In recent months, we’ve seen several technology firms acquire social media analytics companies to help end-users create, measure and improve social initiatives. Lithium acquired Scout Labs in May. In July, Marketwire acquired Sysomos. IBM spent a whopping $480 million on Coremetrics in August and less than one month later Alterian acquired Inteprid.
These transactions make sense: social is the new marketing frontier. The companies that can offer clients a way to analyze and enhance campaigns on Facebook and Twitter will reign supreme.
Here’s what I’ve been contemplating the past few days. Isn’t mobile an equally important frontier? With more than 285 million mobile subscribers in the US alone — half of whom will be using smart phones in 2011 — isn’t the data from mobile transactions as important as the data found on social networks?
Of course it is. So why don’t we hear more about mobile analytics companies? Where are all the hundred-million-dollar acquisitions? And, more importantly, are marketers already analyzing and acting upon mobile analytics to create and enhance marketing campaigns?
I’d love to hear from marketers and analytics companies that have implemented this strategy. If you have turned data from mobile campaigns into even better mobile campaigns, e-mail me at [email protected] or direct message me on Twitter @jrobertmartinez. I’m interested in what worked, what didn’t, and what you learned about your mobile customers.
