Weve been hearing about the mobile revolution for a decade as cellphones became more commonplace, but it’s finally here. This decade is going to bring remarkable change in how we use our phones to navigate our lives.

Consider these mobile facts:

• By 2013, 50 percent of Web traffic will come from mobile devices.

• 91 percent of mobile users consume social media on mobile devices. The U.S. population is approximately 311 million, and 69 million of these people have smartphones.

• By 2020, the No. 1 way we will access the Web is via our mobile devices.

When we are talking about this mobile revolution, what exactly are we talking about? Let’s look at some of the more popular avenues.

Mobile apps:

With more than 10 billion apps downloaded from the Apple App Store alone, there is no denying the reach and power of the mobile app. Wondering if your business should have one? Ask yourself if it would:

• Make something easier – like the Walgreens Co. app that allows you to refill prescriptions.

• Make something more convenient – like being able to have your boarding pass on your phone to get on a plane.

• Make something faster – like news apps that bring you real-time coverage.

• Make something fun – who doesn’t enjoy those angry birds?

• Make something buyable – with a tap or two, you can have a book sent to you.

If you can answer yes to one or more of those criteria, maybe you’re the perfect candidate for an app.

Mobile websites:

Our cellphones are always with us and always on. In any given week, 81 percent of smartphone users browse the Internet, and 77 percent of them use a search engine. If they were looking for you, how would your website perform on that tiny screen?

You have two options here. Mobile friendly means your site can be viewed because it’s built in HTML and doesn’t use Flash. Your users will still have to zoom in, pinch and slide content around to view it.

Mobile optimized means you’ve reconfigured your site to fit the screen size and elevated the content (location, hours of operation, etc.) that most mobile browsers would look for.

Text messages:

Today there will be more text messages sent than there are people on this planet. And that’s with more than half the population not being born during this digital era. Imagine how text messaging volume will increase by the time today’s 10-year-olds are 30.

SMS (short message service) and MMS (multi message service) are coming into their own, from a marketing perspective. Businesses are getting their customers and potential customers to opt in to a mobile or text club.

From there, campaigns drive club members to special offers, videos, even conference booths.

Think your B2B audience won’t be affected by this mobile revolution? Think again. We’ll explore that next week.

Drew McLellan is Top Dog at McLellan Marketing Group and blogs at www.drewsmarketingminute.com. He can be reached by email at Drew@MclellanMarketing.com. © 2011 Drew McLellan