A common saying goes that “Dogs are Man’s best friend”. Dogs are widely known to be loyal, provide great company and requires attention. Both Man and Dogs have a mutually beneficial relationship.
In today’s modern society, this relationship between Man and Dogs can be interpreted with our daily relationship with our mobile phones and social media usage. We are loyal to our phones we carry them with us almost everywhere we go. Studies have shown that Singaporeans spent about 3 hours 12 mins on average per day on mobile phones. Our phones provide great company in many situations, such as during travels and while waiting in line. We give attention to our phones every day, and have mutually beneficial relationship with our social media or mobile applications. Mobile social media applications provides entertainment and company while we provide them with attention.
Andreas Kaplan (2012) classified mobile social media application into four categories:
1. Quick-timers:
Applications that are time-sensitive but not location-sensitive. This meant that users can send / post messages or contents and the receivers / viewers can view them despite being in a different location or time zone. For example, an Instagram user can upload a story showing that they are having dinner at Marina Bay Sands at 7pm and their followers can view the story within the next 24 hours wherever they are.
2. Space-timers:
Applications that are both time and location sensitive. This means that the time of posting a particular information and location of the post are correlated. For example, the sharing of current location through WhatsApp.
During my overseas school program in Vietnam back in November 2019, my friends and I were arranged to stay at 3 different hotels within the same district. Being excited first-timers in Vietnam, we relied on location sharing through WhatsApp to inform each other of where our respective chartered busses are at while on the way to our hotels. However, we realised that the location sharing was only accurate at the time of sending as the location changes as the bus moved. This led to a confusion when a friend mistakenly thought that both our busses are heading towards to same street when the actual fact was that the chartered bus that I was in was just passing by that street.
3. Slow-timers
Applications that are not sensitive to time and location. This meant that viewers can view and access the uploaded contents anytime and anywhere without a time and location limit. For example, fans of K-pop boy group “ASTRO” can watch and listen to their music video for their song “Blue Flame” on their YouTube page anytime and anywhere despite the video being uploaded on 20 November 2019 in South Korea.
4. Space locators:
Applications that are not sensitive to time but sensitive to location. This means time of posting does not matter as much as the location itself. For example, travelers can rely on applications such as TripAdvisor to read past reviews and find locations of specific places that they had not visited before.
During our free time in the mentioned Vietnam school trip, we relied on travel applications to determine which places we should visit. My friend found a night market through travel websites with positive reviews and wanted to visit it. However, as we approached the location, we found out that the particular night market was closed as it does not open on some weekday nights. Despite making a wasted trip, we learnt the importance of ensuring location information credibility.
Conclusion:
Mobile technology has helped us in different situations and even became a part of our daily lives. Andreas Kaplan’s (2012) study of social media application classifications pointed out the underlying basis of our social media usage that we did not think more about.
Marketing has evolved over the years to include social media marketing into various marketing and outreach efforts to reach a wider audience that are reliant on receiving information and contents through social media platforms. This led to the merger of mobile technology, marketing and social media towards current communication and connectivity approaches. Therefore, time and location are important factors to be considered when executing mobile marketing.
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I do agree that for whatsapp location is it closely link to the information at the point in time. It is very important as people do travel from time to time. You could be at location A now, while 30 minutes later you could totally be at a different place. Upon receiving the whatsapp message regarding location, it is best to check the time stamp on it as well as the message might not have sent immediately or might be delayed due to network issues.
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Thank you for reading my blog post! 😄 Agree that we have to check and compare the time of sending and receiving of location-based messages as people can move around and change location anytime.
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Totally love how you relate our relationship with our phone to our relationship with pets. As a dog owner, i can totally relate to it. Our mobile phone are just like a pocket pets,that we can’t seem to live without and terribly miss it if it is away from us. Just like how i misses my dogs when i am away from home. At the same time, great explanation on the classification of mobile apps. Thank you for sharing, will look forward to your next post.
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Thank you for reading my blog post! 😄 A “pocket pet” is a fitting term for our phone as we carry them with us almost everywhere we go. As a former pet owner, I understand how you feel when you miss your Dogs when you are away from home. Best wishes to you and your dogs to live happily together for a very long time! 😄
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It is the first time I heard of people linking dog as pets to our phones. while a phone is a tool and not alive, I do see how it is an accurate description. My phone is always with me, providing me quick access to information and it feels like it always “has my back” like a loyal dog would do.
The trend of people needing our mobile phone is not going to change anytime soon an I believe both marketers need to understand the nature of it so as to integrate it into our lives without it being too much of a distraction, but rather a useful tool.
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Thank you for reading my blog post! 😄 I feel that I could rely on my phone to provide quick access to information too. I agree that mobile marketing should be used as an useful tool rather than a distraction or for unethical means as mobile phones are widely integrated into many people’s daily lives.
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I agree that people nowadays cant lice without their phones because our world has become so connected, without our phones we feel that we may be missing out on what is happening. We have become phone addicts!
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Thank you for reading my blog post! 😄 I feel the same as I rely on my phone to access information and contents through social media sites, news sites and more to keep up to date too.
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wow! I can’t agree more to your relatable comment on how our phone are just like dog and man’s relationship, I really can’t leave my house without my phone! I believe that mobile marketing should be used as a long-term marketing channel for companies and that there are many great advantages of it! An example would be mobile messages creating viral effect. When we receive a good discount or offer or some good news, I’ll share it to my friends and family instantly! Thank you for your sharing!
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Thank you for reading my blog post! 😄 I feel the same as I need my phone whenever I leave my house, and share relevant contents, news and discounts with my family and friends by sharing through mobile applications too.
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