Pew Research have just released a new report detailing how emerging nations are embracing the internet — particularly through mobile technology. This is a rich, deep and fascinating report that focuses on 24 nations ranging from China where 95% of the population own a cell phone to Pakistan where cell phone ownership stands at 53%. 

We know that about 40% of the world use the internet, and unsurprisingly those who use it most are in developed countries. But the rest of the world is rapidly embracing technology too. Across the surveyed countries only 20% of people said they have a landline at home. Many people have skipped landlines and gone straight to using mobile technology. Using Kenya as an example we can see that only 1% of people have a landline, but almost 70% use mobile phones for financial transactions.​

The survey covers how people around the world are using their mobile phones for an increasing variety of purposes: texting, taking photos, finding information, making payments.​

The report delves into some fascinating insights. We’ve seen it in the news countless times over the past couple of years, but evidently one of the biggest impacts of technology is in the increased flow of information and ideas. For example 75% of people in Venezuela said that social networking had revealed something new about their political belief​s.

Two of the projects that I'm leading at the moment are ambitious multimedia digital projects that are seeking to make an impact in developing countries where the range of available technology and access to the internet is far more limited than in the West. But how that is changing! These projects are very different from each other, but both incorporating a vision that is backed up by this research. 

The interactive graphic below from the Pew Global website is a very neat way of browsing some of the data. 

Imagine you're in the queue at the car park pay-on-exit machine. You become aware that a young mum at the front of the queue is talking to the assistant. She has no cash and the machine won't accept credit cards. The assistant's voice over the intercom insists: "No, you can't pay with credit card. You have to pay with cash," "No, there's no cash machine," "No, you'll have to walk all the way back to the shopping centre and find a cash point," "No, there's no other option."

You have cash in your pocket so you pay her ticket rather than see her struggle down six flights of stairs with two children, a pushchair and several bags of shopping. Her gratitude is disconcerting. "How can I pay you back? Why would you do this?".

"I know what it's like to go shopping with children" you say. She grins. You don't need to say any more. A true story.

It's these small opportunities to make a difference to our customers, our supporters, or to strangers; this is what marks us out as human. And in a world of big organisations, a world of people short on time, it's crucial that we grab every opportunity to show that humanity. Social media is one tool that makes it easy for us to do that.

Did you hear about the international flower company that monitored their twitter feed and sent bunches of flowers to random Twitter users that need cheering up? Or the cracker producer who tracked down fans of their product and took a whole pallet to their door? (Read more here about these random acts of kindness.)

So how are you being human with your customers, your supporters? Do your thank-you emails really express your gratitude? Do they deepen the relationship? Do you ever send a hand-written note? When people engage with your twitter feed or your Facebook page are they met by someone who wants to make their day better? Someone who wants to show that their organisation is about people - not income? This is what will entice your followers to want to give you their email addresses, to pay more attention to what you're saying, to spread your brand, your mission. That's real ROI on social media.

I suspect that next time that young mum is in a car park with someone in front who is struggling she might just reach into her pocket to see whether she can create a disproportionate difference with a small amount of effort.

Social Media. It's called social for a reason.

​

In a few weeks time a very important anniversary will occur. The humble SMS will be 21 years old.

It is now estimated that more than two-thirds of the world’s population have access to SMS. During 2014 it is expected that the number of mobile phone subscriptions will exceed 7 billion. We are in the startling position of living in a world where it is highly likely that more people own a mobile phone than own a toothbrush (toothbrush owners come in at a paltry 4.2 billion). And as the number of people who own or access a mobile phone increases, so will the penetration of more sophisticated handsets. Today, 1.2 billion phones are internet-connected.

The mobile phone has created a direct, instant connection to the majority of people on our planet. And as the technology increases, that sense and reality of that connection will have a greater impact — both for the user and for the content (and content originators) with whom they interact. Only a few years ago social media was seen as a passing fad — a distraction. Now it is not only integrated into the lives of people and businesses, but is defining the development of communication. More than half of the 1.1 billion Facebook users use their mobile to access Facebook. More than half of all twitter traffic is also from mobile. Mobile is the growing country in our new world order.

There’s a reason why Facebook spent $1 billion in acquiring Instagram (the free photo sharing app). And it’s not because of the quality of the filters. It’s all about mobile! Facebook currently has no income from mobile, which considering how many hundreds of millions of people access their account via a mobile phone is astonishing. Instagram (whilst having zero revenue throughout its fledgling history) has a single-minded focus on mobile as a platform, and has the potential to support the primary use case for Facebook — sharing photos. Facebook is not a mobile-first company and has poor location data on its users. Instagram’s single-minded focus provides both of these — arguably to a greater long-term value than $1 billion.

So what are you doing about it? What is your nonprofit doing about it? It is very hard to overstate how crucial it is that the nonprofit sector understands the genuine and seismic shift that mobile technology is bringing to our world. The ability to engage with people, no matter where they are, is the most powerful and effective way of getting donors involved.

Out of those 4.8 billion reasons why you need to have a mobile website you can narrow it down to the one key fact that people are consuming more and more content on their mobile phones. That content (some of which your non-profit might push out as a text messaging campaign, QR code, location-based campaign, app etc.) invariably leads on to somewhere else. Do you really want that content to lead to a web page that was designed to be read on a 12-14” computer screen?

If you’re making the donate ask on mobile you need to keep the user journey within mobile. If you’re not making the donate ask on mobile, it would seem that there are just a few reasons knocking around why you should be. Go be mobile!