My Mobile Day
My mobile day starts not more than 5 minutes after I open my eyes in the morning making me among the 46% of Americans that check their phones before they even get out of bed, which I hate to admit (Keating, 2017).
Being a freelance photographer has extended the time I spend on my phone whether it’s looking for inspiration, editing my own work or dealing with potential clients. It’s also increased my engagement with brands because I’m constantly looking for inspiration from curated content on brand pages and from other photographers. Among the 105 apps on my phone, most of them are photo editing apps or apps I use for inspiration. Within the sea of apps, one of my new favorites is Canva. I used to have tons of photos to scroll through for inspiration now I can merge them onto more pleasing boards within the Canva app. It’s also the app I used to share my app data below.
The only reason I don’t use TikTok every day is because the feeds are so carefully curated to my guilty pleasure - amazon finds. When I do end up on TikTok its usually because I’m in the mood to spend and I’ll almost always end up moving to the Amazon app. Should I delete TikTok? Probably. Will I? Absolutely not. As if I needed another reason to visit one of my 21 shopping apps. Theres probably 20 too many of those too. That explains my want to buy micro moments. Once TikTok redirects me to Amazon, I’m in the mood to spend so I glance through my shopping apps. Luckily I have a short attention span, so by the third shopping app I shut it all down and carry on with my day. More often than not if the first few items bore me I’ll leave the app even quicker.
Luckily, my other past time doesn’t attack my wallet. Photography is a big part of my life so I spend much of my time browsing Instagram for inspiration and creating boards on Pinterest. My Pinterest boards aren’t just for photography inspiration either, sometimes I discover new brands, movies or things to do. One of my more prominent micro moments especially during lockdown is “want to do” and by want to do I’m encompassing, want to make, find, know. For this I go straight to Google. Since I’ve embarked on learning how to cook among other things I didn't do much of pre-Covid, I’ve spent way too much time on Google. My Google usage gets directly linked to my “want to watch” micro moment, which I mostly use Netflix for among others. When I’m watching a movie or show I ask a ridiculous number of questions and usually the person watching with me isn’t too pleased so I end up back on Google to avoid being soundtrack sally. Looking up fun facts, actor information and sometimes even the end of the movie because I can’t let myself enjoy anything.
I typically start and end my day with Twitter. I like to follow people from every discipline so I have an opportunity to learn a a lot in manageable short posts. Twitter to me is my favorite app of the bunch because of how dynamic it is with text, video and photo incorporated into my timeline. Twitter users are not as stiff as Instagram users in my opinion, they are not worried about the look of their page rather they’re more concerned with sharing whats important and starting a conversation around it. It’s much more interactive and combines everything I love about all my apps into one app.
That being said, I realize now how important it is for brands to create a presence on more than one platform. I hop from app to app as I’m sure many other users do and sometimes brands only have a short window to get my attention but if they have a presence on multiple apps such as Pinterest, twitter and instagram, I will be more likely to remember the brand and be more inclined to engage. Each app has it’s own nuances and a marketers strength is to understand and establish the voice and presence on multiple platforms.
-G
https://www.techtimes.com/articles/199967/20170302/survey-finds-people-check-smartphones-before-getting-out-bed.htm