Some still look sideways when thinking about mobile. Some are just kidding themselves. Our world is changing faster and faster.

The writing is on the wall. Marketing Charts had a fascinating news item today entitled, Mobile Facebook, Twitter Growth Explodes, which stated:

"In January 2010, 25.1 million mobile users accessed Facebook via their mobile browser, up 112% from 11.8 million mobile users in January 2009. While only 4.7 million mobile users accessed Twitter from their mobile browser in January 2010, this represented 347% growth from 1.05 million mobile users in January 2009."

It's easy to say the shift is subtle (especially when you look at the amount of people who own a BlackBerry, iPhone or Nexus One compared to those who are simply "online"), but it's happening fast, and it's not just about having a mobile version of your website (more on that here: The End Of Big Website Builds). What's happening is that consumers aren't thinking about your online website and your mobile website, they're simply looking to access content and platforms wherever they are and however they want to.

It's not about the kids (at all).

"Despite the stereotype of teens spending every waking moment on a mobile device, Nielsen data suggests their parents actually spend more time performing mobile web surfing. Only 7% of mobile social networking activity was represented by 13-to-17-year-olds and only 16% by 18-to-24-year-olds in December 2009. The leaders in mobile social networking activity are 35-to-54-year-olds, who accounted for 36% of mobile social network usage in December 2009. Close behind them were 25-to-34-year-olds, who performed 34% of the month's mobile social networking activity. Users ages 55 and up combined for the remaining 7%."

What do you think these numbers are going to look like in 12 months time? What about 24 months?

Are you (and your business) ready for this?

By Mitch Joel

Episode #193 of Six Pixels of Separation - The Twist Image Podcast is now live and ready for you to listen to. It's also episode #26 of Media Hacks.

The Ninja (aka Christopher S. Penn) talks about his new gig at Blue Sky Factory, but the main thrust of the conversation is about what happens to a company when someone with a major personal brand (like Ninja had for the financial aid industry) leaves and starts in another industry? What happens to the brand? How trusted is the personal brand of the individual? Along with that we graze through a bunch of topics from mobile and iPhone apps to the pending launch of the iPad. We even take a sneak peek at where C.C. Chapman won't be during SXSW (hint: it's in line waiting to get into parties) and have a chat about the power of email for Marketers (and where it's going), plus lots more. Enjoy the conversation...

You can grab the latest episode of Six Pixels of Separation here (or feel free to subscribe via iTunes): Six Pixels of Separation - The Twist Image Podcast #193.

By Mitch Joel

If you thought fragmentation was changing the way a brand buys media, just wait until you see what it's going to do to the Digital Marketing space.

Are the days of big websites and long website builds numbered? It could well be. If you think about how people find and connect to most brands, it's not just through a search engine anymore. In fact, more and more people are having their first brand interaction on their mobile device. There are many people who are also connecting to brands for the first time in spaces like Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.

Does this mean that the website is going the way of the dodo bird?

Not exactly, but it does mean that the overall Digital Marketing strategy is going to change dramatically in the next little while. Instead of one, big and centralized website with many digital marketing outposts in the appropriate platforms, it is more than likely that we're going to see more and more brands create multiple spaces and platforms to ensure that they're connecting with the right people in the right communities.

Imagine a world...

Where a Digital Marketing strategy focuses less on one big website and more on creating engaging "things" like iPhone apps, a mobile website, a Facebook page along with a Blog (or whatever), and it's all supported with a simple website that acts more like a hub for all of the other spokes. Yes, there are some (only a few) brands already playing with creating Facebook pages in lieu of micro-sites for promotions and experiential marketing initiatives, but it has not become a commonplace activity where you find a brand doing multiple things in multiple channels and focusing less on driving consumers to their marketing-riddled jargony websites.

It becomes a more complex Digital Marketing play.

The "game" used to be about always driving people back to your own, controlled, website, and the truth is that the more vibrant community for a brand may be happening more through a mobile app or online social network platform... or something else or something in addition to it. Does this mean we need to trim websites back to WordPress Blog-shaped platforms or micro-site sizes? Not really, but it does mean that if a brand's vibrant community is happening in a place like Facebook, they won't have much control or ownership over the content, but they might be able to do things (in terms of connecting and growing that community) that they could not scale to with a big, towering website of their own.

This is just further proof that the conversations are everywhere (and maybe not where we always want them to be). 

By Mitch Joel

There are moments in time that should make you stand back in awe and marvel at technology. This is one of those moments.

Engadget posted this today: Microsoft's Courier 'digital journal': exclusive pictures and details (update: video!). No, it's not an iPad, but it is one amazing looking device. So, what is this new device from Microsoft? "Courier will function as a 'digital journal,' and it's designed to be seriously portable: it's under an inch thick, weighs a little over a pound, and isn't much bigger than a 5x7 photo when closed. That's a lot smaller than we expected," reads the Engadget Blog post.

But, you have to watch these two videos demos:

Bye bye Moleskin.

By Mitch Joel