Gartner High on Social Media & Mobile Apps

I have always spoken about and encouraged my clients and friends to use social media to propagate and enhance their brand image and recall. I have emphasized on the usage of the mobile applications to attract customers. The potential of the social media platform and it power of its ability to reach the masses around the world is immense. The ability of the mobile applications to make a positive impact on our lives is amazing (check out my previous posts: Mobile Apps for Strokes, Healthcare Apps). Hence I felt my stand is vindicated when Gartner recently mentioned “Companies Will Generate 50 Percent of Web Sales Via Their Social Presence and Mobile Applications by 2015”.

This trend will definitely continue for at least to the next decade. Today users are looking for innovative but simple ways to interact with the companies. The old way of interaction is gone as the users become more tech savvy and do not like to wait. Hence, fast, easy and advance tools to interact with the consumers will be major requirements for the companies across the globe.

Additionally, as the usage of the Smartphones increases and bypasses the traditional PC—the expectation of the consumers will be vastly different and more integrated with the social platforms and innovative mobile applications. For the content driven industries, it will be both a challenge as well an opportunity. And whichever companies makes the first plunge and brings in integrated solutions for the consumers will emerge as the winner.

Another opportunity for the companies will be to expand their reach all over the world without making any investment on physical infrastructure or manpower in every region that they want to operate.

As technology grows more advanced and its usage becomes more innovative, the demands of the net and tech savvy consumers will also be in par with it. I firmly believe that the future will be interesting! What say you?



P.S: Check out Gene Alvarez, Research Vice President at Gartner, comments on the above topic in the Gartner YouTube channel at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjF3hqKm93Q