent said they didn’t like the idea of communicating with brands by way of social media. Equally, though, the way that these consumers behave is not a direct reflection of what they say.

For example, though only 23 percent of the respondents said that they were happy to receive mobile social marketing communications from their favorite brands, in terms of action, 43 percent actually take part in it. The key is for brands to be careful about the way that they push their messages, and they need to pay attention to how frequently they attempt to communicate.

Forty four percent of the participants said that these advertisers were “too invasive”.

Moreover, 62 percent said that they did not enjoy reading the comments and updates that had been posted by these companies. Though this does not directly connect to the behaviors of these individuals, as it would seem odd that they “followed” or “liked” the brand in the first place, it is certainly something that mobile social marketers will want to keep in mind as they create their presences and messages. The cause of this disconnected consumer behavior was not pursued by this study and no opinions on the matter were put forward by the researchers in the report.