26% of Americans access social networks on mobile

Most of the mobile social activity is dominated by Facebook

Sometimes its hard to imagine that many of us only checked our social networking sites at the end of the day, especially now that we get pings and access to our Facebook and Twitter accounts via our smartphones.

Numbers from eMarketer estimate that, in the U.S., roughly 82 million consumers will access their social profiles from their phones. That means that one in four people on their phones aren't writing important emails, you are scoping out your best friend's vacation pictures.

By 2014, the number of people regularly updating their social sites will raise to 117 million.

Most of those smartphone actions are headed toward Facebook accounts -- approximately 85% of all mobile social networking activity -- and it is only growing. EMarketer projects that Facebook will account 87.4% of mobile social activity by 2014.

And this obsession of staying connected is only growing stronger, with 95.5% of all users checking and updating on their statuses on smartphones regularly. 

With more social sites working on monetizing their mobile properties with various advertising options, the companies have to keep up with the growing trend of staying updated via mobile.

In 2011, mobile accounted for 10% of Internet traffic, up from 1% in 2008. The U.S. mobile advertising market, driven in large part by tablets and smartphones, is estimated to reach $2.6 billion in 2012, up 80% from last year. The market was $769 million in 2010.

Facebook introduced Tuesday a new mobile ads for apps, which will allow app developers to advertise on News Feeds on Facebook’s mobile app.

“Facebook has increasingly become a way for iOS and Android developers to grow their apps. In the past 30 days, we have sent people to the Apple App Store and Google Play 146 million times, via clicks from channels such as news feed, timeline, bookmarks and App Center,” Facebook software engineer Vijaye Raji wrote in a blog post.

The ads will appear in user News Feeds as what looks like suggestions, or recommendations, for which apps a user may like. For example, it may come under the header "try these games." Once a user clicks on one of the ads, or suggested apps, they will be redirected to either the iOS App Store or to Google Play to purchase that app.

The ads can be specifically targeted to certain audiences, specified by age group, gender and region. Tools will also be provided to the developers that will help them monitor the effectiveness of the advertisements.

Mobile ads for apps are currently in the beta stage, and Facebook is currently taking signups.

In June of this year alone, 102 million Facebook users accessed the site exclusively through the mobile app or mobile website, a 23% increased from the 83 million who did the same during March.

The 102 million accounts for nearly 20% of the 543 million MAUs Facebook had in June. The other 441 million, the document says, accessed from both a personal PC and a mobile device.

EMarketer projects that by 2014, the percentage of people in the U.S. using social network sites on their phones will remain a minority activity, with 36.2% of users accessing sites (among the mobile population, the number is about 10 percentage points higher, at46.3%) . This shows that while the figure is growing, and indeed needs to be a consideration for companies like Facebook, PC-based access will continue to account for the majority of use in the U.S.