Still doubt mobile is important?

According to Eric Schmidt (CEO of Google, if you weren't already aware), people have stopped sitting around the TV with their laptop and have started using their phones to access the information that an advertisement sparks interest in during a viewing. For example, during the Super Bowl (perhaps the last relevant real-time TV program left, from an advertiser's perspective):

1. Mobile searches on Chrysler went up 102 times, compared to 48 times on desktops,
2. Mobile searches for GoDaddy increased 315 times, compared with only 38 times on desktops

Additionally:

1. More than 200 million YouTube videos are viewed on a mobile device daily.
2. 78% of smartphone users use their phones to access information while they are shopping.
3. Between one and two billion people without Internet access will be connected over the next few years, many of them solely over a mobile device.



Schmidt goes on to say that mobile tech adoption is growing faster than he or anyone else could have imagined. This is coming from the guy who helms a company who has pretty much bet a large portion of their future and legacy on the success of a smartphone platform that isn't the iPhone. The significance of Eric Schmidt surprise at how quickly mobile technology is being adopted cannot be understated.

He then goes into how display advertising, and how it could be a $200 billion industry, etc etc etc. That's not really that important to me, because banner ads on smartphones don't inspire conversation. What's important to me is the future of the mobile phone as an extension of our identity.

Schmidt points out that everything changes all the time. With regards to mobile, he couldn't be more correct. Right now the million dollar question for every marketer or CFO considering social media is this: how do we measure social media ROI? How do we track the effect that social media is having on our bottom line, not only with regards to e-commerce traffic and sales, but also with regards to retail brick-and-mortar purchases? The rise of mobile devices has several key impacts on this problem:

1. More and more social media will be consumed over mobile devices. Think Facebook likes, click-thrus, searches, etc.
2. In the near future, and sooner than you think, paying for anything at an establishment that takes credit cards will be as simple as putting your phone in front of a barcode scanner.
3. Once this happens, every single dot between your social media activity, mobile internet activity, and your purchase can be connected and sent to companies.

Regardless of whether this strikes you as incredible or terrifying, the truth is that consumers are more and more willing to give up certain privacy options in order to have access to social media platforms for free. This sort of exchange of information is nearly inevitable, and it's gong to change everything.

I'm having trouble picturing another comprehensive way to fully measure the sales value of a social media campaign; then again, I'm also a junior in college. Anyone else have any thoughts?

--Taylor
remember saying things like, "we'll sleep when we're dead"?