Are Ann Arborites making shopping decisions via their phones?

According to Arc Worldwide, a global marketing service company, half of all consumers are using their phones to help them shop.

Mashable comments: The report, based on a survey of 1,800 U.S. mobile phone users and a smaller qualitative study with 30 mobile shoppers, shows 50% of consumers are using their mobile devices while shopping. Since the smartphone penetration rate in the U.S. hasn’t yet hit 50% that means that some consumers are using feature phones [regular cell phones].

The number of mobile searches are growing faster than then the number of computer-based searches, so it is easy to understand that Google and other search engines are be employed to find places and products while on the move.

But beyond searches, how are Ann Arbor shoppers using their phones to do the shopping?  Are they utilizing them at rates that shoppers on the east and west coasts are?  hLC is poised to find out... stay tuned.

Interesting 2011 report on small/medium business marketing efforts.

I tweeted about this 2011 Borrell Associates, Inc. report a couple of times today.  The data contained in it is revealing.  I've clipped a few of its findings here:

(more than 14 million of the 15 million businesses in the U.S. are classified as SMBs)

According to the Borrell survey of 2,872 SMB owners:

• Smaller businesses control 83 percent of all local advertising

• The average small business spent just $11,740 on advertising in 2010, about $2,300 of it online

• SMBs now get an average of 22 sales calls per month

•  Only 1 in 5 of those calls per month gets returned.

• Currently, 86 percent of SMBs have their own website, that to increase to 91 percent in 2011

• The No. 1 choice for increasing spending was their company website.

•  They plan to increase their online advertising budgets 29 percent this year, they foresee increasing their offline media buys by 4.5%.

• Small businesses are already spending on social media. And one in three of them plan to increase that spending this year.

• About two-thirds of SMBs who have a website also maintain a social network site or page.

• Among the 14 percent of SMBs that do not have their own website, more than a third have a social network site.

• Two-thirds of the SMBs interviewed said they use social media to communicate directly with customers.

Just getting started...

I don't know if I will be posting here much.  But, if I do, it'll probably be brief.  Right now, hyperLOCAL Connections, LLC is working to get BuyLocalAnnArbor.com set-up and running for the summer.