New bigtincan Study Shows Users are Getting Active with Mobile Content

Content engagement is one key that drives not only the use of the mobile platform as we know it today, but also what goes on that platform. It's useful for advertisers, and useful for the mobile workforce as well—especially when businesses can get a better handle on how content is being both engaged with and used within the business. A new report from bigtincan, who specializes in enabling mobile content, shows off just what's going on in the field of mobile and provides insight accordingly into just what's resonating with users, and how.

The bigtincan report, titled the 2013 Content Intelligence report for the second half of 2013, on one level told us something we largely already knew: mobile device use in the enterprise field is on the rise, and rapidly. It then offered a bit of something new by quantifying the number, noting that mobile devices in enterprise use has increased over 22 percent from just the first half of 2013. What's more, engagement with content is also up, increasing 18 percent in that same time frame. Android tablet use saw a likewise spike, up almost 25 percent from 2013's second quarter, though iOS devices are the biggest slice of the mobile workforce's toolbox right now at 86 percent of all devices that connect to the bigtincan hub system. Plus, iPad users are the biggest when it comes to content overall, based on the reports.

What's particularly interesting in the bigtincan report is how the users are using the content in question. Naturally, there's a certain degree of time spent in just reading content. Indeed, content is still king when it comes to disseminating ideas, which is pretty much its entire reason for existing. But more and more, people aren't simply reading the content—just reading is actually down 10 percent in the bigtincan study—but editing and working with it as well. Time spent editing content on mobile devices is now up 50 percent over the previous study, representing a total of 18 percent of all daily interactions with content online. This includes things like sharing and annotating, at last report, so there's a lot going on under the umbrella of editing.

Sharing content is also up, as around a third of all content shared by users on the bigtincan hub in the second half of 2013 came with some kind of sharing control system in place. This measure in turn reflects both the promise and the peril of the mobile workforce, as there's plenty of power associated with this for the workplace, yet also plenty of risk, thus the security measures are being put increasingly in place to prevent content from being misused or intercepted by third parties.

Even the types of content are changing, going from largely text and more traditional formats to include things like video, various forms, and even more HTML5 content. The study also noted Monday and Friday are the least productive days of the week, and Thursday the most, accounting for almost a quarter of all interactions with content by itself.

The key takeaway in all this is that the office as we know it is changing. It's becoming more of a mobile, collaborative venture than an assembly of people toiling in a cubicle. We're discovering the value of mobility, and what a flexible office can do. The world of work was never much of a static place, from the Industrial Revolution to now, and having a handle on the changes can mean big success.